MANKATO — Their moms and dads give them a ride to training camp most days. But honestly? They’d walk to get here if they had to.

Sitting under a tree waiting for football players to emerge from the building, the five boys looked harmless enough. But this band of young fans is as hard core and ready to get in the thick of any autograph scrum, chase any player down or just soak in the sun as anyone.

Andrew Cline, 14, and 13-year-olds Luke Sellner, Tommy Bigaouette, Tom Yokiel and Peter Haley are no strangers to the Minnesota Vikings training camp. They’ve been coming to camp since they were old enough to remember. And when camp opens, they’re here every day the Vikes are.

For Cline, it’s about the John Hancocks.

“Getting all the autographs,” the talkative young man said, “and being able to talk to them and have conversations.”

Among this group, autographs are a big draw. Having that athlete put pen to paper is something meaningful, something to hang on a bedroom wall or kitchen refrigerator and prove to people you were in the presence of greatness.

“It feels like you have a part of them,” Sellner said.

The inquiring minds of Bigaouette, Yokiel and Haley agreed that training camp is a good place to get the answers to some burning questions.

“Like seeing what it takes to be an NFL player,” Bigaouette said.

Yokiel says his favorite player is Percy Harvin. He’d like five minutes to ask Harvin what it’s like to play in the NFL, what his favorite stadiums are, who he looks forward to playing against and why. He says he likes Harvin because he’s fast.

“I just love seeing the players,” he said, “seeing them close up.”

Haley says his favorite on the team is tight end Kyle Rudolph. Why? Because Rudolph went to Notre Dame, just like his dad. He wore a Fighting Irish T-shirt to training camp Friday, perhaps to attract the attention of his favorite Viking.

“He’s a tough player,” Haley said. “One year at Notre Dame he injured his leg and kept playing.”

If he had five minutes with Rudolph, he’d ask the same kinds of questions his buddies would ask.

“I’d ask him what it takes to be a professional football player,” Haley said. “It’s kind of my dream.”

These boys are a tight bunch. They hang out mostly at Sellner’s house in lower North Mankato (where his mom occasionally makes them chocolate chip pancakes).

He says mom doesn’t mind. “She just wants us to pick up after ourselves.”

Whether it’s playing football or traveling-team baseball, they’re usually together. But when training camp starts, that’s where they go.

They’re not above sneaking around training camp to get the glimpses and autographs they desire. Last year such scheming got them face to face with a premier Viking in a campus hallway.

While malingering around the athletics buildings of campus, an adult a few of them knew saw them and let them into the Taylor Center where they spent a few moments shooting hoops. After that, they snaked their way through the building until they got to the Myers Field House area. And it was there, they say, that they cornered the one and only Jared Allen, the All-Pro defensive lineman who led the NFL in sacks last year.

Allen was riding a bike down the hallway.

“He asked us what we were doing,” Sellner said. “We said, ‘Trying to find you!’”