Pressure on the Kat kickers

[blackfordpu]

Last year our kicking game was horrible. This is a great way to get these guys hitting field goals.

Kickers get a feel for pressure during practice

Aug 9, 2007

It is hard to simulate real game pressure in practice, especially for the kickers. But with the struggles the SHSU kicking game had last year, the coaching staff decided they had to change the dynamics of the way they practice.

Thursday, the entire team got to experience that change. Usually at the end of practice, the kickers go off on their own and kick about 15 balls before heading in to the locker room. With the exception of a few managers and a coach, no one else is watching. That all changed on the first day of full pads.

Everyone on the field was huddled around Taylor Wilkins and Michael Capparelli as the two kickers fighting for the starting job dueled it out in a head-to-head match-up. The stakes? The losing team had to run extra “gassers”.

“There was a lot of pressure,” said Wilkins, who was kicking for the offense. “Knowing that it was going to affect everyone on the team really added something to the drill.”

http://www.gobearkats.com/football/kickers.html