Willy Woltering takes the helm of Vikings football

PALOUSE — After six years off the gridiron, new Garfield-Palouse Vikings head football coach Willy Woltering is back on the ship.

Woltering coached the Vikings from 2014-2018 and has been active in football for most of his life.

“I played football in high school, it’s my favorite sport,” Woltering said. “It was probably my least-best sport I was good at, but I knew the sport the best. I got into coaching youth football in the mid-90s, then coached high school football after that.”

Woltering said his coaching style is a bit “old school” and he’s “firm but fair” when it comes to teaching his athletes. As an 8-man football coach, he prefers the ground attack to the aerial approach.

“I have always had a soft spot for some of the hooligans that come along,” Woltering said. “I’m kind of a run first, pass second type of a coach, which makes me kind of old school I suppose in this day and age. I’d like to think of myself as firm but fair.”

The Vikings headman is looking forward to getting back in the groove of the football season and getting to know the kids on the field again. He coached many of his players in youth basketball, but has yet to see how they are football-wise. He will be working on increasing their football IQ.

“We want to win more than we lose, obviously,” Woltering said. “I want to develop a good, solid, hard-nosed program keep on rolling to the next year.”

The Vikings will face some tough teams right out of the gate. Garfield-Palouse opens the season at home against Liberty Christian, who went 9-1 last season. The team will then play Almira-Coulee-Hartline (9-3) and Wilbur-Creston-Keller (12-1).

“We’ll be competitive — really competitive actually,” Woltering said. “We have virtually the entire team coming back. We’re still semi-young, but our overall team speed will be above average. We have a tough schedule, but if we can weather the storm, I think we’ll be a competitive team.”