On team photo day for my junior season, the trainer was handing out game jerseys for the first time. Whenever he’d pull out a jersey, I would quickly call out what player wore that number. He eventually got me to hop the equipment room gate and help him out. This enabled me to secure the number that I prized…twenty-one. The previous 21 owner had graduated, the cool David Poole. The Dolphins’ Jim Kiick was a hero, another twenty-one.
Though my status as the first-string field-goal kicker was never in question, the day that 10th-grader Ricky Kurtz boomed a single practice kickoff one yard deep into the end zone, I had competition for the kickoff job. Unfortunately for Ricky, his kickoff effectiveness decreased as games wore on, the toll of also playing offensive line. After a game or two, the kickoff job again was mine. Though my kickoffs almost always landed around the ten yard line, they were high and consistent.
In the first game I booted the first two extra points flawlessly, but missed the third attempt. The game film caught me slamming my feet up and down (once) in a small fit, and the coaches and teammates thought it hilarious. Lesson learned! That’s how the season went…most games I would go either 2-3 or 3-3. I was able to attempt a few short field goals as well.
In Augusta against Richmond Academy, I kicked off to open the game…a nice, deep kickoff. I was running down the field admiring my kick when my view was blocked by a big Richmond Academy lineman, who promptly knocked me down. I immediately bounced to my feet, only to be quickly knocked down again. This time I stayed down until the play was over. Later in the same game I was hit just after kicking a point-after. The breath was knocked out of me, though I was able to recover enough for the kickoff.
The trainer digged out a practice helmet with a single-bar facemask, and I wore it with pride. Eventually I tried to put it on my game helmet, but it didn’t work out. How I wish I had held on to that old helmet! Our punting specialist, Johnny Crawford became known as Thunder Foot, so I was called Lightning Leg. We decorated our practice helmets with stripes of athletic tape.
Though we won the region championship, the final game of the year was against the dangerous Northside Warner Robins team, led by the speedy RB Tony Dazvan. We lost a heartbreaker, but had a game-of-the-ages rematch the day before Thanksgiving, in the state playoffs. My job was to kick away from Dazvan on kickoffs, and I was successful on seven of my eight kickoffs in the two games, even though he was lined up on the left. It was much tougher to kick to the right, being right-footed. Once the two deep backs switched places before the kickoff, so I adjusted and kicked left, away from Dazvan. My lone screw up was on a wobbly kickoff that bounced to him. We won the playoff game 21-19, with my three extra-points being the difference in the game. QB Michael Jolly scored the winning touchdown on a sneak, with only seconds remaining in the thriller.
I kicked another three extra points in the semifinal win, and we advanced to the championship game in Atlanta’s Lakewood Stadium…covered in Astroturf. I had dreamed of kicking on Astroturf, the perfect surface for kickers. Georgia Tech had donated old Addidas turf cleats to us, and I found one left shoe that was my size (I wished I had found a pair, that I could’ve kept like a few senior teammates did). With an off week before the game, we were able to practice at Lakewood on Saturday and Sunday. This not only got us adjusted to the Astroturf, but we had a great time on the bus trips, and team unity was high. We dined at the state farmers market cafeteria.
The December night was so frigid that I actually wore gloves, years before the practice caught on (but these were heavy winter gloves!). I remember coming out of the locker room to run on the field before the game. Usually I would be one of the first running onto the field, but that night my grandfather was standing outside the locker room. I stopped to greet him, so I missed leading the team onto the field. I feared I had messed with my little superstition. As game time approached, several coaches asked how my footing was, but I wasn’t worried. I should’ve been, as my opening kickoff was low and wobbly.
We scored second to tie the game at six, but our coaches decided to fake the extra point, something we hadn’t done all year, much less practiced that much. The fake was to go left, so I sprang out ahead of holder/QB Jolly and blocked/fell on the only rusher I saw. Though it seemed like the corner was clear for a run into the end zone, Jolly passed…incomplete. We went for two after our second touchdown, but the third TD put us ahead for good. My extra point split the uprights, and we were the state champions, again by a 21-19 score.
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