All that freshmen Jorden Melson can hear is the sound of his father’s voice yelling in his ear. All other noises are instantly drowned out, because all that matters to Melson is that he knows his coach is proud of him. It’s different for Melson, because unlike his fellow teammates, his coach just so happens to also be his father.

“Playing with my dad as a coach can be fun sometimes,” Melson said, “but if he sees me slacking off, he likes to get onto me more than my teammates because I’m his son.”

Melson, the son of Head football coach Chris Melson, plays wide receiver for the Freshman A Football team. The freshman A team went undefeated this past season. Jorden plans to continue to play football throughout high school.

“Having my dad as a coach has made me work harder,” Melson said. “I think it will put me above other kids that are older than me because my dad’s gonna push me harder.”

Though Melson feels his dad pushes him harder than his peers, he feels for that same reason that having his dad as a coach is a benefit to him. Although his dad is hard on him at school, Coach Melson completely changes once he gets off the field.

“He’s like a completely different person at home,” Melson said. “He actually acts like my dad.”

Because Coach Melson has such a huge part in his son’s life. Melson feels like because his father is also his coach it has more of an impact on him, and that he is not only a better athlete, but also a better student and a better person because of it. Since football is such an integral part of Melson’s life, his father has become quite the mentor for him, which in the long run has only made Melson’s strive to succeed even stronger.

Above all else, Melson knows that even though having his dad as his football coach may be a little different for most, he can rest assured knowing that just because he’s his coach on the field, being Melson’s dad will always be coach’s number one priority.

“I definitely feel like he’s harder on me than the rest of the boys. After practice, he tries to keep me out and work with me. If he sees me messing up, he’s always correcting me and yelling at me. It’s not fun, but I still love him,” Jorden said.