By Coy Martin

When he first visited the small town of Mount Vernon, Preston Pedersen knew that he was going to enjoy working here for a long time. With the success Mount Vernon has with not only athletics but with academics, Pedersen, a physical education teacher now in his second year at MVHS, knew that he needed to set the bar high to make his kids know he has very high expectations for his athletes and students. Because Mount Vernon is exceedingly competitive in athletics and academics, he knew the kids would push themselves and each other to meet his standard.

Coach Pedersen grew up in a small town in Iowa playing just about every sport he could. His favorite was football which he put the most time into, going to many different camps and clinics over the summer to try and better himself for the upcoming football season. In return for all the hard work he committed to Northwest Missouri State to play football, but after a couple of injuries and surgeries, he decided to hang up the cleats and helmet.

But being injured didn’t mean he was done with the sport he loved. His love and passion for coaching and lifting weights was inspired by his strength coach at college, who invested a lot of his own time in Pedersen. While spending so much time with his college teammates and strength coach Pedersen realized that he wanted to be a strength coach because that is the person who really gets to bond with the athletes the most and spend the most time with the team.

After he graduated from Northwest, Pedersen knew that he wanted to coach football and be a strength coach. He began interning for Mizzou for a short time in the offseason.

“After interning at the division one level I realized how much work it would be and decided it wasn’t for me,” said Pedersen. Pedersen then came back to Iowa because he believed that if he worked with high school kids he could do the best he could in teaching and coaching them and really see them start excelling at athletics.

Pedersen really is a strong believer that he is the way he is because of how much of an example his parents set and how much time his coaches and parents invested their time into him and he believes that working in a high school is the best way he can invest his knowledge and coaching skills into the high school athletes.  He also chose to work at a high school because the hours weren’t as demanding, so he could also focus on his own family and friends.