Holding the Ladder in Sport and Leadership
Aug 17, 2026 · 1 hr 2 min · 12 segments
Our guest for this episode is Dr. Dallas Ehrmantraut. He is a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist, assistant professor in the University of Jamestown Physical Therapy Program, and Director…
Dallas EhrmantrautGuest
Tim RiceHost
God calls us to the things that we do, uh, which would also include Forward Physical Therapy, which you, you just got going.
And I, I, uh, you know, at the same time, and I can, uh, full disclosure, I've been trying, like, all I can to get Dallas to coach with us out of Capstone Classical Academy.
But there's only 24 hours in a day and seven days a week, and w- and I think even if we get to eight days, it's still gonna be problematic or hard for that, but I'm gonna keep trying.
Um, so, you know, growing up in Verndale, and by the way, uh, one of the best, uh, basketball players to ever come out of Verndale High School, um, uh, one of the top leading scorers in the history of the program over there, um, and really just, uh, someone who really lives and breathes his roots of, uh, that area.
You know, why, why do you think it's important, Dallas, to continue to lean into those roots? I mean, what, what...
I, I think it has partially made me who I am to a, uh, in various different ways.
I, I honestly can't imagine myself being where I am today without some of the strong foundations that were built in rural small-town community back home.
The whole origin story of Mid-Minnesota Basketball was I grew up in Verndale, Minnesota, and if I wanted to play AAU basketball, I was gonna have to travel an hour and a half couple times a week to go to practices, and I was gonna have to pay way more money than my family could afford to pay just for me to chase something that I really enjoyed.
Still today, there, there's some closer programs, but still, it's, uh, not everybody can afford those high-level programs, and not anybody, not everybody can afford the time of going to numerous tournaments throughout the spring and summer.
So the origin story is I wanted to provide kids in that area an opportunity to get a taste of AAU traveling basketball and at the same time still focus on all of their, their chores and their busy farm families back home, or the multiple sports that they're participating in.
How can I still provide them with the ability to do those and s- and get a taste of the AAU basketball circuit or traveling basketball circuit so they can, they can play people outside of just their area? It, it's always funny, whenever we get a new youngest team, they all come in and they're thinking, "Wow, we are going to be so good because we have all of the best players from a 50-mile radius." And they've only ever played against each other, and so they think that they are the best players that exist.
And then we go down to the cities, or we go up to Grand Forks, North Dakota and play in the Junior Grand Am, and they get exposed for the first time to players who are outside of that 50-mile radius, and they think, "What is this?" [laughs] "I've never experienced anything quite like this." And I didn't get that experience as a kid, because it was unreasonable for my family to be able to make that happen.
And so that was why we started Mid-Minnesota Basketball, and thankfully people have been interested in the program, and we've been blessed with great coaches like yourself to come alongside us and help pour into these kids.
God calls us to the things that we do, uh, which would also include Forward Physical Therapy, which you, you just got going.
And I, I, uh, you know, at the same time, and I can, uh, full disclosure, I've been trying, like, all I can to get Dallas to coach with us out of Capstone Classical Academy.
But there's only 24 hours in a day and seven days a week, and w- and I think even if we get to eight days, it's still gonna be problematic or hard for that, but I'm gonna keep trying.
Um, so, you know, growing up in Verndale, and by the way, uh, one of the best, uh, basketball players to ever come out of Verndale High School, um, uh, one of the top leading scorers in the history of the program over there, um, and really just, uh, someone who really lives and breathes his roots of, uh, that area.
You know, why, why do you think it's important, Dallas, to continue to lean into those roots? I mean, what, what...
I, I think it has partially made me who I am to a, uh, in various different ways.
I, I honestly can't imagine myself being where I am today without some of the strong foundations that were built in rural small-town community back home.
The whole origin story of Mid-Minnesota Basketball was I grew up in Verndale, Minnesota, and if I wanted to play AAU basketball, I was gonna have to travel an hour and a half couple times a week to go to practices, and I was gonna have to pay way more money than my family could afford to pay just for me to chase something that I really enjoyed.
Still today, there, there's some closer programs, but still, it's, uh, not everybody can afford those high-level programs, and not anybody, not everybody can afford the time of going to numerous tournaments throughout the spring and summer.
So the origin story is I wanted to provide kids in that area an opportunity to get a taste of AAU traveling basketball and at the same time still focus on all of their, their chores and their busy farm families back home, or the multiple sports that they're participating in.
How can I still provide them with the ability to do those and s- and get a taste of the AAU basketball circuit or traveling basketball circuit so they can, they can play people outside of just their area? It, it's always funny, whenever we get a new youngest team, they all come in and they're thinking, "Wow, we are going to be so good because we have all of the best players from a 50-mile radius." And they've only ever played against each other, and so they think that they are the best players that exist.
And then we go down to the cities, or we go up to Grand Forks, North Dakota and play in the Junior Grand Am, and they get exposed for the first time to players who are outside of that 50-mile radius, and they think, "What is this?" [laughs] "I've never experienced anything quite like this." And I didn't get that experience as a kid, because it was unreasonable for my family to be able to make that happen.
And so that was why we started Mid-Minnesota Basketball, and thankfully people have been interested in the program, and we've been blessed with great coaches like yourself to come alongside us and help pour into these kids.
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