By John Raffel
Good high school football teams frequently solve their place kicking problems with the use of a player from the soccer team.
Ithaca and Swan Valley are prime examples this season.
Jake Pierce is the place kicker for Ithaca, which finished the regular season at 9-0. “He attends every practice for about 45 minutes,” coach Terry Hessbrook said. “He then attends soccer practices.”
It’s Pierce’s second varsity soccer season and third for football. “He is doing well,” Hessbrook said. “He is much stronger this year than he was a year ago. He was a back up to Alex Vanderploeg last year.”
This season, Pierce has kicked off 62 times in nine games with seven touchbacks. He is 44 of 51 on PAT tries and 1 of 2 in field goals with a 27-yarder.
“I felt pretty good after putting that one through the upright,” Pierce said, adding that while attempting PATs, “the chain between the snapper, holder, and myself are pretty solid.”
He is confident that the team can overcome weather conditions, which can be challenging in November.
“I really appreciate the level of commitment that he, as well as all of our kickers, have given to our football program over the years,” Hessbrook said. “They have to attend two practices almost every day. That takes a special person to do that. Jake is a great young man that has improved a great deal. He has continued to improve this season. His soccer season recently ended, so I look forward to him getting more reps kicking the football. He will continue to improve, I am sure.”
“I would go to football first because I do special teams off the bat,” Pierce said. “Then I would go to soccer practice the last half hour or 45 minutes.”
Pierce has been able to adjust between kicking two different balls. “There’s always that little room for error,” he said. “Everything is different. It’s kind of difficult to adjust.”
In soccer, Pierce was the goalkeeper. He averaged around eight saves a game. “I finished really strong,” said Pierce, who felt that he had his best season as a goalkeeper. “Cutting down my angles and diving was a little better.”
Swan Valley’s place kicker has been Justin Neilson, a junior, who is in his first year on the varsity. He’s played varsity soccer for three seasons. The team has been in the regionals and lost 2-0 to Imlay City on Oct. 21 in the regional semifinal.
He was a center-mid in soccer and scored eight goals and had 13 assists.
Neilson played junior varsity football last season, his first year in the sport. He’s used for all kicking duties except punting.
Neilson had been asked about playing football as a freshman and declined the opportunity. But he decided to take advantage of it as a sophomore. This year, he attended a kicking academy at Clarkston High School.
Last season, he kicked two field goals on the junior varsity level. He was called up to the varsity in the playoffs and hit a 35-yard field goal. His longest kick last season was a 42-yard field goal. The longest so far this season is 39 yards.
He’s made most of his PATs so far this season and has booted three field goals.
The scheduling of soccer and football practice has worked out fine for Neilson. “For football I practice Thursday for the first 15 minutes,” he said. “Once playoffs start, I go to practice every day.”
In football, he keeps his eyes up while kicking, and in soccer, he keeps them down, he said. He also said that it’s been fun to play on two good teams this fall.