HARVARD HIGH: POINT MEN FOR THE PLAYOFFS : DOMINIC SANDIFER : Kicks Have Helped Shape His Goals

On a summer afternoon in Ann Arbor, Michigan football Coach Bo Schembechler has a visitor who is scouting him. Bo, meet Dominic Sandifer.

Sandifer has traveled all the way from Harvard, an elite private boys school tucked into the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Had Sandifer waited until the conclusion of his senior football season, it is quite likely that Schembechler, along with a legion of other major college coaches, would have offered to pay for the trip. High school recruits are allowed five free visits to institutions of higher football.

Sandifer, however, prefers to take meetings on his own terms.

“I know I’m being recruited because I can make the field goals,” he said. “I’m consistent and I can do all the things everybody wants. But I’m looking at the schools with the strongest football programs and the strongest academic programs. I want to major in liberal arts and then go to a graduate business school.”

And so it goes. Sandifer is off to see what three more schools--Penn, Duke and Boston College--have to offer him, other than Division I football programs.

But he has left an impression at Michigan.

“As kickers go, Dom is one of the best you can find in the country,” said Cliff Dochterman, a Michigan recruiter. “He came back here this summer and looked Bo Schembechler right in the eye. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself. He’s self-assured that he can be successful at a place like this, which you have to be.

“I think Dom likes the idea of kicking in front of 105,000 fans, plus millions of fans on TV, to see if he can win the game with a field goal on the last play. He’s got an air about him. He’s one of those kids that you can just tell is going to be successful.”

Sandifer is a high school student with a leg that belongs in the National Football League. And he knows it. He has kicked a 59-yard field goal this season, and he’s attempted others from greater distances. If there are limits to his talent, no one pays much mind to them.

Sandifer calls his own shots.

So much so, in fact, that on fourth-down plays, Harvard Coach Gary Thran gives Sandifer the option of kicking from virtually anywhere on the field. In a game against Bell-Jeff this season, that translated into a 65-yard attempt--into the wind. The kick failed, but Thran’s confidence in Sandifer hasn’t wavered.

“I really trust him and what he feels he can do,” Thran said.

Of course, Thran has little to lose by allowing Sandifer to kick from such distances. In high school football, a missed field goal that lands in the end zone counts as a touchback, giving the opposition possession at the 20. With Sandifer, that equates to a punt with the chance for three points.

Sometimes, Sandifer’s presence makes for confusion. In the Bell-Jeff game, Harvard was deep in its own territory on fourth down. Said the game announcer: “Here comes the punting unit.” Upon noticing that Sandifer was in as the punter, he amended the statement: “Or maybe it’s the field-goal unit.”

Sandifer displays no such indecision. He is intelligent beyond his years, aware that his athletic gifts will be rewarded with a college scholarship. More than 40 Division I schools are actively recruiting him, he says, but Sandifer doesn’t mind the attention.

“I think it’s fun,” he said at the end of a practice session last week. “I never used to get mail, and now I get it everyday. And it’s nice to have coaches call to talk to you.”

Past that, Sandifer tries to keep his thoughts on the immediate future.

“I have to keep things in balance,” he said. “The future comes into play now because I have to put my college applications in the mail now, just like everybody else. In that way, I don’t feel any different than my classmates, except that I’m talking to more schools than they are.

“But my first goal is to win the CIF championship. We lost it last year, and I think we have a better team this year. I think we have a good chance to do it this year.”

Harvard plays Orange tonight in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Section playoffs. The season--not to mention Sandifer’s Harvard playing days--will end with the next loss or a Desert-Mountain Conference championship in two weeks.

Sandifer figures to play an important role in his team’s destiny.

Already he has secured three Saracen victories this season with field goals, and he has converted three kicks from beyond 50 yards. His career long was a 59-yard kick against Pater Noster four weeks ago, and he also had a 57-yarder into the wind at Agoura. He had a 53-yard field goal last season, and a 49-yarder as a sophomore.

In all, he was successful on 8 of 15 kicks during the regular season, but Thran isn’t counting.

“I don’t keep track on purpose,” Thran said. “We ask him to do some outrageous things, and he shouldn’t worry about the ones he misses. We had some problems when our regular center went down, and he missed several in a row. But I like his accuracy. Even if he misses, he’s close.”

Sandifer’s range is exceptional for a high school kicker. He has made kicks from as far as 65 yards in practice--albeit with a stiff wind behind him at Harvard.

“There’s a 10- to 15-m.p.h. wind on our field,” Sandifer said. “I can’t kick longer than 45 yards into it, but the other way I can go 65 yards.”

His range without a wind?

“Probably 60 yards,” Sandifer said. “I expect to make them up to 55 yards. When you get past 55, that’s when chance comes in and it’s really whether you hit the ball solid or not.”

Sandifer doesn’t think he has reached his limit yet, however.

“When I get into college, they’ll probably put me on a weight program and have me do things I’ve never done before,” he said. “I may be able to kick the ball 70 or 75 yards, because I’ll have to kick kickoffs that far.”

His present range is already deadly enough. Thran is admittedly spoiled by the dimension Sandifer adds to his offense.

“If you think about it, when we get the ball at our 30, we only really have to get 40 yards for him to be in range,” Thran said. “If you can’t get your offense to move the ball 40 yards, you better think about getting a new offensive coordinator. Without a doubt, when he’s gone it’s going to change a lot of things in the way we think offensively.”

In addition to his kicking, Sandifer is second on the Harvard team with three interceptions as a starting defensive back. He has also carried 10 times for 86 yards and a touchdown as a reserve tailback. Last season, he proved to be a capable replacement when starting tailback Andy Bell, who has rushed for 1,521 yards this year, missed two playoff games with appendicitis.

“He’s one of the fastest players on the team,” Thran said. “He’s an above average defensive back and a very able running back. We’d probably use him more on offense if it weren’t for his kicking.”

Kicking, however, is what separates Sandifer from being just an ordinary high school football player.

“We had a long talk before the season started,” Thran said. “We knew he was going to get a lot of attention from colleges this year, and we talked about how he was going to have to keep his concentration on what he was doing presently so things didn’t get out of hand.

“That’s one of the things I really admire about Dom. He has been able to take everything in stride. You would never know that he’s as notable as he is as far as the players on the team or he is concerned. It’s a real nice situation.”

How extensive has the interest in Sandifer been?

“How many schools in the country are there?” Thran asked.

To college recruiters and talent scouts, Sandifer has the intangibles for success as a kicker: a strong leg and confidence that borders on cockiness.

Said Dick Lascola, head of a national evaluation service for high school football players: “Dominic Sandifer is a very prolific kicker with a strong leg, and he’s a very poised and confident kicker. He has all the ingredients a kicker needs.

“But we don’t rate kickers on a national level. Everybody needs a linebacker or a lineman, but a kicker is only a priority if a college needs one. If a college doesn’t need a kicker, you can give one away. Plus, they’re hard to judge, so we don’t rate them.”

Sandifer understands the nebulous nature of his craft.

“Kicking is less than an exact science,” he said. “So many intricate things go into kicking. You’re correcting a lot of little things all the time.”

Kicking is a craft with no middle ground. A kick either wins a game or a miss loses it. Sandifer relishes the pressure of the situation.

“The more fans there are, the easier it is to block everything out,” he said. “At our games, I can hear people yelling all the time. But it would be real exciting to make a kick that wins the game and look around and see 100,000 fans.

“Of course if I missed it . . . if it comes down to one time where I miss a game-winning field goal, I know I’ll have to live with it. But I’ll still be the same person. It’s not going to change me. I’ll go back out the next time and put it out of my mind. And I’ve got to treat success the same way.”