By MARVIN HOGAN, Sports Editor
Fri, May 16 2008
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VALLEY VIEW -- New Valley View Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Terry Felderhoff, and his wife Kristi, have come full circle.
Terry Felderhoff is a 1991 graduate of Muenster High School, and even attended Sacred Heart Catholic School in his younger days.
Kristi Felderhoff is related to the former mayor of Valley View, Mary Bierschenk.
Even Terry Felderhoff's coaching career has come full circle. "I started out in Whitesboro and now I am back in Cooke County," he said during an interview after the Valley View ISD board voted to hire him Monday night.
"Well," Felderhoff said, "that is not really true, because Whitesboro is in Grayson County."
At any rate, Terry Felderhoff said he was coming to Valley View to continue the tradition in football.
Next season, the Eagles will be a small fry in a big Class 2A pound. However. However, that doesn't worry Felderhoff one bit.
“Someone has to be the little guy,” he said.
Felderhoff is coming from Gruver, a town at the tip of the Texas Panhandle, almost touching Oklahoma.
"Gruver is not a very big Class A school," he said, "so I am use to that.
"Valley View has a tradition and I expect the players to carry it on with that winning tradition. They will complete and play hard, no matter who they are playing."
Felderhoff knows about building a program. "The three years before I got to Gruver," he said, "they were 7-23. The four years I was with the program, they were 37-15."
Felderhoff also knows about tough losses. "My second year there, “he said, "we were 9-1 and ended in a three-way tie for first place. All three teams were tied in all the tie-breakers, so we had to flip a coin."
Felderhoff said Gruver lost the flip and didn’t get to go to the playoffs. "That was the last year they only took two teams to the playoffs."
Felderhoff said the team Gruver beat, Stratford, won the state title with a 15-1 record.
Felderhoff said his children are old enough that he and his wife think it is time to get closer to family. "My daughter, Taylor, will be a freshman next year," he said. "Our middle son, Aaron, will be in the fifth grade and our youngest son, Matthew will be in kindergarten."
When the subject moves back to football, Felderhoff said he will fit the type of offense to the talent available. "It's not really smart," he said, "to try to fit your players to a system, especially in a small school."
"When you have a complicated system," he said, "and a lot of players have to do a lot of different things, that doesn't always work.
"I have been running an option offense the last few years. I just have to see what fits and what doesn't."
Felderhoff said he sees Valley View's situation as a challenge. "There can be a lot of joy and rewards in helping a small school do well against bigger opponents."
At least when the trials and tribulations come around, Felderhoff will have a large number of people in his support group.
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