For most high school football coaches, Friday means going to a full day of work before arriving early at the school to go over pregame preparations, last minute adjustments and other necessary things before kickoff.

When Bradford High and Kane take to the Parkway Field turf tonight, each sideline will feature plenty of those men. It will also feature three Pitt-Bradford students who spend their fall afternoons in the classroom before fitting in film study between homework and projects. That’s just the life of a volunteer student assistant coach.

“It’s a lot of hours,” Sean Jordan, a Kane assistant, said. “I wake up in the morning, I go to class, I show up to practice late on some of these days. I go home and I eat, do homework for a little bit and watch film. There’s not much time for other extracurricular activities.”

Jordan is one of three volunteer assistants who’ll be on the sidelines for tonight’s game between the undefeated Wolves and 5-1 Owls. Bradford High graduate Justin Fishkin helps on head coach Jeff Puglio’s staff, while Taylor Detrick helps Jordan and coach Todd Silfies on the Kane sideline.

“This year it has been difficult with my class schedule,” Fishkin, a junior exercise science major, said. “I’m there when I can be. I feel bad, but Coach Puligo has made it clear that my academics come first.”

Fishkin, a 2015 Big 30 All-Stars Charities Classic participant, is a former Owls halfback and linebacker. After originally attending Slippery Rock University, Fishkin transferred back to Pitt-Bradford. That’s when he came back to the program.

“When I transferred back home to UPB from Slippery Rock, Coach Puglio and I had talked about me coming back to help,” Fishkin said. “He needed some extra eyes in certain positions and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get back into the sport I missed so much.”

Puglio, who coached Fishkin while he was a three-year varsity player, said he saw coaching ability in him while in high school.

“He was just easy to put in that role,” Puglio said. “Sometimes, I get nervous with former players just out of the program, like he was, just being able to separate it from the players. Not with Justin.”

The Owls head man also said he’s impressed with the way Fishkin has been able to manage his time between school and coaching.

“It’s tough being a full-time student and still be a full-time coach,” Puglio said. “He’s been doing a really good job.”

Jordan, a 2013 Kane graduate and the Wolves’ assistant offensive coordinator, is in his second year of UPB’s math education program after transferring from Penn State and his second season on the sidelines.

His gameday responsibilities include assisting the Wolves’ offensive guru Tyler Smith as the two lead a unit that averages 53.2 points and 482.4 yards per game. Jordan also calls the offense for Kane’s junior varsity team.

“I think we work well together,” Jordan said of Smith.

Jordan was the starting quarterback in 2012, the first year Silfies led the team and the first year Smith took the offensive reins. That was the first of the Wolves’ current streak of District 9 title game appearances.

“We think the same way a lot of times,” Jordan said. “In situations, we’re going to think to run the same type of plays. We’re friends so that helps. We can talk about a lot of things. When [Coach Silfies] and Tyler took over that first year, I was the quarterback, so I understand the beginnings of the offense and how it’s evolved.”

With Jordan and Detrick, who both helped last year, on the sidelines and at practice, the Kane staff has a wide variety of perspective.

“Our staff has someone from each generation, so we have ideas from each era coming into our program,” Jordan said.

Detrick, one of the first – if not the first – female football players in the area and the first in Kane history, is a key component to the Wolves’ gameday operations.

She handles the team’s iPad on the sideline, which is paired with the team’s press box camera to play instant replays. Coaches can rewind, pause and scroll through other plays to find blocking errors, figure out coverages and then alter the offensive or defensive game planning.

A junior, Detrick is highly likely to be the first female assistant football coach in school history and likely the first at an Big 30 or area program.

She, too, said time management with her studies has been a work in progress, especially considering the 30-mile drive from campus to practice.

“The first couple weeks is hard just figuring out your schedule and what you have to do,” Detrick said, “but then it gets easier.”

While the trio don’t appear on payroll, they do put in many hours of practice, preparation and film study.

For Jordan, and probably also Fishkin and Detrick, the opportunity to be around the sport they love was much too good to pass up.

“In Coach Silfies’ words, the next best thing to playing football is coaching it, being around it,” Jordan said. “I love the program, the coaches and the town I’m in. It’s a thing I’ve been wanting to be a part of since I was really little. Now that I’m older, I want to continue doing the same thing.”