New Trier Athlete to Watch: Sam Scherer

Trevian Sam Scherer,  New Trier's senior football star, is known by his coaches to have multiple personalities—one on the field and another off it. After starting last season, the New Trier coaching staff got a glimpse of Scherer’s Jekyl and Hyde act.

It's a skill he's developed while playing inside linebacker for the Trevians.

On the field he’s ferocious, loves to hit people and has a knack for the ball. Off the field he’s a good student, involved in the community and the kind of kid father’s want their daughters to date, according to the Trevians’ defensive coordinator and linebackers coach, Brent Becker.

(Earlier: Check out all of Patch's New Trier Athletes to Watch.)

But night or day, between the lines or outside them, Scherer is focused on football.

“Usually Thursday nights before the games, a bunch of the defensive guys and me like to get together and watch a football movie—something like that to get ready for tomorrow’s game and try and get into it,” Scherer said.

And Scherer takes a serious tone to the game, which has matured over the years. 

“I’ve seen a lot more leadership from his this year—much more so than last year as a junior,” head coach Dan Starkey told Patch. “I think he’s comfortable being a leader with our younger guys. I think he’s becoming a vocal player as well, not only leading by example.”

The Trevians play a 3-4 defensive scheme that calls for three down lineman to engage blockers. In turn, New Trier’s linebackers are freed up to make plays. This puts a particular pressure on Scherer, who plays one of the inside linebacker positions and is expected to be amongst the team’s leaders in tackles.

Though team defense is emphasized and the Trevians expect to have three players in on every tackle, the team’s success on defense is directly related to Sherer’s play.

“Our defense is going to go as Sam goes, to be honest,” Becker said. “It’s not a one-man defense at all. We just talked [in practice] about playing team defense, but he is a huge cog in that machine.”

Both Starkey and Becker are hoping to see Scherer not only collect tackles, but make big plays on defense.

It’s unlikely to happen every game, but Starkey would like to see the Trevian defense net three takeaways each game.

Meanwhile Scherer's opportunity to make plays won’t just come on the defensive end.

He is a blue chip player that practices on both sides of the ball. Starkey anticipates Scherer will play nearly all of the defensive snaps and will also get looks at fullback since he’s a good blocker and a viable threat to catch the ball out of the backfield.

If all goes to plan, Scherer expects big things from the Trevians who went 5-5 after losing in the first round of the playoffs last season. He knows the success of his team will determine which college field he graces in 2012. This summer he attended camps at Ohio State University and Drake University. Scherer has had preliminary discussions with a few schools, mostly Division IAA.

“We can really make a run at a conference championship this year,” Scherer said. “I know that a lot of people aren’t expecting that because we were 5-5 this year and barely made the playoffs, but I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people this year.”