Rosemount High School students received a holiday surprise Friday afternoon.
A packed gymnasium already buzzing with energy erupted into the SKOL Chant when Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins walked unassisted onto the gymnasium's hardwood floor.
Cousins is sidelined for the season with a torn Achilles suffered at Green Bay in Week 8, but he's remained active in team meeting rooms and within the Twin Cities community.
Chris Harder, longtime head coach of the Irish boys cross country team, posted a video to X (formerly Twitter) that captured the moment.
It's not the first time Cousins has been a supporter of Rosemount, the hometown of his close friend and former Viking Tom Compton.
In 2019, Kirk and Julie Cousins, along with Tom and Tiffany Compton, made generous donations toward a fundraising campaign to build Hope Fieldhouse, a nonprofit recreation center for the city.
"No questions. He said, 'Yeah, absolutely,' " Compton recounted this summer of Cousins' donation. "He was on board right away. I was kind of shocked. I figured he would be like, 'Let me take a look at everything.' "
Rosemount High School annually welcomes a special guest for its holiday assembly. Five years ago, Vikings fullback C.J. Ham drew quite the reaction when he landed a half-court shot.
