Senior continues proud Carroll kicking tradition
Hal Wasson sent out the punt team and then thought better of it.
Carroll’s head football coach called a timeout, looked at senior place-kicker Kole Ramage and asked him if he had enough leg to attempt a 55-yard field goal. Ramage answered with a cool “yes” before Wasson could finish his question.
Moments later, the new school record cleared the crossbar by three yards. Wasson watched enough during the week and in pregame warmups prior to the Aug. 26 meeting against Tulsa Union to approach Ramage.
“The only thing I looked for when I talked to him was hesitation,” Wasson said. “There wasn’t any. I’ve never seen him not do it.”
Having an able kicker in a high school football program is a plus. Having a difference-maker kicker in a high school football program is invaluable. Carroll has enjoyed an era where that part of the game is one where a head coach breathes easy.
Ramage is the latest in a long and distinguished line of kickers who have come through and then moved on to higher levels. This history of this fraternity spans three decades and started in the early 1990s with Kris Brown, who went to Nebraska and kicked in the NFL with Pittsburgh, Houston and San Diego.
Garrett Hartley carried the torch in the early 2000s. He played in college at Oklahoma and then went to the NFL and earned his pay between New Orleans, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It then continued with Cade Foster (Alabama), Kevin Ortega, Mac McGuire, Ty Cummings (Houston), Drew Brown (Nebraska) and Jake Oldroyd (BYU), who preceded Ramage.
Ramage – 4-4 on fields and 73-of-73 on PATs in 2015 – isn’t going to kick in college. The right-hander has committed to Arkansas’ baseball program. But the common denominator is that all of these players turned out to be more than just kickers. McGuire ran track and was a member of a 4x400 state champion relay team.
“I know I have to uphold the tradition of those who have come before me,” Ramage said. “Special teams are very important at Carroll and it shows. My mindset is pretty strong because being a pitcher, you have to perform at your best. As a kicker, you know you have to put it through the uprights.”
For his part, kicking coach Austin Cranford, who has coached this position since 2010, takes his kickers through a series of mental exercises – call them challenges – to make them tougher.
“We want every rep to be as game-like as possible,” Cranford said. “If we miss one, we’re not going to try it from the same spot. You don’t get to it again in a game. We move on to the next one.”
While all of these kickers have succeeded, Cranford has his assessment of what he has seen. Oldroyd created the highest loft. Brown is considered the most accurate. Cummings had the strongest leg, but Ramage is contesting for that.
The value of a Carroll kicker isn’t a product of how he navigates the uprights. He can influence field position. Wasson and Cranford have overseen Ramage become a real advantage on kickoffs. There’s enough strength to put one into the end zone for touchbacks and enough savvy to pin dangerous returners into a corner so they become boxed in.
This isn’t a skill where a player can go out and kick and it all falls into place. It demands stellar repeated mechanics and the confidence each kick will be true.
“You’ve got to be blessed to have a kicking leg,” Wasson said. “You just can’t say, ‘Oh, I’m going to be a kicker. Like everything, you can enhance your skills and strength. But it comes down to focus. Focus is a skill. Kicking is an art. It’s what separates the good ones from the great ones. Sometimes with kicking, you’re holding your breath. But we’re fortunate.”
This story was originally published September 7, 2016 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Senior continues proud Carroll kicking tradition."