Alec Heldreth, a Senior Defensive Tackle for Clarion University, wants to be known as a dominating, physical, and smash mouth football player.

The Canfield, Ohio native accredits this style of play to his physical strength. He is the strongest player on the team. At 6’4″ and 280 pounds, he can squat 600 pounds, bench press 425 plus pounds, and power clean 335 pounds. It is very hard for teams to move him, as you can see in his film. Heldreth’s strength makes him accomplish everything on the field easier.

Last season was his first with Clarion, as he previously played for Lake Erie College, and he performed according to plan. He was awarded 2nd team All-Conference after finishing the season with 51 tackles, 8 tackles for a loss, 4 sacks, and 1 fumble recovery. However, he claims he would not have been All-Conference without his teammates’ help and they are the reason for his success. Overall, he was very satisfied with what he learned during his first season with the Golden Eagles. His Defensive Line coach, Bryan Steiner, put in a lot of time to make sure Heldreth was ready to perform.

Although Heldreth was very very dominate throughout last season, He was not happy with his consistency at times. Since last season was a learning curve, this season he plans on being more consistent in order to dominate every minute of every game. He wants to lead Clarion in sacks and tackles for a loss, just like he did last season. He wants to record 10 or more sacks and 20 or more tackles for a loss and believes this is more than possible due to the Defensive Line thinking they are the best in the Conference. As a team, he just wants them to finish games this year. Heldreth said they were in so many close games last season, but they could not find a way to finish. He thinks they can this season, as he said the teams’ attitude has been amazing and that everyone is all in to make the Golden Eagles a winning program again.

This off-season has been huge for Heldreth, who was named one of Clarion’s offseason Captains, as he has focused on his conditioning. He have been working out with his teammate Samual Fareri all summer long. They constantly push one another to be great at everything they do on the field and encourage each other to work harder than they ever have before. Heldreth is 5 pounds lighter from where he was last season, so his weight should make things easier for him this fall. Combining his conditioning with his strength, he does not plan on coming off the field while playing defense the entire season.

Heldreth says that his Defensive Coordinator, James Thomas, always preaches that they need to focus on now, rather than down the line. So, his goals this season are to be the defensive player of the year in the PSAC, lead the conference in sacks, and be named to the All-Conference team. Of course, after college, he wants to play professional football in either the NFL or CFL, but since he is focusing on now, he is only worried about is this upcoming football season. He is already off to a nice start after receiving preseason All-American by Podyum and an invitation to their All-Star Showcase after the season. There will surely be more honors to come for the smash mouth Defensive Tackle.

Community Service Project: https://clariongoldeneagles.com/news/2018/4/27/football-gives-back-to-shelter-task-force.aspx