SUMMIT TWP — The numbers weren't pretty.

Summit Academy ended its 2018 football season with an 0-10 record, getting shut out five times and scoring a mere touchdown in three other games.

Forget all of that. Steve Sherer has retired after 18 seasons as head coach of the Knights — and he's going out a winner.

“This program isn't about winning football games, though we certainly try to do that,” he said.

“It's about using football as a tool.”

Because Summit Academy is a court-adjudicated school, Sherer never has any returning players. He usually loses a few during the course of a season.

“We lost 10 players during this year,” Sherer said. “We don't normally lose that many. But most of these kids are here on six-month terms, then they're gone.

“It has to be an extreme case for a kid to be here nine months or more.”

And 90 percent of Sherer's roster — or more — never played organized football before.

“He has to take time at the beginning of each year to show the kids how to put on the equipment,” said Sam Costanzo, Chief Executive Director of The Academy Schools.

Costanzo brought Sherer into the Academy system. They went to college together at Duquesne, where Sherer was part of a Dukes' football team that won national club championships in the early 1970's.

When he needed a football coach at Glen Mills Academy in Philadelphia, Costanzo knew the man he wanted.

Sherer accepted.

“I knew the character of his personality,” Costanzo said. “I knew his patience, his humility, his persistence.

“And he doesn't quit. That's the man I wanted.”

After five years at Glen Mills, Sherer moved over to Summit Academy. He took over a Knights' football program that was 0-28 in its first three years of existence.

In 18 years at Summit, Sherer's record was 40-104. He won 28 percent of his games, took teams to the WPIAL playoffs in 2013 and 2017, and posted one winning season. The Knights were 5-4 in 2007.

“I love what I do and I love these kids,” Sherer said. “My goal wasn't to win on the field. My goal was to keep these kids from spending a good part of their lives in prison.

“The kids we get here ... They've never been part of anything like a football team. They didn't know responsibility. They didn't know teamwork. They didn't know sacrifice, discipline or fulfillment.

“They never experienced any of those things in their lives,” Sherer added.

Until they became part of the Summit Academy football team.

Until they had to report to practice every day.

“These kids didn't like being outside practicing when it was cold or raining,” Sherer said. “But they learned it was their responsibility to be out there.

“The value systems in their lives are tainted. Through football, they developed work ethic. They learned how to multi-task. They learned the importance of following through and doing something on days you don't feel like doing it.

“Football gave them structure,” he added.

Sherer admitted the consistent losing wasn't easy on his players.

“We coaches helped them deal with their frustration,” he said. “We explain — and they begin to understand — things don't always go your way in life. Adversity hits everyone. But you don't quit. And we never quit.”

Costanzo described the Academy system as a way for its students “to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.”

He said Sherer is a “phenomenal teacher in that regard.”

Summit Academy is not a fairy tale. It is real life. Some of the kids move on and turn their lives in the right direction. Others don't.

“I've taken our kids into a prison before to let them see the inner workings there, what it's like on the inside,” Sherer said. “A few of the inmates were former players on my team. They recognized who I was and offered to talk to the kids.

“Those guys told the kids to listen to me and the other coaches, not just about football, but our life messages. The kids were told by inmates that if they don't listen, they'll wind up with them. Talk about a powerful message.”

Sherer has seen kids motivated through football. He said they go on to take their SATs because they want to play college football.

“I hear back from kids quite a bit, years after they've been here,” Sherer said. “Often times, they tell me they didn't quite get our message when they played here, but it sunk in later. And thy thank me for it.

“I get letters in the mail from former players ... That means the world to me.”

Sherer, 67, is retiring to spend more time with family. He has three sons in Colorado.

“I feel like I've got some time left and I need to see them more, give back time with my wife I've taken away all these years,” he said.

“I'll miss the staff here. — an incredible group of people. And I'll miss these kids. God, I'll miss those kids.”

Along with coaching football, Sherer was vice-president of Summit Academy.

“He knew every kid who passed through that school,” Costanzo said.

The Academy Schools recently named the football field at Summit Academy “Stephen J. Sherer Field.”

“That man is the epitomy of a life well-lived,” Costanzo said.