WASHINGTON – The Georgetown University football team had an additional coach on the field over the past two weeks of its preseason camps. Antwan Sorrells, a high school coach from West Virginia and army veteran, was shadowing the Hoya coaching staff as part of the Soldiers to Sidelines program.
 
Founded in 2014 by former Georgetown Assistant Coach Harrison Bernstein, Soldiers to Sidelines works to develop military veterans to become excellent coaches and integrate them into youth sports so they may inspire, motivate and encourage young athletes to succeed in sports and life. The program has an expert staff of coaches with experience at the professional, NCAA, high school and youth levels. Military personnel enrolled in Soldiers to Sidelines learn the most cutting edge coaching strategies and techniques to thrive as a service member turned football coach.
 
"It is an honor to works with Soldiers to Sidelines," said Georgetown Head Coach Rob Sgarlata. "The soldier coaches from this program bring a tremendous perspective and collective experience to our staff and our players. Coach Sorrells has and will continue to make a lasting impact on our student-athletes."
 
The Georgetown football program has been involved with the Solders to Sidelines program over the past couple of years, hosting coaching clinics for veterans on Cooper Field. Sorrells is the second coach to shadow the program, following Zarod Capers two springs ago.
 
"For the most part, I've been sticking with Coach Sgarlata with the cornerbacks since that's what I coach back home," Sorrells said from the Georgetown coaches' offices earlier this week. "I've been bouncing around to defensive line meetings and linebacker meetings, stuff like that. Mostly the defensive side of the ball, which is kind of my specialty.
 
"The staff here is awesome. Any questions that I have, they are more than willing to answer questions, whether it's about coaching philosophy or anything like that. The good thing about Soldiers to Sidelines is it gives you so many different opportunities. It's such a great resume builder and the program is so supportive."
 
Sorrells enjoyed a standout dual-sport career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, West Virginia, starring on both the track & field and football teams, the latter as a running back. He has since been inducted into Wilson's Athletics Hall of Fame. Despite multiple offers to play college football, Sorrells joined the Army.
 
"I joined right out of high school. My grandfather passed away the day after graduation and he was always a pro-military guy, so I decided to join the military and did my four years. The plan was to get out, go to college and play football again, but things happen."
 
Sorrells was deployed four times, twice to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan, with the Army's 2nd Ranger Battalion. It was during his fourth tour that he was injured significantly, receiving severe scarring in his retinas that has left him legally blind as a result of two IED blasts.
 
He retired from the Army in 2008 but, due to his injuries, was unable to fulfill his goal of playing college football. Like many military veterans, it was a struggle to reintegrate himself with civilian life.
 
"For a while there when I got out, I was kind of lost in what to do. I had just completed four deployments and I had vision issues. I was kind of down in the dumps depressed for a while then one of my buddies was coaching a little league team and he was like, 'hey man, why don't come help out and coach.' It started out me just coming out for the first couple days then it was like 'I think I could run this team.'"
 
Sorrells became more involved with his local youth football organization. In May 2016, while searching online for coaching clinics to attend, he found Soldiers to Sidelines. He signed up for the next slot at Georgetown, where he met Bernstein, then an assistant coach at West Virginia Wesleyan College, who was helping run the clinic.
 
"It was a whole weekend thing, right here on campus. It was an awesome program. It's really, really in-depth on how to coach. A guy who doesn't know anything about football can come into that clinic and leave out with a base knowledge of how to coach youth football."
 
"I met Harrison and the ball got rolling. Luckily, Harrison was coaching at West Virginia Wesleyan the year I signed up for the clinic. So he was like, 'hey man, you want to come do an internship?' which was only two hours away from where I lived, so the stars aligned."
 
Sorrells has attended multiple clinics through Soldiers to Sidelines over the past couple of years and has since become an assistant coach at Independence High School in Coal City, West Virginia, working with the team's cornerbacks and receivers. Independence has been in school for the past week and preparing for its first football game, but Sorrells had to take advantage when Bernstein called with the opportunity to visit Georgetown's preseason camp.
 
"I think Soldiers to Sidelines is an awesome program because, for me, it helped find that transition and find a new purpose in life. The program is awesome because it gives guys an opportunity to coach at a college level, which is a great deal. Harrison Bernstein is one of the most dedicated civilians I've ever met in my life and he does everything he can for veterans. He's very passionate about what he does."