Nick Sirianni was competitive, ambitious, determined. His childhood in Chautauqua County helped shape road to NFL

Sometimes, Nick Sirianni just showed up at the doorstep of Tom Langworthys house.

This was the late 1990s, before the proliferation of cellphones, Instagram, Snapchat and text messaging, so Langworthy didnt get a heads up.

Sirianni and Langworthy usually made their way to the garage.

Each took a wooden paddle, lined up on either end of the pingpong table, and the back-and-forth went for hours.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni congratulates Olamide Zaccheaus on a touchdown catch against the Bills in 2023.

Never mind that Sirianni and Langworthy had known each other since they were in the first grade at Celoron Elementary School.

Feelings and friendships meant nothing when winning was on the line.

There was trash talk and arguments over points, and if Sirianni got upset with the way a game unfolded, he flung the paddle to the floor out of frustration.

He would get so upset that he couldnt beat me, Langworthy said.

The legendary duels came to the forefront of Langworthys mind last week during an interview with The Buffalo News.

Both have advanced in their careers.

Langworthy is an assistant principal and head football coach at Jamestown High School.

Sirianni is the fourth-year coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, whose team faces the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.

Theres one thing about Sirianni that hasnt changed.

You see how fiery and how competitive he is, if youre watching the Eagles play, Langworthy said.

Hes been like that his whole life.

He really wanted to win, and if he didnt, it bothered him.

Thered be times there would be scuffles because he would want to win, or it would turn into little fights, and we had our share of those.

But he is super-competitive.

Siriannis high-motor, unrelenting level of ambitiousness came from both nature and nurture, rooted in the southeast corner of Chautauqua County.

A 1999 Southwestern High graduate, he had a close circle of childhood friends from the Jamestown area, friends with whom he still remains close, including Langworthy.

They were accustomed to Siriannis intensity, his want to learn and his willingness to do what it took, whether it was flinging a pingpong paddle across a garage, coaching at a Division II school in rural Pennsylvania or figuring out what makes some of the NFLs biggest stars tick, and motivating them to play to the best of their abilities.

His parents, Fran and Amy, were teachers and coaches.

His two older brothers, Michael and Jay, were standout athletes and always challenged their baby brother to do as well as they did, whether it was on the football field or during a family card game.

Michael Sirianni is now the head football coach at Washington & Jefferson in Washington, Pa.

Jay Sirianni is the Section VI football chairman, coached football at Southwestern from 2003 to 2014, and is a social studies teacher and track coach at the high school.

Nick Sirianni now is poised to coach in the biggest game in football, and to do it for the second time in three years.

So many moments in the Southern Tier helped prepare him for this weekend.

He has a saying that applies to football, but is also applicable to his coaching climb from Chautauqua County to the NFL: You cant be great without the greatness of others, Sirianni told reporters this week in New Orleans.

One of the major truths of football is that I cant be great without the greatness of others, and that applies so much in this game.

The Southern Tier One of the first movies Sirianni and his friend, Andy Johnson, went to see at local theaters was Rocky IV, the 1985 drama and Cold War allegory about Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa taking on Soviet boxer Ivan Drago.

Sirianni, 43, was in elementary school.

Its merely a coincidence that nearly four decades later, he is coaching in Rocky Balboas hometown.

But he wanted to see the spirit of a winner and what it took for a boxer to win against a highly favored opponent.

Growing up, Johnson saw the determined spirit in Sirianni, and not just on the football field, where Sirianni was a wide receiver and cornerback for Southwestern.

If they went to a party, Sirianni was throwing darts or shooting pool rather than simply socializing.

He commandeered the volleyball games at Fourth of July parties, sometimes getting so worked up that he would drop-kick the ball out of frustration if his team was losing.

And it would get awkward, but then hed run and get the volleyball, said Johnson, who met Sirianni in preschool and remains friends.

But his sense of humor always saved him.

Hes so obsessed with winning and figuring out ways to win.

His drive, and his natural affinity to being competitive and wanting to win, its second to none.

Sirianni also played basketball and ran track at Southwestern.

Scott Cooper, the Trojans basketball coach, remembers a Section VI Class B2 championship game in March of 1999 at the Niagara Falls Convention and Civic Center.

The Trojans topped Alden, 67-55, but Sirianni had the challenge of guarding Aldens point guard.

The Trojans were on their way to advancing to the Class B sectional final, but in the last minute of the game, Cooper recalled how Sirianni still played defense against the point guard like it was the middle of the game.

And thats Nick, too, Cooper said.

He just goes.

No matter what hes doing, he gives 100 percent, all the time.

But in those formative teenage years, Sirianni never gave any indication that he wanted to be a coach.

He wanted to go to college and play football, and he went to Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio, where his two older brothers played.

An ankle injury during his sophomore season may have put a few things in perspective for Sirianni, who was hospitalized as he recovered from surgery to alleviate compartment syndrome swelling that slows or even stops blood and oxygen flow to an injury in his lower right leg and a subsequent staph infection.

Cooper visited Sirianni in the hospital and saw another route for his former student, as Sirianni discussed his recovery and his plans to resume playing football.

In fact, he helped Mount Union win Division III championships in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

In the back of my mind, I knew hed be connected to coaching, too, said Cooper, who also was Siriannis guidance counselor at Southwestern.

Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni watches his niece Bella play for Southwestern.

The path to the NFL Siriannis ascent to the NFL wasnt brisk.

Sirianni coached defensive backs at Mount Union in 2004-05, then coached wide receivers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), about 60 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, from 2006-08.

The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2023 chronicled Siriannis three seasons at Indiana University in Pennsylvania.

He made only $10,000 and made extra money by babysitting the defensive coordinators children.

The Inquirer also highlighted another Philadelphia connection: Sirianni recruited southeastern Pennsylvania for IUP.

He had some help, too.

He met Todd Haley, then the Chicago Bears receivers coach, at a local YMCA as Sirianni was training during his summers while home from Mount Union.

Haley owns a vacation home on Chautauqua Lake.

A few years later, Haley became Kansas Citys coach and hired Sirianni as an offensive quality control coach in 2009.

Sirianni worked in various roles for the Chiefs in four seasons, including receivers coach in 2012.

The Chiefs fired Haley in December 2011, then fired Romeo Crennel in December 2012.

Sirianni needed to find a new job.

Coaching turnover is almost a way of life in the NFL.

Sirianni joined the San Diego Chargers in 2013 as an offensive quality control coach, and coached quarterbacks and wide receivers until 2018, when he became the offensive coordinator for Frank Reich, the former Buffalo Bills backup quarterback who had been hired as coach of the the Indianapolis Colts.

He never boasted about it, never bragged about it, said Johnson, his friend from Celoron Elementary, who now lives in Westfield.

He was just constantly doing it and working towards it.

An inch a day, or whatever they say, and that added up, over time.

The Chiefs.

The Chargers.

The Colts.

And now the Eagles.

Its been a slow, steady progression.

But those that knew him arent surprised hes gotten to this level.

Football is his life.

He sleeps, eats and drinks football, and his competitive nature and his analytical ability, its phenomenal.

Then came the big opportunity.

The Eagles fired Doug Pederson after the 2020 season.

Sirianni wasnt the hot name in a cycle that included the hires of Robert Saleh (New York Jets), Brandon Staley (Los Angeles Chargers), Dan Campbell (Detroit Lions) and Urban Meyer (Jacksonville Jaguars).

Siriannis appeal was that even though he didnt call plays for the Colts, and he had never been a head coach, his forte was working with and improving players.

I remember speaking to Jay when Nick was in the midst of interviewing with the Eagles and Jay made a comment along the lines of, Nick really thinks hes going to get this job, the interviews are going well, they like what hes saying, Cooper said.

The Eagles announced Sirianni as their coach Jan.

24, 2021.

A little more than two years later, the Eagles lost to the Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.

The rematch is Sunday.

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, left, quarterback Jalen Hurts celebrate after the Eagles won the NFC championship game against the Commanders on Jan.

26.

Knocking on titles door Langworthy believes that if Sirianni wasnt an NFL coach, hed probably become a teacher, like his parents.

Education is the Sirianni family business and it applies to what Nick Sirianni does: Teaching the fundamentals of football and how to work together as a team, only hes doing it with multimillionaires and Pro Bowl players, rather than 11th graders with goals of going to college or harboring All-Western New York athletic aspirations.

The Eagles are 48-20 in Siriannis four seasons.

Coaches get measured on their ability to win games, but what sets Nick apart and why he has been so successful is, not only is he masterful on the coaching side and breaking the game down at a pro level, to the fundamental pieces, hes making connections, Cooper said.

To hear some of his players talk about how he listens to them, the one thing you keep seeing and hearing about Nick is that hes a players coach.

Thats his passion.

He believes in people, and that sets him apart.

He is able to keep a balance between all the pressures of coaching, and making sure he knows his teams, as individuals.

Langworthy is in his 18th year as Jamestowns football coach and watches the Eagles, whether its from a distance or when he goes to training camp to absorb how Sirianni runs a program.

He sees how Sirianni leans on the experiences that his parents and brothers have had as teachers and coaches, which boils down to a basic principle: He is working with people, not just professional football players.

College athletes are a bigger version of high school athletes, and NFL athletes are still young men, Langworthy said.

Thats a big piece of his leadership, forming those personal relationships.

Sirianni knows his own growth, too.

Asked Tuesday in New Orleans about how his approach or personality has changed over the last four years, he said that his core values havent changed.

He stays true to who you are, what you believe in, toughness, detail and unity within a group.

And personal authenticity.

You have to be genuine, Sirianni said.

You have to be who you are.

Because, shoot, Im in here (with the team) a heck of a lot more than Im at home, and if at some point Im not being true to myself while still growing, then theyre going to know Im being a fraud.

Its so important to stay true to yourself and grow.

I ask the players to get better, every single day.

Thats what I try to do as well.

That can be anything from a time to show your emotion and not to show your emotion.

I think Ive gotten better at that, as the year has went on and as the years have went on, but to say Im going to stop being excited when we score a touchdown and all the work, or stop being excited after a win when we lay it on the line to do so, or that Im not going to yell to correct or yell to praise, thats just not who I am.

Youre always trying to improve and get better.

He paused at the podium and wryly chuckled.

But then, theres some 43 years of habits that are hard to break.

Sirianni has spent the past 21 years working to reach the pinnacle of the NFL, a route that, again, almost nobody saw him plan when he was at Southwestern.

But as they saw the climb, they realized how this was almost the ideal direction for him.

Now, Sirianni and the Eagles are on the precipice of football immortality.

You are what you do, repeatedly, Langworthy said.

To see him go to the Super Bowl, again, you dont make the Super Bowl by accident ever.

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