Quitting tomorrow felt easy for Tyler Sordillo. The meetings, playing on the scout-team in practices, film and a plethora of other factors had the Springfield College first-year defensive lineman questioning his own decision to play football in 2023.
After the first day of camp, Sordillo called his mom, Rachael, telling her he wasn’t feeling Alden Street. Rachael politely dismissed Sordillo’s comments, and as Sordillo finished out the rest of the first semester and season, his level of motivation changed for the better.
“Around the Spring semester of my freshman year, going through more workouts with the team I started to really buy into the brotherhood,” Sordillo said. “I stuck with it and I’m glad I did.’’
Safe to say Sordillo made the right decision. Now in 2025, the junior leads all of the NEWMAC in sacks (nine) for the top team in its conference. A chip on Sordillo’s shoulder was all he needed.
“I don’t really think about going out there and having a great game,” Sordillo said. “Whatever I have going off the field or even on the field I use it as motivation to do my job, and ultimately that’s what’s needed of me.”
Throughout Sordillo’s time at Springfield, he’d never been too far from the field in terms of the depth chart, yet he still had to fight his way up. In his first year with the program, Sordillo started out at 235 pounds — it seems like a fair weight, but he wanted to see the field as soon as possible, and that meant getting even bigger and stronger.
Sordillo saw “garbage time” in two games in 2023, although he made a solid impression by recording three total tackles in limited time. The real impression was gaining 30 pounds over the course of Sordillo’s first year, getting up to 265 pounds; ideal for a lineman on a prominent defensive front to sustain over the year.
Last season was a big one for Sordillo, considering the defensive line was entirely revamped. He earned a starting spot, and played exceptionally well in the Pride’s season opener against their longtime rival, Western New England. Springfield won that game, and the next in a 76-7 blowout win against Husson, yet Sordillo took a step back. The sophomore suffered a broken finger in the contest, and was sidelined for the majority of the Pride’s big-time win against Union.
Sordillo had to play with a club-styled cast on his hand up to his forearm, and didn’t feel fully back to playing until he recorded four tackles – including one for a loss – when the Pride defeated MIT, which had been over a month since his injury.
The Pride started 12-0 in 2024, including a program-defining win against defending champions Cortland in the third round of the NCAA tournament. Sordillo had the confidence in himself and his teammates to go out and show that the young core of himself, JT Kinsey and Aziah Scott would be a dominating group, and they were.
They were the anchors of the best defense in the NEWMAC and one of the best in the country, allowing only 81 rushing yards per game in conference. Sordillo and co. also held the eventual champions North Central to 27 points, especially notable considering it hadn’t scored less than 40 all season.
“I was put in a situation to succeed, but we had to prove to people we were capable of competing,” Sordillo said. “I also battled even more stuff off the field late in the season which I had to fight.”
The “stuff” Sordillo dealt with was pneumonia, as it drained his body physically and mentally. He lost 30 pounds in just under two weeks, as Sordillo’s effort and hard grind seemingly slipped away. Sitting out for the NEWMAC title-clinching game against SUNY Maritime was tough on Sordillo because he’d never missed this much time in his football career, but like his freshman year, he knew it couldn’t derail him.
Bode Dunn, a fullback on the football team and a good friend of Sordillo, pushed him to eat as much as possible in order to have a shot to get time in the playoffs. Sordillo gained 10 pounds back quickly, and was able to see the field at the end of 2024.
“I was really skinny and they obviously couldn’t throw me out there when I ‘felt’ better, because I wasn’t in the right physical shape, so I put on some weight and eventually got to help out my team,” Sordillo said. “This, along with my other injury, has really built me into the person and player I am today.”
The player that Sordillo is today is a much improved one, and it’s clear that he deserves to be on the field. This season, Sordillo’s nine total sacks are good for top-15 in all of Division III football, with eight of them coming in his last five games.
He was named to D3football.com’s team of the week on Oct. 21 after a three-sack outing against WPI, including a strip-sack in the second quarter. His defensive line teammates in Kinsey, Scott and CJ Hall are all from Savannah, Ga., and Sordillo appreciates the way he’s bonded with the group.
“They all have this relationship, and people say ‘the wall of Georgia’, but they also love to include me too,” Sordillo said. “It’s pretty cool playing with them, especially in the locker room, just talking with them, getting to know them better. They’re really good people and it’s just fun to play with them because they have a lot of energy as well.”
The group plays all-out on the field; Springfield’s defense as a whole in 2025 has allowed the 13th least points per game (12.33) in the country, and the ninth least rushing yards per game (62). Sordillo was a key part in the Pride’s most recent 30-10 victory over Coast Guard to clinch Springfield’s fifth straight NEWMAC title, taking the Bears quarterback Sean Burns down on one occasion while also forcing Burns to scramble more than he would’ve liked.
Springfield is currently 7-2 and 6-0 in the conference, as they’ve also clinched the automatic qualifying spot in the NCAA championships.
“Just taking each game one at a time is what I’m focused on,” Sordillo said. “Especially the playoffs, there are a bunch of good teams in there obviously. We want to be able to cancel our banquet each week, and possibly not even go home for Christmas.”