A Swift Kick to the Top : Valley’s Jim Harper Distances Himself From Other Junior College Kickers With a State Record-Tying 60-Yard Field Goal

Jim Harper trotted onto the field for a field-goal attempt against Harbor College last Saturday, thinking--as always--about his Valley College teammates and his family.

He put his kicking tee down, gazed at the goal post and stepped back for his approach, concentrating on direction--not the 60 yards the ball needed to travel.

“I didn’t even feel it coming off my foot when I kicked it,” Harper said. “It was cherry.”

It also was good.

The 60-yard field goal equaled the state junior college record set by Henry Castellanos of El Camino in 1982. It also broke Harper’s school record of 49 yards set earlier this season against Moorpark. And the kick was only 1 yard shy of the national junior college record set by Al Vitiello of Nassau, N. Y., in 1970.

It also might have established Harper, a freshman from Newhall, as one of the top kickers in junior college football.

It already has people calling him the best in Valley College history.

“There’s no one even close,” said Chuck Ferrero, who is in his 10th season as coach of the Monarchs. “I’ve had some good kickers with strong legs, but most were either always hurt or they had girlfriends and got their minds messed up.”

Harper has been successful on 9 of 10 field-goal attempts this season. His only miss was from 48 yards.

“Everybody wants distance, but I’d rather take ten 30-yarders than one 60-yarder,” said Harper, who is shooting for 20 field goals this season. “You want to set realistic goals.”

If Harper seems unmoved by the feat, it’s not surprising. Because for sheer magnitude, the kick will never compare to the kick .

“I could be 80 years old, have played for the Dolphins and made every kick in my pro career,” Harper said, “and the one they’re going to remember is the one at Hart.”

Indeed, the one at Hart High. The one Harper missed. The one that concluded his high school career and almost ended his college playing days before they began.

The attempt came last season, during the Southern Section Northwestern Conference semifinal between Hart and Arroyo Grande.

Hart trailed, 15-14, with 1:25 left in the game at College of the Canyons when Harper missed a 28-yard kick that most likely would have sent the defending conference-champion Indians to the championship game against Burroughs, their Foothill League rival.

Harper, though, was nursing a shoulder injury from the previous week’s game against St. Anthony’s and needed a sling to hold his right arm in place. With Hart leading, 14-0, at halftime, the team doctor told Harper to remove his shoulder pads, jersey and helmet and watch the rest of the game. But when the Hart coaching staff’s frantic, fourth-quarter call came, Harper hurriedly borrowed a teammate’s equipment, including a mouthpiece. The team’s regular holder was on the sidelines with a concussion, and the replacement holder had the ball teed up almost parallel to the ground when Harper swung his foot forward.

Otherwise, as field goals go, it was a pretty average try.

“I still go to bed at night and think about it,” Harper said. “It’s always there. The person who does it never forgets.”

Neither, apparently, did many of the people who watched the kick--and Hart’s chances of repeating as conference champion--fall short. Harper said the reaction from some members of the press and the football-mad community almost made him decide to give his tees the boot.

“After the kick, I kind of looked at myself and the people around me,” Harper said. “There were people who liked me because I was a football player and others because of the person I am. I found some friends and lost some friends.”

Harper has found happiness at Valley where Ferrero, unlike his high school coaches, places special emphasis on the kicking game.

Harper attends weekly clinics held by Ben Agajanian, the Dallas Cowboys’ kicking coach and guru of the field-goal set. He also studies the charts his father compiles that list the weekly accomplishments--and failures--of more than 200 college and high school kickers across the nation.

With his field-goal accuracy, distance and consistency putting the ball into the end zone on kickoffs, Harper is gaining the attention of four-year schools that Ferrero said committed “the biggest recruiting miss I’ve ever seen by four-year programs.”

Harper said he intends to stay at Valley for 2 seasons and then transfer, he hopes, to UCLA where he would join offensive lineman Brian Jacobs, his best friend and former Hart teammate.

In the interim, he plans to continue his transition from strong-legged hacker to consistent perfectionist.

“I had a good leg in high school and I kind of wanted to show everybody,” Harper said. “When I kicked 30-yarders I kicked them like they were 60-yarders and the ball went like hell.”

Now, they are going through the uprights, as well.