MANKATO, Minn. - Five years ago, Marcus Sherels didn’t dare to imagine he’d be where he is today.

Adam Thielen went through the same process two years ago.

Isaac Fruechte won’t look past today - he only has two NFL practices under his belt, after all - but there’s nothing the Caledonia, Minn., native would love more than to emulate the success Sherels and Thielen have had with their home state team.

“It’s been a dream to play in the NFL, but this is just a step in the right direction,” Fruechte, a 6-foot-3, 202-pound wide receiver said after his first training camp practice with the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday morning. “This isn’t the end goal. I still have a lot to work toward and something else to achieve here.”

Fruechte’s path to the Vikings roster, if he is to make it, won’t be easy or conventional.

But he has two good role models to learn from.

Like Sherels and Thielen, Fruechte played high school and college football in Minnesota. Like Sherels and Thielen, Fruechte was not drafted by an NFL team nor was he signed in the free-agent signing frenzy immediately following the draft.

All three earned contracts and trips to training camp by impressing the Vikings coaching staff in rookie tryout camps.

“Both Marcus and Adam have been great influences on me,” Fruechte said. “I’ve been able to talk with them; they’ve been nice enough to share some words with me and talk to me about what I have to do to try to make this football team.

“First and foremost, it’s just play as hard as you can. If you’re playing relentlessly on every single play, you have a great chance of making it.”

Fruechte was a standout on Caledonia teams that won Class AA state championships in 2007 and 2008. He had 30 catches for 805 yards and nine touchdowns in one season at Rochester Community and Technical College before finishing his college career at the University of Minnesota.

Sherels graduated from Rochester John Marshall in 2006, walked on at Minnesota and became a full-time starter at cornerback for the Gophers in his junior and senior seasons. He turned his tryout offer with the Vikings into a contract in 2010.

He holds the Vikings’ record for punt return yards in a game (119) and is third all-time in team history in punt return yards (1,196).

He has won camp battle after camp battle since joining the team five years ago, and he faces another test in his sixth training camp. But his attitude is the same today as it was in July of 2010. It’s an attitude that Fruechte has absorbed in a short time.

“I have always taken things a day at a time,” the 5-10, 175-pound Sherels said. “That’s what I did (as a rookie) and that’s how I still approach it. You can always keep learning and having guys like (13th-year cornerback) Terence Newman around only helps. He’s been around awhile and knows what he’s doing.”

Thielen is a 6-2, 200-pound receiver from Detroit Lakes who played college ball at Minnesota State-Mankato. He took the same path to the Vikings’ active roster as Sherels, signing with the team after a free-agent tryout, then spending his first season (2013) on the practice squad.

He was on the active roster for all 16 games last season, catching eight passes for 137 yards and his first NFL receiving TD in a victory in the season finale against Chicago. He also was named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in the final week of November, after he blocked a punt and returned it for a TD against Carolina.

“I don’t know if there’s necessarily something different I need to prove,” Thielen said. “Every year I come here I want to improve on the season before. There’s going to be a lot of competition and that’s a good thing.”