Troy Fehrs, the new football coach at Lutheran North High School, comes to the St. Louis area from the football-rich state of Ohio by way of Nebraska.

“There were a couple primary factors,” Fehrs said. “The football tradition at Lutheran North is a big part of that. The other one is family.”

Fehrs, who turns 42 in the next few weeks, was raised in Nebraska and played wide receiver at Concordia College there before beginning his coaching career in 1988.

Among his stops include two seasons as an assistant coach at Lutheran South in St. Louis and 15 years at Lutheran West High School in the suburbs of Cleveland. Fehrs has been the head coach there for the last 10 years, where he has won 60 percent of his games and led Lutheran West to the first two playoff appearances in school history.

Fehrs, who will move to St. Louis in July, could bring a unique look to the Crusaders offensive schemes.

“I still consider myself offensively a Wing-T coach,” he said. “That’s kind of evolved and it doesn’t mean what it did five or 10 years ago. We’re still going to run some series from the traditional Wing-T and we’ll take some concepts from the Wing-T and put them in the shotgun.”

Fehrs takes over the Lutheran North program after Jim Manion announced his retirement in January. Manion served as the Crusaders’ coach for the last 10 seasons.