‘Just like in everything I do, I shoot for the stars’
Ask Jordan Herdman how he goes about setting his goals and his answer gets right to the heart of the matter.
“I always say that you shoot for the best bar that you can,” explains the Clan’s hard-rock middle linebacker. “So just like in everything that I do, I shoot for the stars.”
What that’s added up to for Herdman is a unique distinction as not only the best overall football player in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, but its brightest as well.
For the second straight season, Herdman not only led the GNAC in tackles, with 14.8 tackles per game, he also produced the conference’s highest grade point average at 3.99 — as a biomedical physiology major, no less.
“My parents are hard-working people and I guess it just rubbed off on us,” says the softspoken Herdman, whose twin brother Justin is both his defensive teammate and classmate in biomedical physiology, averaging 9.2 tackles and a 3.55 GPA.“My mom and dad stressed the importance of getting an education and how knowledge is power.”
Yet, as gifted as he is, Jordan Herdman doesn’t just roll out of bed, show up at class and pull down straight A’s.
“I talked with someone who shared a room with the brothers on a road trip. He said,‘I woke up at 3 a.m. and they were both in opposite corners of the room studying,”says SFU’s NCAA program coordinator Laura Reid.“There are no shortcuts. You just have to work really hard.”
And Herdman knows what he wants.“I hope to get into medical school and get into radiology,” he says. But before that happens, a pro football career will likely beckon.
“I’ve dreamt about all of this my whole life,” he adds. “And it feels so good that it’s all coming together now.”