“As a head football coach, this is a twelve month a year job, 24 hours a day,” Mueller said. “I have missed weddings. I have missed family reunions. I have missed all sorts of things because of football and that has not been fair to [my wife].”

A 1973 MVHS alumnus himself, Mueller’s dream job had always been to be the head football coach of his alma mater. After some years working in IBM and the software industry, that dream became a reality when he accepted a job as a teacher and football coach at MVHS. But his hiring was far from a fairy tale; he took over a 1-9 team.

“We’ve gone from 1-9 program to three championships to 6-4 this year,” Mueller said.

In his 15 years, one of Mueller’s biggest challenges was accommodating for the lack of Pop Warner teams in the area. To combat this issue, Mueller set aside the JV team as a player development period for freshmen and sophomores, leaving the varsity team focused on league play.

“Winning is something that has become important work ethic has become something important,” Mueller said. “And [the other team] knows when we go on the field that we’re going to go ahead and compete.”

But what Mueller values the most from his experiences is not the wins, but the morals he has instilled in his players: commitment, accountability and responsibility.

Junior Pranad Reddy, who got to know Mueller better when he helped Reddy at quarterback and as a weight training teacher, recognizes the influence that Mueller has had on his own mindset towards hard work.

Still, this is far from the end for Mueller. He plans to reevaluate his goals in the coming year and will decide whether he wants to continue as head coach, be a positions coach or retire from the program entirely.

“There’s a lot of tread left on these tires,” Mueller said.