Upstate Football Weekly - New York State Sportswriters Association

CoverStory
All In The Family
Southwestern coach Jay Sirianni is named Coach of the Year
By Mark Adair
Southwestern advanced
to its third New York State
championship game in four
years as it beat Section IV
champion Waverly, 19-13
last weekend. The Trojans
took advantage of six
Waverly turnovers - five in
the second half - as they
held off the Binghamtonarea
school.
Southwestern, which
beat Wellsville 24-6 in the
Far West Regionals, is now
11-1. The Trojans will try
and win the schoolʼs 3rd
NYS Class C title this
weekend against Dobbs
Ferry on the Carrier Dome
at Syracuse University.
Southwestern coach Jay
Sirianni has been named
the Coach of the Year by
the Football Weekly.
While the previous NYS
championship teams from
Southwestern were loaded
with All-state players who
would move on to play in
college, this yearʼs Trojans
had to do more with less.
“All season long people
were saying that we werenʼt
the Southwestern teams of
two years ago,” Sirianni
said. “Well, weʼre not. We
lost a lot of kids from the
2010 team but, coming
back, we had kids that wanted to work. Talent can only get
Southwestern coach Jay Sirianni has led the
Trojans to the Carrier Dome for the third time in
the last four seasons.
you so far anyhow. These kids have bought into what we are
trying to do and they wanted to work hard. When you have
30 kids that have faith in the system, you can accomplish a
lot.”
Sirianni is proud of the fact that his team bounced back
from a regular-season loss to eventual league-champion
Salamanca. It was the first regular-season loss in four years
for Southwestern and they dropped fast in the NYS rankings.
“We lost a football game,” Sirianni said. “It happens.”
He also said that naming him Coach of the Year was a
reflection on the entire program.
“I havenʼt made a single tackle this year,” Sirianni said.
“We are all excited to be here but our kids earned it.”
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Photo by Mark Adair
Sirianni is certainly near
the top of any list of WNY
coaches. In fact, his entire
family can be considered
itʼs own small WNY
Coaching Tree.
Sirianniʼs father, Fran,
was the head coach at
Southwestern from 1976
until 1984.
“My older brother and I
would go to practice with
my dad all the time,” Jay
said. “When a lot of my
friendʼs dads were at work,
I was at work with my dad.
Iʼve been a part of
Southwestern football
since the day I was born.”
Itʼs an understatement
to say the Sirianniʼs are a
ʻfootball familyʼ.
For the last ten years,
Jayʼs older brother Mike
has been the head coach
at Washington & Jefferson
College in Pennsylvania.
Entering the 2011 season,
Sirianni had a won-lost
record of 82-17.
Jayʼs younger brother
Nick is an offensive assistant
coach in the NFL with
the Kansas City Chiefs.
Thatʼs a lot of coaches
to lean on for advice and
ideas... something Jay
says he does regularly.
“Nick and I talk Wednesday night after the Chiefsʼ practice,”
he said. “Sometimes heʼll call me after our game.
Sometimes we talk on weekends at midnight or 1 in the
morning. Mike will get updates from my dad on the sidelines
during our games.”
Jay Sirianni says his family was not consumed with football
as he was growing up.
“We were a typical family,” Jay Sirianni said. “My parents
were very much involved in what we were doing. Football
was just a part of our life. Family was our focal point and
football was only a part of it.”
Sirianni says that he understands how that popular misconception
could be spread.
See “Cover Story” on page 28