High School Football Spotlight: Jordan Sherlock Defensive Coordinator Fredonia High School, New York

1-If I am reading the correct roster you guys have 17 seniors gone via the way of graduation, so it appears you guys will be pretty young next season. How difficult will it be to improve on the 21.62 points per game you gave up?

1.)We did lose a lot of seniors this past year. Graduating 17 kids from a school our size is tough to recover from year in and year out, especially with the amazing talent we have had in recent years. Luckily we are returning 7 or 8 Defensive starters with additional contributors from last season. I think with the key returners we have along with some scheme tweaks we will be well improved and very competitive.

2- As a defensive coordinator which offense is the hardest to prepare for?

Every offense has its own set of unique challenges to deal with. I find it most difficult to defend offenses that are multiple. For instance, a team that can successfully run multiple sets in a game is a harder scout and much harder to prepare for. More things to prepare for means we as a staff have to have several schemes to integrate in a weeks time with more personnel packages.

3- Southwestern and Cleveland Hill were the only two teams that put over 22 points (42 & 50) what must you guys do to keep their offense in check?

Southwestern and Clev Hill were tough outings for our defense last season. We heavily lean on a bend don’t break mentality with our defense, but those two games we gave up big play after big play and it snowballed out of control in those games. We need to keep the ball in front of us and make teams drive the entire field for points, this will give our offense a fighting chance to score enough points to win the game.

4- You guys intentionally could be huge upfront with the smallest guy being 250 (If all of the big guys start) with such a big line, if this is the case what defense will you run, and will the fans see more blitzing than usual?

We can have a very large O and D line this year. We have kids from 6 ft tall 200 lbs to 6’6 310 and everything in between. Size does not always translate on the field so you can bet we will have some smaller guys for some speed up front especially situationally. Our schedule for the spring will not be released for a few more days so I’m not exactly sure what we will be running this year but we usually change our D to the opponent each week. But we have run many things in the past including, 4-4, 4-3, 5-2 and we have even run a 6-1 a game or two the past two seasons for teams that are extremely heavy with the power. And yes we will be doing some blitzing from different places this year, I like pressure.

5- Could you tell the readers the price of a regular-season game is in New York as well as the cost of the playoff and the state final ticket?

I believe most game tickets around us are usually a dollar or two some are free, playoff games are $5, and Sectional and beyond goes somewhere between $10 or $12

6- How are the playoffs determine for teams in New York?

In NYS we are broken down into classes( AA, A, B, C, and D) with AA being the largest. In a normal season, we get up to 8 regular-season games. The top 8 teams make the playoff. But for our upcoming spring season, we only have 5 games so the playoffs will be condensed to the top 4 teams making it in each division. There will be a semi and a sectional championship and that’s it No spring state playoffs this season.

7- In a perfect world based on talent what defense would you run?

In a perfect world where I had perfect size and talent, I would be in a 3-4 D. I like the options you have out of the 3-4 and I like the different coverage options you have out of this as well, but this is a tough defense to run at a small school like ours.

8- As a fan, I love the different types of music blaring out of the loudspeakers at games. I think the best song that could be played is Football Friday Night by Joe Zelek. If you were taking in a game as a fan and you paid attention to the music, what type of music would you want to hear, and what one song must be played?

Music is huge at our program, we have a large portable PA system we use at practice and we have music pumping at different times at our practice to keep energy up. We let our kids pick the music ( edited versions of course) and it has grown on me. The boys put me onto Lil Uzi, Meek Mill, 21 Savage, and so many others. I love to hear Dreams and nightmares by meek mill before games, it gets me pumped on the second verse but it has to be edited for stadium play.

9- Grass or turf which do you prefer?

We have a Grass field in the best setting in HS Football. I would not trade our atmosphere for anything but I prefer turf. We live in WNY where it’s cold and rainy half the season so our field gets beat up quickly. Turf also would give us somewhere nice to train in the wet months of spring as well.

10- How often do you as a coach watch film during the week to help prepare for the next opponent?

In season I watch hours a day of film. I watch so much film I can see it in my dreams. I’m lucky enough to be on a staff with my father as the HC, our staff is like a huge family we each do our own film analysis after each game and we bring our ideas to my parents house for Sunday dinner. We eat them flip on the film to the big screen to hash out our corrections and next weeks game plan. Out of seasons, it’s not as much but it’s still a lot of film for evaluation of returning players and early scheming when our schedule is released.