Jay Sirianni, Southwestern High School head football coach, was named the Buffalo Bills Coach of the Week after his Trojans pounded out a 49-8 win over Lackawanna last weekend.
Southwestern entered the game as the top-ranked team in Western New York while Lackawanna came in ranked second in the Buffalo News Poll.
"We really wanted to schedule tough non-league games this year," Sirianni said. "Our kids were looking forward to playing Lackawanna. We were supposed to play them last year but it didn't happen. Our kids just played inspired football on Friday night."
Sirianni, who led the Trojans to the New York State Class C championship in 2008, says that this week's game at Cassadaga Valley is the biggest game of the season, "We played well but we just have to keep getting better week to week. All that matters is this Saturday. Cassadaga Valley is coming up and it's another big game."
Sirianni is in his 7th season at Southwestern and has an impressive 58-10 won-loss record. He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Maple Grove under current coach Curt Fischer. Sirianni stayed at Maple Grove for two years, helping the Red Dragons win the New York State championship in 1998. He then took an assistant coaching job at Alfred University, where he worked for head coach Dave Murray.
Sirianni, who played at Southwestern, also played quarterback for Mount Union College in Ohio where he was a part of a Division III National Championship team in 1996.
Sirianni is grateful for the $1,000 gift that comes with the Coach of the Week award. "We'll put it right back into our program," he said. "We'll buy some training equipment or something for the weight room or the field. We'll get something that will go right back to the kids."
This is the 13th consecutive year of the Buffalo Bills Coach of the Week program. Each week during the 11-week high school football season, a committee appointed by the Buffalo Bills selects a head football coach as Coach of the Week. The honorees receive a certificate signed by the Dick Jauron, Buffalo Bills head coach, Russ Brandon Buffalo Bills general manager/chief operating officer and Roger Goodell, NFL commissioner. They also receive a Buffalo Bills Coach of the Week cap and $1,000 donation to their school's football program from the Buffalo Bills Youth Foundation. Recognition of the winning coach will also be shown on the Buffalo Bills official website (www.buffalobills.com).
At the end of the season, one of the weekly award winners will be named Coach of the Year and will receive an additional $1,000 donation to the school's football program.
2009 Coach of the Week Winners:
Week 1 Kraig Kurzanski Williamsville South Billies
Week 2 Jason Kolb Burgard Bulldogs Week 3 Chuck Tilley Eden Raiders Week 4 Jay Sirianni Southwestern Trojans
