Kevin Kelley leads Sheridan football to strong start in Year 3

Head coach Kevin Kelley has guided the Sheridan football team to two straight wins in his third season. The early scoring run positions the roster for improvement after winning three games in each of the last two campaigns. The squad holds a 2-0 record.

Sheridan has outscored its first two opponents by a combined total of 118-16. The team visits Warren for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday. Warren enters the matchup at 1-1.

Kelley previously compiled a 216-29-1 record at Pulaski Academy between 2003 and 2020. He secured nine state titles and reached the state finals 12 times there. Friday pits Kelley against Warren coach Bo Hembree.

“I’m really looking forward to this game because of what we’ve done what we wanted to do the first two weeks, but also because we know we’ve got a good matchup because of Coach Hembree,” Kelley said. “He’s a good friend of mine, a great coach and he comes up with stuff…He may show us something we hadn’t even seen before out of them because he’s a good football coach.”

Five starters returned on both offense and defense for Sheridan this fall. The program employed several different coaches over the previous decade. Current seniors had not played under the same head coach for three straight years.

Kelley noted that repeated changes forced athletes to learn new schemes, terminology, and team expectations annually. He planned on a three-year window to generate clear progress.

“The kids are understanding what the coaching staff wants,” Kelley said. “We’re understanding what the kids need better.”

The offense posted 43 points per contest last year. The defense surrendered 57 points per game during that run. Kelley discarded the old scheme and installed a new defensive system during the offseason.

“We completely threw our other one out, put a new one in that matches up our kids,” Kelley said. “That was my fault.”

The system shows growth across multiple levels in Sheridan. The eighth grade, ninth grade, junior varsity, and varsity rosters each won last week, while the seventh-grade squad took a loss. The program has an opportunity to sweep all five games this week.

“We’ve got kids that are buying in,” Kelley said. “I think that’s when they get hooked in and that’s when we’ll build a good program overall.”

High school athletic programs coordinate player rosters across multiple grade levels. Coaches run development programs from middle school through varsity competition. Teams adjust playbook strategies between seasons to address roster needs.

Sheridan travels to Warren on Friday night.