A Game of Feet : Transplanted Soccer Players Change the Course of High School Football

Two days ago, Peter Zenobi was loitering around Crespi High’s football practice looking lonely and lost. It wasn’t so much that his teammates acted unfriendly. They treated him more like he had encephalitis or, who knows, something worse.

There was the offense at one end of the field working on passing drills. The defense, at the other end, was sweating and grunting and carrying on like, well, football players.

Zenobi, meanwhile, stood around looking like a futbol player, which is what he really is. He is also, as of a month ago, Crespi’s placekicker.

After coming to Crespi this year, Coach Bill Redell, who was fresh out of the United States Football League and knew the value of a good kicker, went on a search for somebody--anybody--who could kick a ball--any ball. And eventually he found his man.

Zenobi, who was going into his senior year as a midfielder for Crespi’s soccer team, could kick the daylights out of a soccer ball. Last season, Zenobi was named All-Southern Section and one of the top 36 high school players in the West.

Redell used his persuasive powers to lure Zenobi out to the football field for a tryout.

“I knew he was All-CIF in soccer,” Redell says. “So I told him, ‘Hey, get your fanny out here and kick.’ ”

After watching Zenobi boom a few kicks into the end zone, Redell had seen enough. “I knew we had a good one,” he says.

With that, Zenobi became a football player. Sort of.

“It’s OK,” Zenobi says of his new sport. “But, I’m not playing a real position--at least that’s how some people make me feel. Kickers are important at times but . . . this is for fun. If I do well, then I do well. If I don’t, then that’s the way it goes.”

It should be noted that the outcome of a game has not yet swung on the accuracy of Zenobi’s foot. He has kicked one field goal this season. Crespi won its first two games, 28-8, and 38-0.

“If a game were on the line,” Redell says, “I would let him kick from 50 yards out. And if the situation was right--if we had only enough time for one play and we needed three points--I’d let him try from 60 yards.”

Redell, however, thinks no field-goal attempt is “for fun.” “Kicking is very important in high school,” he says. “If you have a good kicker, one that can kick it from 40 yards out, you’ve got an advantage. And, in high school, you can’t run a kick back from the end zone--it automatically goes to the 20. So if your kicker can kick deep, you can keep them back.

“The kicking game is being stressed more and more in high school.”

“There is no doubt it’s taken on a greater importance,” says Carl Thompson, coach at Camarillo. “It used to be if you made extra points you were lucky.

“I’ve seen a change in just the last five years. Kickoffs are getting longer, field goals are longer, and you see them more often. Teams have better kickers and it’s because of the soccer programs which have developed.”

Like Redell, Thompson has borrowed placekickers from soccer. His current kicker, Dan Eastman, has played the game for 13 years. The coach introduced Eastman to varsity football when he was a sophomore. Eastman promptly split the uprights with a 48-yard field goal and he’s had the job ever since.

Last year, Eastman kicked two key field goals in the playoffs that helped Camarillo beat Pasadena, 31-28, and Ventura, 16-14. He also had a streak of 36 consecutive PATs.

Last week, though, he missed a PAT in a game Camarillo lost to Rio Mesa, 20-19.

Says Eastman: “I missed it with two minutes to play. We were ahead, 19-12. They came back and scored, and then made a two-point conversion to win the game.

“I took it hard. Extra points are expected to be made. The snap was fine, I just hooked it. I took it all myself. I could’ve prevented the loss. It was my fault.”

The kicker’s lament is becoming familiar. As more emphasis is placed on the kicking game, more games are being lost and won by placekickers.

“I feel like a relief pitcher in baseball,” Eastman says. “I don’t get into the hitting and physical aspects of football. I don’t get hyper. I just go in to win the game.”

Or lose it.

Certainly, most placekickers know the feeling. Ask Chaminade’s Jang Kim. The school’s first two games of the season were determined by his kicks.

The Eagles (1-1) lost to Notre Dame, 14-13, two weeks ago when Kim missed an extra point. Last week, he hit a 30-yard field goal with one second left in the game to nail down a 10-7 win over Montclair Prep.

Says Kim: “Kickers are under pressure. After the Notre Dame game, I was depressed because it was my fault we lost. It was an easy kick that I should have made. A lot of people came up to me that week and they’d say, ‘It was your fault we lost. You blew it.’

“The next week, I felt a lot better.”

Chaminade Coach Rich Montanio says Kim is getting better. “He can hit from 55 yards out. He can really crank it. In a game, I would feel comfortable with a 45-yard attempt.”

Ten years ago, many high school coaches wouldn’t think of trying a 40-yard field goal. Now coaches depend on them.

Last week, Van Nuys beat Poly, 9-5, on three field goals by Mitch Sgro. Sgro was good from 35, 36, and 28 yards.

“It’s certainly a luxury we haven’t had in the past,” says Van Nuys Coach Kenny Lee. “If you can find a good kicker then it’s an easy way to score every time you get close to the 20. If you can find a good one, you use him.”

Montanio says high school kickers are getting better because more players are specializing.

“Five years ago, coaches had no specialists. Now, we have kickers who do nothing but kick. A few years ago, we wouldn’t allow a kid to do that. We wanted a total player.”

Montanio estimates that his kickers practice 20 minutes a day, but he admits they don’t get as much coaching as he’d like. “We don’t have a special-teams coach. But kickers do go out early and work until they’re tired,” he says.

Thompson notes the heightened stature of NFL kickers has encouraged high school players to specialize. “The pros have a big influence on high school football,” he says. “More and more kids are coming out and kicking is all they want to do. Kickers are better because they want to be kickers. They have kicking camps they go to. It’s getting to the point where they are getting as specialized as quarterbacks.”

Adds Eastman, who says he’s being recruited by UCLA, UNLV, Colorado and others: “Kickers are oddballs. They’re not involved with the team that much. But, in a way, I feel like a quarterback because I have my own team--the kicking team.

“I practice on my own. I lift weights. This summer I kicked every other day for 45 minutes. It’s like golf. You keep practicing and working for consistency.

“It is frustrating when you miss, but when you make it, it’s exhilarating. It’s the most individualized thing in football.”