In 2015, the Countryside Cougars were back in their familiar postseason position as district champions following a brief three-year “lull” in their success by not making an appearance. Countryside was 9-2 and ran through an insanely tough district that included going undefeated against Pinellas powers such as East Lake, Pinelas Park and St. Petersburg. Of course, when you have the luxury of having a talented veteran squad on the offensive side, things tend to be more successful than not.

The 2016 season will bring sweeping changes to the garnet and gold in North Pinellas with just two starters returning on the offense, but if junior tackle/guard Gordon Sandorf has anything to say about it–the transition won’t be filled with as many growing pains as anticipated.

Sandorf is a 6-foot-3, 285-pounder that has been getting plenty of attention from schools such as Yale and Princeton and will attend Stetson’s junior day in April. He is expected to be–along with Jordan Payne–one of the pillars along the offensive line and help ensure that C-side’s successor to QB Trent Chmelik is well protected. Sandorf knows he and his teammates have their work cut out for them this offseason, but so far he’s simply enjoying the grind.

“Probably being in the weight room everyday.” said Sandorf regarding his favorite part of the offseason to this point. Sandorf knows that the Cougars and their supporters expect just a little bit extra every year, and he was well aware of the standard that was set before he even arrived on campus.

“Coming into high school at Countryside, I kind of expected a lot. They had a great reputation of being in the playoffs every single year, but my freshman year we didn’t do as well as we wanted to–so when I was on varsity my sophomore year I really wanted to be a part of a team that got back to the playoffs again and part of winning a district championship again. We didn’t do it my sophomore year, but this past season it was really great to be a part of that district championship team and be a part of the postseason.”

Something had to change in order for the Cougars to get back to being the top predator in the district, and it had to start up front in the trenches. Although Countryside hasn’t lacked for talent at the skill positions such as wide receiver or QB, their trademark is smash-mouth football. Sandorf confirmed that was one of the goals heading into this past offseason.

“In-between those two seasons we really focused on getting more physical. We really wanted to bring that run game back-we depend on it because even though we had Kee (Whetzel) on our team and it was great that we had him to throw the ball to, we still needed to run the ball, because that’s always been a big part of our offense.”

Sandorf recalls the very moment in which Head Coach Eric Schmitz said enough-was-enough and it was time to take back the trenches. “One of our first practices at the end of the summer once fall camp started off, I remember we were out on the field and Coach Schmitz went up to us–just the offense line–and he told us that we were going to be hitting the sled everyday because we needed to be a lot more physical than we had been the past two years.”

Of course it all sounded good in the moment, but the message apparently stuck with the unit as they decided to jump on board with the coach immediately. “We said to ourselves that we know the sled work sucks, but we know in the long run that it’s going to make us a lot more successful in the run game.”

The offensive line and their success was also based on something that is not tangible and concrete–meaning it cannot be touched physically–but it can certainly be felt throughout mentally. Sandorf mentions the chemistry that was also a major factor for the Cougars. “I feel like with o-line group we had this past year, we had been through a lot together because a lot of us had played together since we came into high school, and that really showed when we went to Bull-in-the-Ring during the offseason and then once the fall season started.”

So, to the here-and-now. As Sandorf and his teammates prepare daily this offseason, they’ll have to deal with the reality that even though QB Trent Chmelik and his 3,958 yards of passing alone the past two seasons are gone–and even though Countryside will have to figure out a way to replace an offense that as a unit produced 7,710 yards–0r 4.38 MILES of yardage–their biggest challenge will be to find the new leaders on the squad–a challenge that Sandorf is ready to accept.

“I wanted to get a lot stronger. That’s always a major goal fore me, but also I wanted to see as we move closer to the spring game and spring practice I wanted to get a lot more physical on the field and step into the role as a leader on the team. Trent was probably the biggest leader on the team–being the quarterback you kinda have to be, but mostly all of our seniors on the offense from last season I’ve tried to take something from and put it to good use this offseason.”

While C-side will have their ups and downs this season regardless of wins and losses, the very least they can take peace in is that the new “leaders” are already emerging with the proper approach in terms of “each-one, teach-one.”

“Me and Jordan Payne will be the only seniors on offense, so we’ve got to take matters into our own hands. We’re a pretty young team. We really have to make sure the young guys know what being on varsity means, because they simply haven’t played at that level, yet. We do have some guys when they were sophomores and now are seniors–and we’ll be counting on them to show those young guys the way.”