Wednesday, June 25, 2003
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Wednesday, June 25, 2003 |
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Getting their kicks High school athletes get tutelage from pros at local campBy MONROE
ROARK
More than a month before the official start of practice for the 2003 high school football season, nearly two dozen young men came out under the hot sun at Starr's Mill High School last weekend to study their specialty kicking. It's still overlooked on many teams, but you can't say the name of the game without "foot" and you can't even start a game without having a player put his or her foot into the ball. More and more players are recognizing the importance of focusing on the kicking game, and now there are camps available strictly for punters and placekickers. One such example is last weekend's Specialty Sports Training camp, featuring instruction from two renowned kickers: Greg Davis, a 12-year NFL veteran who has coached kickers for nearly two decades, and Mark Fleetwood, a former All-American kicker and now a college coach. Davis led the nation in punting his senior year at The Citadel and was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as a punter. He went on to score nearly 1,000 points as a placekicker for several NFL teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Arizona Cardinals and Oakland Raiders. He was the first kicker in NFL history to connect on two field goals of 50 or more yards in the same game. Fleetwood played at the University of South Carolina as a punter and placekicker and earned All-America honors in 1982. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and spent a brief time in the pros, moving on to the coaching ranks, where he is now the offensive coordinator at Troy State University. What brought these men together was the fact that they both played for Lakeside High School in DeKalb County. Chip DeBartola, another former Lakeside player and now a parent of a Starr's Mill player, began Specialty Sports Training and brought the camp to Fayette County. While several players came from the immediate area four from Starr's Mill, three from East Coweta, one each from Fayette County and Sandy Creek, and three from Woodward others came from Tucker and McEachern high schools and even as far away as Rome and Dawsonville. A couple of high school coaches also attended the camp as observers. The three-day session covered such areas as stretching and flexibility training, strength training, form and technique, mental toughness and preparation, the physics of kicking and punting, field placement management, and such specialties as onside kicks and pooch punts. There were also training sessions for long snappers. Field sessions were augmented with classroom work and video analysis of each player. The final session was Sunday and featured various competitions, such as long-distance field goals and high time on punts and kickoffs. The weekend was a great success, DeBartola said, with perfect weather. He plans to bring the camp back every year to Fayette County and looks for more participation in the future. For more information, visit www.specialtysportstraining.com or call 678-817-7405.
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