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Sports

Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009

Getting a leg up

Kickers a big key to teams' success

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Some families enjoy throwing a football around on weekends, dads tossing to aspiring receivers and catching balls from would-be quarterbacks.

When the Diniz family goes to the park, however, there is no one throwing: They're all too busy kicking.

"It is common to see the Diniz family out on weekends kicking a football," Escalon coach Mark Loureiro said.

Chris Diniz kicks for Sacramento State, the youngest Diniz punts for his Pop Warner team, and Jason handles the kicking for Escalon's varsity.

"No question Jason is a weapon," Loureiro said. "We always defer on the coin toss so we put him on the field first (and) can kick the ball in the end zone, which he has 75 percent of the time this year."

It's difficult to go 80 yards without a turnover, penalty or some other sort of breakdown, Loureiro noted.

"We feel pinning the opponent back to the 20 allows our defense an advantage. If we hold them, we'll play on a short field the first half," he added.

While Diniz is one of the top kickers in the Stanislaus District, there are others just as capable of booming into the end zone and through the uprights when under pressure.

Sierra's Anthony Hall, Los Banos' Freddie Romero and Central Catholic's Sebastian Hernandez are three others whose teams will call on them during Friday's Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs.

Often overlooked in the regular season, kickers become precious in the playoffs. Two teams saw their season end last week when potential game-winning kicks missed the mark.

Hall showed late in the season how valuable a kicker can be. He boomed three field goals in a 44-42 upset of then-No. 1 Oakdale. His shortest, a 40-yarder with 1:25 left, erased Oakdale's 42-41 lead. He also booted a 50-yarder.

Hernandez had one of the bigger kicks in Central Catholic's program when he nailed a 25-yarder with one second left to surprise small-school power Sutter 30-28 in 2008.

"It doesn't matter the situation, you keep your head down and focus on the kick," said Hernandez, who also is a receiver and safety, as well as Central's student body president. "The snapper has an important role, then the holder has to put it down. Their jobs are as difficult as kicking is."

Not long ago, many coaches would settle for any kicker they could get, or they'd recruit a soccer player to kick on Friday.

Some still go that route, and it can work.

Los Banos didn't have a kicker when last season began, so coach Dennis Stubbs held a tryout for soccer players — and Freddie Romero and a senior shared the role.

Stubbs took it a step further this season, with Romero taking the PAT kicks and sophomore Jovani Delacruz handling the kickoffs. They both are kicking field goals.

"Jovani is huge on kickoffs because he can kick into the end zone," Stubbs said. "If he doesn't get to the end zone, we still pin them inside the 20. It's been huge."

While many schools rely on soccer players for kicking duties, there are more football players taking it up, as well.

"It seems like all sports and position training continue to evolve and specialize," said Modestan Paul Assad, aka the "Kick Doctor" for his work with kickers ranging from high school to the NFL. "Where my services have been most attractive to the NFL and draft prospects in the past, I've been getting more college underclassmen and (high school) players wanting to work.

"Two reasons I believe we are seeing such growth is we have medium-caliber athletes learning more advanced fundamentals with kicking experts privately and at kicking, punting and long-snapping camps."

Players adept at other roles — Hall is a top receiver, and Diniz is one of Escalon's top runners — and those without a natural position see kicking as a potential job.

Some folks still need convincing, though.

"Though we are seeing a huge surge in the kicking game at the high school level, only a minority of programs have good specialists and that's because the position is so specialized," Assad said. "A good coach will develop his kicking game (by giving) players game-like experience and kicking field goals in games early in the season so the player is prepared for opportunities in (the) playoffs — high pressure situations."

Paul Assad's client list ranges from NFL to high school kickers. He can be reached at kickdoctor@gmail.com or 595-4277, or by visiting http://kickinggame.blogspot.com.