The Sporting News

When it comes to the recruitment of kickers and punters, the process is a bit different. Most BCS programs don’t offer a scholarship until they can see the kicker or punter in person—whether it is during the spring drill evaluation period or over the summer at camps. Also, some programs encourage walk-ons for the position, and wait to award scholarships when the player is on campus.

Here are a few of the nation’s top prospects, whose recruitment will definitely be heating up in the next couple of months.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Ray Guy Prokicker.com camp competition results from Memphis.

Long Distance Field Goal High School: Boone Frederick, 45 yards

Long Distance Kickoff: Reece Everett, 67 yards

Hang Time Punt: Codie McMahon, 42 yards, 4.2

Out of Bounds Punt Right: Christian Troxler

Out of Bounds Punt Left: Zach Weir

Fastest Single Snap: Patrick Williams, 0.81

Most Accurate Snapper: Shawn Smith, 9 of 30

TOP PROSPECTS

Reece Everett, kicker, 2013

Patrick Williams, long-snapper, 2013

By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Long-snapper Anthony Stella made an impression at the Ray Guy Prokicker.com punting, kicking and long-snapping camp here on Friday.

Stella, who will be a senior at Ben Davis High School in Indianapolis this fall, was a quick study, said Prokicker.com staffer Jacob Claycomb, a former long-snapper at Eastern Kentucky University.

“I think he could play somewhere,” Claycomb said. “He’s a good athlete.”

Stella was one of nine long-snappers at the Prokicker.com’s stopover here. Stella, who is 5-foot-11 and 200 pounds, was one of the top prospects. Claycomb said he was a coachable player who learned after making some minor adjustments.

He was 17 of 30 on his accuracy snaps and had a 0.78 in the fastest snap charting. Stella is a versatile high school player who often makes the tackle on a punt.

“You don’t see that too often,” said Claycomb, who has worked with Prokicker.com camps since 2007.

Claycomb graduated from EKU in 2009 and he was on scholarship his last two years after originally walking on.

“They recruited me just as a long-snapper but my junior and senior year we had an All-American kicker in Taylor Long,” Claycomb said. “He was having a great season and our holder broke his hand. I’d been to some (Prokicker.com) camps with Taylor. He said ‘You can hold.’ I’d learned how to traveling around the country with Rick (Sang) doing these camps.”

So the backup long-snapper was inserted on field goals with Claycomb providing the hold.

“I got to look at it from two different angles,” he said. “I ended up holding all my junior year and half my senior year.”

So Claycomb is the voice of experience for long-snappers. His value increased from learning how to also be a holder. That made him someone the EKU staff wanted to keep around. Claycomb has continued to work with Sang’s Prokicker.com camps and enjoys the experience of sharing his knowledge.

The staff that works Prokicker.com camps have similar success stories making them the perfect coaches for the kickers, punters and long-snappers who come.

The Prokicker.com camp moved to Memphis Friday afternoon and will be in Little Rock, Ark., Saturday and Sunday before going to the Dallas area Tuesday and Wednesday for what is expected to be one of the biggest camps of the summer.

Go to Prokicker.com for details on a camp near you.

By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – South Warren High School Coach Mark Nelson understands the importance of special teams.

“When we break down our game, it’s offense, defense and special teams,” he said. “We consider it one-third of the game. That’s how important it is. You’re going to lose a lot more games on specialities than with offense or defense.”

Nelson, a veteran high school coach, is in his second season with South Warren, a new school that played only junior varsity last season. Nelson’s son, Clay, will be a senior this fall. He kicks for South Warren and made 19 of 19 extra points in last year’s JV season. He also booted a handful of field goals, including a 44-yarder.

South Warren jumps into the varsity level this season in Class 3A (of six classes in Kentucky).

Mark Nelson will continue to put a premium on special teams, which is also why he endorses the Ray Guy Prokicker.com kicking Academy. He hosted the Prokicker.com in Bowling Green the past two days. His son was attending the camp for the sixth time and he has a younger kicker who trained with the professional Prokicker.com staff as well.

“The people that were here today coaching up those kids and telling them the little things that, as a head coach, I can’t tell them,” Nelson said.

Clay Nelson impressed many at the camp by winning the field goal competition with a longest kick of 51 yards.

“The kid that I had here saw what Clayton did in this competition,” Mark Nelson said. “He wants to be like him. They’re looking up to him. That should do a lot for both of them.”

Nelson coached Greenwood High School in Bowling Green for nine seasons. He took them to the semifinals one season where they lost to national power St. Xavier in the state semifinals. He had a combo kicker that season who could rugby punt with either foot. He helped Greenwood pull off an upset of Henderson County with timely punts that won the field position battle.

“We’re so fortunate that Rick (Sang) brings these camps here,” he said. “He and his staff offer the kind of instruction you just can’t get anywhere else. I know we’re a better team from having players come to this camp in the past.”

By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. – A long-snapper who is long on potential and a strong-legged freshman kicker were two of the standouts from this weekend’s Ray Guy kicking Academy Prokicker.com camp here.

Michael Sulka (pictured LEFT), who has been long-snapping for only a year, tied for the camp’s fastest single snap with Jacob Copeland at 0.78. The senior-to-be at Bluffston, S.C., High School is the center for his team and also the long-snapper.

“I work on it every day,” Sulka said of long-snapping.  “I went to one of these camps when I first started and my (snap) time has gone down by like 0.4 to 0.5 seconds. They changed my stance just a little bit and it made a big difference.”

Sulka worked with long-snapping guru Ben Fuller and Appalachian State long-snapper Will Fitchett, who in three years has never had a bad snap, at the Prokicker.com camp.

“They helped me out a lot,” Sulka said. “I could tell a big difference from the first day (of camp) to the second day.”

Sulka said most of his long-snapping practice has come in the back yard.

“I was messing around with it because the long-snapper (from last season) was my friend,” Sulka said. “He said I should stay with it. The drills they’ve shown me the past two days are going to make a big difference. I could see great improvement almost overnight.”

Prokicker.com has identified the fast-improving Sulka as a long-snapping top prospect for the 2012 recruiting period.

Sulka, who played right tackle before switching to center, hopes to turn his long-snapping abilities into a ticket to college football.

“I’ve got a couple of looks,” he said. “The Wofford coach came in and looked at me.”

If Patrick Woods (pictured LEFT) keeps kicking like he did at Sunday’s camp competition, college coaches will be coming after him in a few years, too.

Woods, who will be a sophomore at Pine Forest, N.C., High School, won the Long Distance Field Goal High School competition with a 55-yard kick.

 “I learned a lot of stuff, different drills and new stretches to help me out with my hip,” he said.

Woods, who played soccer most of his life and is ticketed to be the goalie for his high school team, said he began kicking “while fooling around outside at my middle school.”

Before he knew it, though, Woods’ strong leg had attracted some attention and he was soon on the varsity football team. He is also working on punting.

“I played soccer for about 13 years,” he said. “I use it to keep me in shape.”

Woods said the Prokicker.com camp was eye-opening because of the individual instruction. He worked with former Eastern Kentucky University kicker Logan O’Connor.

“I’m definitely looking forward to coming back to one of these camps again,” he said.

Woods was the first one in the competition on Sunday when he launched the 55-yard kick. Then he had to sweat out the rest of the kickers one by one.

“I was praying for them not to make it,” he said. “It was really fun.”

Woods said a lot of times high school coaches don’t focus on the kicking game. “It’s kind of like ‘Hey, you’re a kicker, you don’t matter. Go over there and kick some balls, do what you do.’ But at this camp, kickers matter. They show you what you’re doing wrong and how to correct it.”

Woods said he studies video and was introduced to proper techniques on the Prokicker.com website that has YouTube instructional videos available to watch.

“I want to have a career in kicking,” he said.

Woods is a prospect for the 2014 recruiting class.

Kyle Clark was the Top Prospect as a punter and kicker in the camp.

Here are camp competition results from the Charleston/Summerville, S.C., camp:

Long Distance Field Goal High School: Patrick Woods, 55 yards

Long Distance Field Goal High School: Evan Oldaker, 35 yards

Long Distance Kickoff: Austin Jordan, 74 yards, 3.62

Hang Time Punt: Truett Burns, 46 yards, 4.2

Out of Bounds Punt Right: Evan Oldaker

Out of Bounds Punt Left: Ryan Gilbreath

Fastest Single Snap: Michael Sulka and Jacob Copeland, 0.78

Most Accurate Snapper: Len Skubal

Top Prospects: Michael Sulka (long-snapper) and Kyle Clark (punter/kicker)

The Denver Post

College coaches throughout the country do everything they can to have an advantage in the world of recruiting. The majority of these coaches will not break the rules — but they will be creative, and do what they can to have as much contact as possible with sought-after recruits.

In 2007, after discovering a trend where coaches would skirt mandated calling periods by soliciting a call from a recruit via text message, the NCAA banned college coaches from sending texts to prospective recruits.

In lieu of texting, Facebook has emerged as a popular form of communcation on the recruiting front. It's a site that boasts over 500 million active users — and more than a fair share of those users also happen to behigh school athletes.

It's become an easy way for college coaches to communicate more often with those athletes they want to.

The state's top-rated player in the Class of 2012. Mullen quarterback Cyler Miles has grown accustomed to this practice of late. According to Volquest.com, the University of Tennessee site on the Rivals network, Tennessee quarterbacks coach Darin Hinshaw used Facebook to show this sought-after thrower what they thought of him overall.

"Yeah, they actually offered last week," Miles said. "He Facebooked me and said he wanted to see me throw (before they offered), so he came up to the school one morning while we were having workouts and he watched me work out a little bit and he watched me throw to a couple of receivers and they have told me the offer is on the table."

Using Facebook as a means to contact recruits will only grow in football, and other sports, unless the NCAA decides to put a stop to it.

For athletes and parents, it is important to realize that inappropriate posts and pictures could be a turn off for coaches. Putting a professional foot forward on all levels is something worth doing in the quest for a scholarship offer.