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Neuheisel volunteers to be quarterbacks coach for Seattle area HS

SEATTLE (AP) -- Fired Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel has volunteered to coach quarterbacks for a south Seattle high school, school officials say.

"He's going to add an incredible knowledge of the game for our players and coaches," Rainier Beach athletic director Dan Jurdy said Tuesday. "It's like having a professor teach your coaches and players. This man loves football."

Jurdy said Neuheisel approached Beach coach Mark Haley about volunteering.

"I was surprised," Haley said. "It wasn't an everyday phone call."

The two met Monday to discuss the details of the agreement. The first Vikings' practice was scheduled for 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Neuheisel declined to discuss his volunteer position with The Seattle Times Tuesday night and his lawyer Bob Sulkin did not return an Associated Press call for comment.

Neuheisel told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer he plans to refuse interviews to avoid being a distraction for the team.

"I told Mark that's the last thing I wanted," he said. "It's Mark's team. I want Mark to handle the media."

Haley said Neuheisel indicated that he wanted to get back to hands-on coaching because his duties as head coach at Colorado and the UW had been largely supervisory.

"He said he's got some spare time and was looking for something to do," Haley told the P-I. "He said he could help in any way possible."

Some Rainier Beach players met with Neuheisel this week and came away from the meeting excited, Haley said.

Neuheisel was fired as the UW's head football coach last month for betting thousands of dollars in neighborhood gambling pools during the past two NCAA basketball tournaments, and -- according to UW athletic director Barbara Hedges -- for not being forthcoming when first questioned by NCAA investigators.

Neuheisel's lawyers have indicated that they will sue Washington, but they have yet to do so.