He is every coach’s dream and every opponent’s nightmare.

Aiden Fisher can hurt foes on offense, defense, and special teams whether using his arm, his legs, his foot, or his football IQ. The Aberdeen Roncalli senior can do and usually does a bit of everything for the Cavaliers.

“He’s kind of like the Swiss Army knife of our football team,” said Roncalli coach Billy Young.

Last season Fisher earned all-state honors as a defensive back. He moved from wide receiver to quarterback because of injury and had planned to go back to receiving this fall, in addition to being the team’s kicker and also a kick returner.

That all changed after the opening game, when Roncalli failed to score a point in its only loss of the season, prompting a switch to move Fisher back to the quarterback position.

“Our first game, it was bad. It was a big change for me going to wide receiver to QB,” Fisher said, “because I haven’t spent all summer throwing the ball. I spent all summer trying to catch the ball, and work on my footwork and all that stuff. That was just a big change for me in general.”

The switch helped to ignite Roncalli’s offense which has been rolling ever since.

Fisher, ever the consummate teammate, is quick to credit others for his success with the ball in his hands.

“The surrounding parts really define me, wide receivers, running backs, especially my O-line,” Fisher said. “O-line has been really good this year. That’s what makes me.”

Fisher has an uncanny ability to use his blockers to get out in space and turn average-looking runs into chunk-yardage plays. He said he used to watch a lot of NFL games on TV and noticed the patient running style of former Pittsburgh Steelers great Le’Veon Bell. He has tried to emulate that intentional running method, which has been a perfect fit for the Cavaliers this fall.

“He’s very patient and just lets everything develop. With the scheme that we run, he has to do that. He has to let a lot of the gap-scheme plays that we run open. If you’re too fast you’ll beat your blockers to the hole. If you’re too slow, the hole closes on you. He’s figured it out,” Young said. “And as far throwing the ball, he sits there and he doesn’t get rattled. He doesn’t worry about pressure. He has a knack for knowing when to pull it down and run with it and hold on to it, and even take a sack when he has to.”

Of course, none of Fisher’s current success would be possible without the complete buy in from the players around him, including fellow senior Zane Backous who willingly made the switch from quarterback to running back.

“When we made the switch to put (Aiden) at quarterback, Zane was all in, what can I do to make us better? I’ll play running back, offensive line, wherever you need me,” Young said. “He’s been just as big of a impact with running, blocking.”

Fisher’s experience at quarterback has allowed him to gain a competitive advantage from his defensive back position. He can read a signal-caller’s body language to get a jump on the ball.

“As a quarterback I know looking where you want to throw and flipping your hips really fast is really hard,” Fisher said. “So I know that when opposing QBs do that, I know where they’re going to look and throw. It helps me see the field and the opposing QB better.”

Fisher is also an accomplished athlete in basketball and track and field. He said there is one common trait that helps him with all three of his sports.

“Just the footwork. Footwork and speed is key and really huge,” Fisher said. “Football and basketball, they kind of use the same muscles, but basketball is more fast-paced in a short amount of time. It’s just the footwork and speed, it really helps to translate through all three sports.”

While it used to be that whatever sport Fisher was participating in could be called his favorite, however, that is no longer the case.

“Right now it’s football and I think it will be football throughout the three sports I play,” Fisher said. “When I was younger it was always the sport I’ve played, I’ve always like better, but now that I think about it, I really like football a lot more than basketball and track.”

His athleticism and skillset allow him to excel at all three sports, but there is something about football that has captured Fisher’s attention and allows him to process information quickly regardless of what position he is at on the field.

“We can throw a lot of things at him. Some of the things that we did last Friday, I put in at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Young said. “I called him and the running backs in and said, hey we’re going to make this little switch, this little wrinkle, we’re going to put both of the running backs to the same side, and ope, we got it no problem.”

While the Cavaliers have a goal of playing for a state championship this fall, Fisher knows that his football days will be drawing to a close for the green and gold at some point. He makes it a point to appreciate that this is his final campaign.

“Ever since, when we had our last lift in the summer, and Coach (Dan) Gallagher said this is the last senior lift, morning lift that we had, it made me realize, oh shoot, this is my last year, I better give it my all,” Fisher said. “I’ve been trying to do that this whole time.”

Roncalli has a long history of accomplished football players through the years, and Fisher has definitely left his mark on the program in a variety of ways.

“He’s just a good football player all the way around,” Young said. “He just has a good football IQ. Weight-room wise, if you look at his numbers and times, nothing just pops out, but he’s the exception to the rule. He can get out there, when the lights come on, he’s just a football player.”