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Rocori High Celebrates Grad Headed To Super Bowl

COLD SPRING, Minn. (WCCO) - There will be a Minnesotan on the field during Sunday's Super Bowl.

Denver Broncos wide receiver Eric Decker grew up in Cold Spring, and played for the Gophers.

On Thursday afternoon, hundreds of people filled the Rocori High School gymnasium for "Eric Decker Day."

Those on hand included preschoolers, teenagers, grownups and family - including Eric's grandma, Bernice Decker.

"Eric deserves it. He ... has always been the best kid, from grade school on, with everybody," Decker said. "And he still is."

A 2005 graduate of Rocori High, Decker played football, basketball and baseball. Joel Baumgarten was his football coach.

"He was a great athlete, but also a great person, very humble. He's come back and done some free camps for kids to visit often, is still humble and compassionate," Baumgarten said. "He comes back sometimes incognito and visits and goes to games and things like that."

Decker was a student at the school during a shooting that left two students dead in 2003.

In recent years, he has reached out to victims of other school shootings.

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