John Raffel
Sports Scene
Luke Rayburn is enjoying every minute of playing two sports at Ithaca this fall.
So are the Ithaca football and soccer coaches.
So are the Ithaca football and soccer fans.
So are his Ithaca football and soccer teammates.
Rayburn is a senior, who this season is kicking for both the Yellowjacket football and soccer teams.
It’s his first year of football.
“He’s a senior and he has a big-time leg,” said Ithaca football coach Terry Hessbrook. “When he figures out how to kick a football, he’s going to be quite a weapon.”
Many of Rayburn’s kickoffs are landing in the end zone for touchbacks.
“In practice, he’s kicked 45-yard field goals,” Hessbrook noted.
Rayburn was 10 of 10 in PATs in a 70-0 win over Valley Lutheran. He’s also booted a field goal.
“Against St. Charles, he was the punter and he hit inside the 15 twice,” Hessbrook said. “That makes it tough on an offense. He’s been our punter since David Brown got hurt.”
Rayburn said he decided on his own to start kicking the ball during the off-season. He kept hearing comments from his football friends about the need for a placekicker for the 2011 season. As the season drew nearer, the requests for him to join the team became more frequent and were definitely serious.
“I decided in the spring when I was kicking in the gym that I would be playing for the team,” he said. “I told Coach Hessbrook I really enjoy kicking and would like to try out. He liked the fact I was kicking in the gym. I did all the summer stuff with football.”
Rayburn was effective enough that he won the job to do all the kickoffs, PATs, field goal attempts, and punts.
For practices, soccer vs. football, it’s worked out well for Rayburn.
“We have a great tremendous relationship with our soccer program,” Hessbrook said. “Coach [Doug] Strait has been fantastic in dealing with dual sport athletes with us. Our soccer players come at the beginning of practice. We do all of our kicking at the beginning of practice. Then he goes back to soccer practice.”
Rayburn had one field goal early in season for the defending Division 6 state champs.
“In practice he kicks 45-yarders pretty consistently,” Hessbrook said. “He has great knowledge of football. From 35 yards on in I wouldn’t hesitate to use him.”
On his ability to occasionally kick off the ball to the end zone, “my power kind of surprises me,” Rayburn said. “I could still work on that. I’m improving with my PATs. At the beginning it was rough. I missed one the first game and two the second game. Then I made those 10 in a row. I think I finally found my groove. Hopefully, there’s no more problem.”
Rayburn has been a productive scorer on the soccer team, rotating between offensive mid and forward.
He had around 16 goals last season.
This year, Rayburn is looking more to control the ball and set up shots for his teammates.
“It’s going good,” he said. “We’ve been stepping it up. This last week, we’ve been crisper on our passes, and we have been talking and moving. Districts is definitely in the running.”
Things have gone so well in football that Rayburn is looking at that sport, or golf, as a possible college activity