Maine South coach Dave Inserra described senior Matthew Schlenhardt as a player who typically draws multiple gasps from the stands for his hard hits on defense.
Inserra also paid Schlenhardt a compliment that was gasp-inducing in itself.
“He’s probably the hardest hitter I’ve ever coached,” Inserra said.
Considering this is Inserra’s 26th year on the job and he has won four state titles, there’s plenty of football royalty under consideration for the Hawks’ hardest hitter of this century.
“He’s a highlight film extraordinaire,” Inserra said of Schlenhardt. “He’s catching the ball, running the ball, tackles for loss, sacks, big hits. There’s a lot there.”
On defense, Schlenhardt plays outside linebacker, almost like a traditional edge rusher. He has added more reps at running back this season, resulting in 230 rushing yards, six touchdowns and 10.4 yards per carry.
During the season opener at Batavia, Schlenhardt broke through two tackles on the way to a 65-yard touchdown run. He added a similar 40-yarder against Warren in Week 2. He also became the team’s punter this season.
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For a while, though, college coaches weren’t impressed. While he’s certainly not small, the 6-foot, 205-pound Schlenhardt doesn’t necessarily fit the ideal mold of a Division I outside linebacker.
“It was very slow,” he said of recruiting. “After junior season, I thought I put together a good tape. A lot of coaches were like, ‘You’re too small for linebacker in Power Four.’”
After going to the North Central College camp, Schlenhardt started getting Division II offers from Minnesota State, Minnesota-Duluth and Grand Valley State. When a coach from Syracuse called with a camp invite, Schlenhardt figured it was worth making the trip to upstate New York.
“I went to the camp as a linebacker,” he said. “At a lot of these camps I’ve been to, the head coaches don’t really talk much to parents. Coach Fran (Brown) went straight up to my dad and was like, ‘What do you think about him playing safety?’
“My dad said, ‘It doesn’t matter. He just likes to play football.’ So I converted to safety for the rest of the camp, and that led to the offer. They were getting almost full, so I was like, ‘I’m going to take this.’”
Schlenhardt will actually be the second college football player in the family. His older brother JJ kicks field goals at Northern Illinois after not kicking until his senior year of high school.
Strong legs run in the family, apparently. Schlenhardt, whose father played college soccer, was converted to punter this season after Inserra and the other coaches heard the ball explode off his foot.
With all those duties at Maine South, Schlenhardt does have a favorite.
“I like defense more,” he said. “It’s more natural to me. With the ball, someone’s coming at you. On defense, you have more control of what’s going to happen.”
With a number of new starters on defense this season, the Hawks gave up 49 points in the loss to Batavia but have since won four games in a row. Another long run in the Class 8A playoffs appears to be a strong possibility, especially with Schlenhardt delivering his version of the Orange Crush defense.
“He plays with no fear,” Inserra said. “He runs people over. He runs through people. He takes on blockers.
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“You hear the crowd, probably four or five times a game, kind of do the gasp.”