The story goes that one of the first major milestones of Jordan Hersom’s life happened on the football field in Livermore Falls.

“Apparently, the first time I walked was at Griffin Field as a toddler,” Hersom said, “at one of the games.”

Jordan Hersom has been hired as coach of the Spruce Mountain football team. Submitted photo

The 29-year-old Hersom will soon take his first steps as a head coach on the same field, having been hired last week as the next coach of the Spruce Mountain football program.

Hersom graduated from Leavitt Area High School, where he played quarterback and won the 2011 Fitzpatrick Trophy. But he lived the first five years of his live in Jay, while his dad, Jim, was the head coach of the Livermore Falls football team from 1987-1998.

Jim Hersom coached the Andies to the 1990 and 1992 Class C state finals.

Livermore Falls and Jay high schools consolidated into Spruce Mountain High School in 2011.

“A lot of tradition at the school, as far as academics and athletics and the program, and a community that, you know, supports football,” Jordan Hersom said. “And growing up, my dad was actually the Livermore Falls coach when the schools were separated, so as a young kid, I was at the games, and growing up in the area, I was familiar with the school and the community.

“So all that kind of drew my interest.”

Also, Hersom said, “something that is important to me is my faith and my relationship with God. In this particular situation, he was calling me to this place and these kids.”

Jordan Hersom will be the fourth coach in Spruce Mountain’s 12-year history.

“Obviously, he’s got a great background in football,” Spruce Mountain athletic director Marc Keller said. “We’re real impressed with how organized he was and his excitement and, you know, we’re looking to build a program, and I think he’s the right person to do it.”

Hersom replaces David Frey, who was 31-20 in his five and a half seasons leading the Phoenix before resigning in November.

Spruce Mountain will play in the 8-man Large School North region this fall. The Phoenix are moving over from the South, though most of their games were against North schools last season, which they finished with a 5-3 record.

The 2023 season will be Spruce Mountain’s third in eight-man football. Keller said the goal is to rebuild the Phoenix into a program that can play 11-man football again, and he is excited about Hersom’s ability to be that program builder.

“He wants to start with kids as young as they want to play, and work with them all the way up through, and get the Spruce Mountain program back up and running to 11-man again, hopefully, someday,” Keller said.

While playing for Mike Hathaway, Hersom helped Leavitt reach three consecutive Class B state championship games between 2009-11. The Hornets won the 2009 title with Hersom playing mostly in the slot.

He then played two years at Springfield College and two years at Husson University, where he was coached by Gabby Price and the Eagles’ current head coach, Nat Clark. Early in his college career, he switched positions from quarterback to the defensive secondary.

After finishing college, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Gardiner Area High School. After that, he was an assistant at Bangor High School for a couple of years, then he returned to Gardiner. He spent the 2022 season helping coach the running backs at Bates College.

Jim Hersom has been the head coach at Brunswick, Livermore Falls, Edward Little, Gray-New Gloucester and, most recently, Dirigo. His twin brother, John, is the longtime head coach at Lawrence. Their father, Lawrence “Doc” Hersom, coached Edward Little to state championships in the 1970s, including back-to-back championships in 1976-77 with Jim and John on the team.

Sam Jordan, the father of Jordan’s mom, Mary, coached basketball for several years in Aroostook County.

So it isn’t a surprise that Jordan Hersom has joined the family business.

But his family members haven’t been his only coaching influences. Jordan Hersom mentions several times how grateful he is for all that he learned from the coaches he played for, such as Hathaway, Price and Clark, as well as those he has coached under: Joe White and Pat Munzing at Gardiner, Dave Morris at Bangor and Matt Coyne at Bates.

Hersom said that the most important thing he has learned, and the part about being a head coach that he is most excited about, is getting to know the players and the community.

“Building relationships is really important to me. Getting to know the kids more than just as a football player and, you know, how to motivate them to be the best version of themselves that they can be,” Hersom said. “And really get the community and the kids just excited about football.

“Diving into the youth program is something that I’m very interested in doing, and I think it’s necessary to try to build numbers and get the community excited about kids playing football.”

Spruce Mountain will be Hersom’s first experience with eight-man football. Keller isn’t too concerned about that — besides, he said, most of the candidates for the opening did not have prior eight-man experience — nor is Hersom.

“There’s some differences obviously, but there’s some similarities, as well,” Hersom said. “And, you know, the more I look at it, there’s a lot of things that you can do that translate from 11-man football to eight-man football, especially those fundamentals, like, obviously, the blocking, the tackling. And then even when you dive into some of the X’s and O’s, stuff from different schemes you can bring over to eight-man.

“So it’ll be a little bit of an adjustment, but at the same time I look at it as football is football is football, and it’s always kind of that a marathon and not necessarily a sprint.”

Frey led the Phoenix to a winning record and the playoffs in each season he led the program. The past few years, he hasn’t had assistants, only volunteers who helped out occasionally. Hersom hopes he’ll be able to build relationships with members in the community who will help coach the team. But he already has one assistant in mind.

“I’ve always had the dream of, if I was ever a head coach, to work with my dad and coach with my dad,” Hersom said. “So he’s actually most likely going to help me out, and he’s voiced that he would like to work with me, too.

“I think his experience will be helpful for me. And then, for the kids, he’ll be able to give a lot to our kids at Spruce Mountain.”

Jordan Hersom is currently a teacher at Gardiner Area High School and lives in Gardiner with his wife, Emily, who also is a teacher.

Hersom said he’s excited to start leading the Spruce Mountain program and that he is grateful to “RSU 73 and Mr. Keller, and everyone involved with the hiring committee for giving me this opportunity. And I feel very fortunate and … hopefully I can give back to these kids and give them the experience that I had from all those people that have helped me growing up.”