Whenever Stony Brook wins a game - which happens a lot - you’re likely to hear one name mentioned every time.

James Sheridan, Jimmy Sheridan. However you say it, the Seawolves prop who sometimes fills in at lock is the rock up which Stony Brook rugby is built.

“He’s for real,” said Stony Brook Head Coach Jerry Mirro. “Jimmy can certainly play at the higher levels. He’s a prop, but we’ve needed him to step up at lock and he’s done that. He’s just terrific.”

The Health Science major in his final year of rugby is also looking for some big things from his team.

“It’s important that we work together as a team and get better as a team,” Sheridan told Goff Rugby Report. “That takes everyone working hard, and we are working hard. One part of the team can’t be weaker than the rest. We have to all be strong. For me, I try to improve every week and be flexible - wherever the team needs me me is where I’ll play.”

The 6-1, 235 forward didn’t play rugby in high school. He came to Stony Brook to play football as a defensive end. But he was cut from the football team and met the captain of the rugby team, who suggested that his competitive fire might be fed by playing rugby. The rest is history. Sheridan had a lot to learn, but he did well to learn it. 

“I had the explosiveness from football and I had that fitness where I can make a play and get back and go again, but I needed that extra level of long-term fitness rugby requires.”

As usual, he did the work, and in the last two years has become one of the best front rowers in DIAA rugby. Can he be more? Mirro says yes, and Sheridan said that while getting a job and starting a career are key for him, he also wants to play, and play at a high level.

“I know wherever I am I will play rugby,” he said. “It’s something I will always want to do.”

So the question is, who wants him? A smart, motivated, physically powerful prop who has been coached in the position and knows the value of sacrificing for the team … you think there’s a major club, and a USA Rugby HP scout or two, who might be interested.

James Sheridan of Stony Brook University is our Aircraft Charter Solutions Player of the Week.