Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted his party's nomination for vice president Wednesday night, using his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris. Benjamin C. Ingman, one of Walz's old high school students, described being part of a track team that Walz coached to a state championship. "He believed in us and he helped us to believe in each other. And his leadership stuck," he said. And, at Ingman's prompting, many of Walz’s former players from the 1999 high school state championship team he helped coach -- many decked out in their red and white jerseys -- took to the stage to help introduce him. Walz, with his background as a former teacher and football coach, used his speech to put a small-town spin on the Democrats' agenda of protecting individual freedoms and rejecting what they paint as the intrusive policies of Republican Donald Trump. He was little known outside his state until Harris selected him as her running mate.