Junior Jacob Hardy has had an impact season for the ADM football Tigers, and it’s exactly what he expected of himself.

Hardy, who plays both ways, has made his living this year at defensive end. He had significant experience on varsity as a sophomore, but was thrust into a full-time starting role this season thanks to the departure of several seniors from a year ago.

ADM certainly had some senior leadership returning to the defensive side of the ball this season in the form of linebacker Zach Ostendorf and safeties Joe and Jake Sloss, but Hardy’s play has elevated his status to that same level.

Hardy is tied with Ostendorf for the team lead in tackles with 45, and also leads the Tigers with 6.6 tackles-for-loss and 5.5 sacks. He embraces his newfound leadership role and does his best to keep his teammates emotionally engaged.

“I definitely feel like I can be that guy that people look too,” Hardy said. “I try to be a really emotional guy on the field to get people fired up and excited about the game, and I feel like that’s my strongest characteristic as a leader.”

Hardy credits his success this season to a strictly regimented offseason workout routine that included both weight lifting and agility drills. He said he also understands the game much better than he did at this time a year ago and has eliminated many of the mistakes he made as a sophomore.

You can hear the entire interview with Hardy at halftime this Friday, when ADM (2-4, 1-3 District) takes its longest roadtrip of the season to Glenwood (2-4, 0-3 District). Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. on KKRF 107.9 FM and raccoonvalleyradio.com.