Maybe their offense was able to put the ball in the end zone a little more than ours.:lol: If I had a kicker with his ability I would certainly use his talents more than that. Special teams play can win you a lot of ball games. Does he attend any summer kicking camps?

 

I understand the kid played soccer before moving to Bell around 7th or 8th grade and kicked for Bell Middle School for part of one season. Bell's kicker was a Senior that year. Coach Hilton challenged him to get ready to be the varsity kicker as incoming freshman. My understanding is that he went to former NFL kicker's camp (Chris Boniol.....kicked for my successor, that bushy haired guy, Johnson and owner Jerry...oh, well I won't mention his name). Then he started for Bell last year. This past summer he attended Ray Guy's Prokicker.com camp at Bowling Green. These camps are listed on their website and are in thirty some odd cities. They then rank kickers based on role (kickers; kicker/punter; and punter/kickoff specialist. They train and they have a rating system based on accuracy, distance, and hangtime (big factor in going to next level). According to their website, Merrick is ranked 40-something kicker/punter in nation. All of those ahead of him are class of 2007 and 2008. Shane Popham and some other KY kickers attended their camp. If you compare their stats....Popham is ranked ahead of him shading him in some catagories, but he has better hangtimes than Popham. Should improve a lot with two more years of high school ball.

Special teams play can win you a lot of ball games.

 

Bell recently edged Corbin on last-second field goal for the win. This was a first for Coach Hilton in his third-place all-time winning coach victories.

Leslie County - Brian Barrett

I understand the kid played soccer before moving to Bell around 7th or 8th grade and kicked for Bell Middle School for part of one season. Bell's kicker was a Senior that year. Coach Hilton challenged him to get ready to be the varsity kicker as incoming freshman. My understanding is that he went to former NFL kicker's camp (Chris Boniol.....kicked for my successor, that bushy haired guy, Johnson and owner Jerry...oh, well I won't mention his name). Then he started for Bell last year. This past summer he attended Ray Guy's Prokicker.com camp at Bowling Green. These camps are listed on their website and are in thirty some odd cities. They then rank kickers based on role (kickers; kicker/punter; and punter/kickoff specialist. They train and they have a rating system based on accuracy, distance, and hangtime (big factor in going to next level). According to their website, Merrick is ranked 40-something kicker/punter in nation. All of those ahead of him are class of 2007 and 2008. Shane Popham and some other KY kickers attended their camp. If you compare their stats....Popham is ranked ahead of him shading him in some catagories, but he has better hangtimes than Popham. Should improve a lot with two more years of high school ball.

Ross Uminger, Ryle's Sr kicker is the other KY kicker who went to the Ray Guy camp at Dayton the same time as Popham. Both faced two days of heavy rain and did excellent with a wet field, soaked heavy leather ball and kicking in the rain. There were no adjustments in their stats due to weather, just raw scores. Uminger made 10/10 on his test kicks, Popham 9/10 under those conditions. The kicks are 5 each from the left and right hash from 30 yards moving back to 50 yards. So we have two great kickers in Northern KY to do that in those circumstances and both are having excellent seasons. Their kickoff hang times suffered some due to rain and heavy balls, so you cannot really compare to another without the handicapping for weather. Both would be top 10 nationally with their normal kickoffs in good weather. As it is, Popham is 13, Uminger 18th. Merrick is 53.

But Merrick did do great for a Sophomore at 53rd and he will have a great future if he keeps working at it. good luck to him, lets keep the good kickers coming form KY!

Ross Uminger, Ryle's Sr kicker is the other KY kicker who went to the Ray Guy camp at Dayton the same time as Popham. Both faced two days of heavy rain and did excellent with a wet field, soaked heavy leather ball and kicking in the rain. There were no adjustments in their stats due to weather, just raw scores. Uminger made 10/10 on his test kicks, Popham 9/10 under those conditions. The kicks are 5 each from the left and right hash from 30 yards moving back to 50 yards. So we have two great kickers in Northern KY to do that in those circumstances and both are having excellent seasons. Their kickoff hang times suffered some due to rain and heavy balls, so you cannot really compare to another without the handicapping for weather. Both would be top 10 nationally with their normal kickoffs in good weather. As it is, Popham is 13, Uminger 18th. Merrick is 53.

But Merrick did do great for a Sophomore at 53rd and he will have a great future if he keeps working at it. good luck to him, lets keep the good kickers coming form KY!

 

I certainly agree! Ky kickers fared well. Merrick and Popham, I believe are placekicker/punters. They have scores in those areas of Prokicker site. Could not find only kicker ranking for Uminger. Kicker/Punter combo scores ranked Popham 21st and Merrick 43rd. Punter/Kickoff Specialist ranked Popham as 31 and Merrick at 47. It is too bad that weather was a factor in Popham's scores.

lets keep the good kickers coming form KY!

 

 

With all this talk about KY kickers/punters, and I agree that there have been and are good ones in KY, who of these “current” H.S kickers and/or punters are being recruited? I know there are many levels of recruiting (questionairs, letters, phone calls, game visits, walk on, scholarships) and people tend to stretch the stories a bit, so try to keep it honest as possible. But who is being recruited???

 

1. X kicker??

2. CCH kicker?? what year is he by the way

3. Mayfield??

4. Kid from Trinity, UK offered and he commited, still heard through people that many BIG time colleges want him to change his mind, but what colleges??

5. Ryle??

6. Anybody else, I'm assuming that the kids above could be getting recruited.

 

Your imput, and please no big fish stories!

 

:flame: Fish Stories

CCH kicker is Shane Popham - Senior - received letters from Holy Cross University (Boston), Harvard, Penn, Yale, Cincinnati and about 6 small colleges in the Ohio/Kentucky area. Holy Cross has shown the most interest by far.

I understand the kid played soccer before moving to Bell around 7th or 8th grade and kicked for Bell Middle School for part of one season. Bell's kicker was a Senior that year. Coach Hilton challenged him to get ready to be the varsity kicker as incoming freshman. My understanding is that he went to former NFL kicker's camp (Chris Boniol.....kicked for my successor, that bushy haired guy, Johnson and owner Jerry...oh, well I won't mention his name). Then he started for Bell last year. This past summer he attended Ray Guy's Prokicker.com camp at Bowling Green. These camps are listed on their website and are in thirty some odd cities. They then rank kickers based on role (kickers; kicker/punter; and punter/kickoff specialist. They train and they have a rating system based on accuracy, distance, and hangtime (big factor in going to next level). According to their website, Merrick is ranked 40-something kicker/punter in nation. All of those ahead of him are class of 2007 and 2008. Shane Popham and some other KY kickers attended their camp. If you compare their stats....Popham is ranked ahead of him shading him in some catagories, but he has better hangtimes than Popham. Should improve a lot with two more years of high school ball.

Those camps that you mentioned are great camps. They are the same camps that Aaron Pettrey(now kicking @ OSU) attended during his high school career. I wish the young man the best.

Bell recently edged Corbin on last-second field goal for the win. This was a first for Coach Hilton in his third-place all-time winning coach victories.

:thumb: Those are exciting games. I have been on the other side of those and it is not as much fun!!:lol:

Campbell County- Aaron Maines

 

I am surprised that no one on this board has mentioned Pelphry or Ackeres.

 

 

Remember when he kicked a 52 yarder to beat Akers???? What a game.

Trimble County's current kicker, Matt Jennings, is probably the best that school has had. He kicked 10 extra points in their last win and can definately kick it into the end zone on kick-off, though he has been unsuccessful on FG attempts this year. That may be more due to the line, though.

Trimble County's current kicker, Matt Jennings, is probably the best that school has had. He kicked 10 extra points in their last win and can definately kick it into the end zone on kick-off, though he has been unsuccessful on FG attempts this year. That may be more due to the line, though.

 

 

What? :confused: You mean every attempt he has tried has been blocked?

 

And just because a kick has been blocked does not mean it is all the lines fault.

With all this talk about KY kickers/punters, and I agree that there have been and are good ones in KY, who of these “current” H.S kickers and/or punters are being recruited? I know there are many levels of recruiting (questionairs, letters, phone calls, game visits, walk on, scholarships) and people tend to stretch the stories a bit, so try to keep it honest as possible. But who is being recruited???

 

1. X kicker??

2. CCH kicker?? what year is he by the way

3. Mayfield??

4. Kid from Trinity, UK offered and he commited, still heard through people that many BIG time colleges want him to change his mind, but what colleges??

5. Ryle??

6. Anybody else, I'm assuming that the kids above could be getting recruited.

 

Your imput, and please no big fish stories!

 

:flame: Fish Stories

 

Not an expert on kicking but do understand the mechanics and talent needed to be succesfull at the HS level.... IMHO, there is no kid at X at this point deserving of a D1 kicking offer..... D II maybe (at a very long stretch) , but not D1.... The kid from Trinity has what it takes for D1, no question.... IMHO, kid should go anywhere he wants, he's that good....... No knowledge of the others, have not seen any other standouts so far this year in Jefferson Co.

Taylor Begley without a doubt (went on to play for UK).

Then I would have to say David Jennings (went on to play for TCU)

What? :confused: You mean every attempt he has tried has been blocked?

 

And just because a kick has been blocked does not mean it is all the lines fault.[/quote

I think that he has attempted 2 FGs this year. One was blocked and I think there was a problem with the snap on the other. He made several last year, including one against Danville. I think that the reason that there has been so few attempts this year is because Trimble seems to be able to just about score at will with their good running back. That will change this week, though, because they are up against the Ads again.

 

You are right about the line, though. He would not have made the 10 extra points in their win the other night, had the line not blocked!