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Fedderly steps down at Kaneland

As much as Tom Fedderly has enjoyed coaching football at Kaneland, stepping away wasn't a hard decision.

Not with his son Connor playing football at Wisconsin-Platteville, his oldest daughter Holly playing volleyball at Waubonsee Community College and his youngest daughter Sydney playing volleyball at Kaneland.

"My kids are all really busy right now with their sports," Tom Fedderly said. "Volleyball and head football coach, that doesn't mix too good. I don't want to miss any of their stuff anymore. I've missed quite a bit and I feel bad about that. So I think as a dad I need to be there. I'm going to step away for a little while here."

Fedderly, a physical education teacher, said he would like to come back as an assistant when his children are through playing.

Knights athletic director Peter Goff expressed in a statement his thanks for Fedderly's dedication to Kaneland's football program, and said that an "extensive search" to find the new coach will begin.

Fedderly coached at Kaneland for 24 years including the past 10 as head coach. An assistant to Joe Thorgesen on the Knights' 1998 and 1999 state championship teams, Fedderly became Kaneland's head coach in 2007.

With brief previous stops at North Crawford, Wis., and Naperville North before coming to Kaneland in 1993, Fedderly gained a variety of experience working with Thorgesen. He was an offensive line and linebackers coach on those state championship teams and later both the offensive and defensive coordinator.

"All those years I wanted to be a head coach," Fedderly said. "I got as much coaching experience as I could. When I got the chance I was lucky to have a bunch of good coaches around, some really good players. We started running the spread, had some fun, had a lot of success with it."

Fedderly's teams reached back-to-back Class 5A semifinals in 2010 and 2011. During a four-year stretch from 2010 to 2013, the Knights won four straight conference championships with a 43-5 record.

"It's been a really fun ride," Fedderly said. "It's been a great, great time. I'm going to miss it but I'm glad to see my kids."

Overall Fedderly has a 73-33 career record. The Knights went 4-5 this past year.

"There's been just some outstanding games we've been part of that I'll never forget," Fedderly said. "The Sterling game in the quarterfinals when we were down by eight with under two minutes and we tied it up and won in double overtime. That was a great game. All the Batavia games we played, they were great. The Vernon Hills game was tremendous. The semifinal games when I was coach. But most of all, I remember all the great coaches I got to work with and great kids being around. Just being around all those guys, that was fun."

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