DES MOINES - Waterloo native Mike Woodley was announced as Grand View College's first head football coach.

The Vikings will field their first team in 2008 as Woodley will spend much of the 2007-08 academic year developing the program.

Woodley has spent the three seasons as head coach at Sam Rayburn High School in Pasadena, Texas. Prior to that he was an assistant at St. Ambrose (1991-93) and Iowa State (1994-2003).

"We are very excited that Mike Woodley has agreed to be the first football coach in the history of Grand View College," said Grand View athletics director Troy Plummer. "His coaching experience at many different levels, his familiarity with central Iowa, and his recruiting ties across the country make him the perfect fit for the position."

Grand View will belong to the Midwest League of the Mid-states Football Association, whose anticipated teams include Iowa Wesleyan, McKendree, Olivet Nazarene, Quincy, Saint Xavier, Saint Ambrose, Trinity International, Saint Francis (IL), and William Penn.

"Anybody who's been in the business long enough knows that the opportunity to start a program from scratch is very rare," said Woodley. "There are so many exhilarating things happening on campus with the addition of athletic programs, new student housing and new buildings. Grand View is headed in the right direction, and I want to be a part of it.

"The fact that my family lives here, and with all of the special people I have met at Grand View, I feel like I am coming back home. I'm ready to start recruiting and join the ranks of the other successful Grand View athletic programs."

Woodley and his wife Betsy, have four sons, Brian, Matthew, Andy and Joe. All four are coaches, and Brian is the head football coach at Johnston, a suburb of Des Moines.