SEATTLE -- Fired Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel has volunteered to coach quarterbacks for a south Seattle high school, school officials say.

"He's going to add an incredible knowledge of the game for our players and coaches," Rainier Beach athletic director Dan Jurdy said Tuesday. "It's like having a professor teach your coaches and players. This man loves football."

Jurdy said Neuheisel approached Beach coach Mark Haley about volunteering.

"I was surprised," Haley said. "It wasn't an everyday phone call."

The first Vikings' practice was scheduled for Wednesday.

Neuheisel declined to discuss his volunteer position with The Seattle Times on Tuesday night, and his lawyer Bob Sulkin did not return a call from The Associated Press.

Haley said Neuheisel indicated that he wanted something to do and also wanted to get back to hands-on coaching because his duties as head coach at Colorado and the UW had been largely supervisory.

Some Rainier Beach players met with Neuheisel this week and came away from the meeting excited, Haley said.

Neuheisel was fired as UW's head coach last month for betting thousands of dollars in neighborhood gambling pools during the past two NCAA basketball tournaments, and -- according to UW athletic director Barbara Hedges -- for not being forthcoming when first questioned by NCAA investigators.

Neuheisel's lawyers have indicated that they will sue Washington, but they have yet to do so.