By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com
CINCINNATI, Ohio – Zach Burgy-Vanhoose has been booming long field goals for as long as he can remember.
The strong-legged Kentucky kicker said he launched a 45-yard field goal when he was in junior high, connected from 50 yards as a freshman and once had a 68-yarder. All of those kicks came in practice.
“I’m trying to talk coach into letting me kick a big one,” the likeable Vanhoose said. “He said he would.”
(ABOVE: Vanhoose)
Vanhoose, who will be a senior this fall at Pikeville (Ky.) High School, is atop the Prokicker.com leaderboard in practically every category because of that strong leg. He’s getting attention and raising eyebrows with his towering field goals. He understands that his accuracy may be the only thing that is keeping from being the No. 1 overall prospect.
“We do those the first thing in the day and I get so nervous, I don’t know why,” Vanhoose said. “I’m more comfortable in a game situation. There’s so little (few) people watching it’s more nerve-wrecking than if there are hundreds of eyes on you.”
Vanhoose improved his stock at the Prokicker.com camp’s first day in Cincinnati by charting 7 of 10 field goals in competition. He plans on going to another Prokicker.com camp in Knoxville later this summer.
He said the Prokicker.com camps have turned him into a college prospect instead of just a long hitter.
“The people from down there know what they’re doing,” Vanhoose said. “I had a leg but didn’t have any form. They teach technique. They perfected that for me.”
Vanhoose said he was given “a bunch of drills” that he went back home and worked on.
“They know what they’re doing,” he said. “They could turn anybody into a kicker.”
Vanhoose has become a highly considered kicking prospect who should have some college options. He’d like to kick for the University of Kentucky and he’ll be attending a camp there on Friday. At Pikeville, he’s kicked between “10 and 15” field goals in his career, including a long of 48 yards.
Vanhoose grew up playing soccer but a knee injury during his freshman year ended that career. He also broke his knee when he was a seventh-grader. However, through a lot of rehab, he is stronger than ever.
Prokicker.com director Rick Sang said Vanhoose “has a powerful leg. He can really boom it.”
Vanhoose also punts for his high school team, a Class A school in Kentucky, and makes the kickoff a rather ordinary play with his kicks that scoot into the end zone on a regular basis.
“I punt for my team but I don’t consider myself as a punter (collegiately),” he said. “I’m a kicker and a kickoff specialist.”
Vanhoose has had a long kickoff of 77 yards with his goal to reach 80 yards. He’s currently kicking off a 1-inch block and has a 4-second plus hang time.
Taylor Long, a former All-American kicker at Eastern Kentucky University, worked as a staffer at the camp in Richmond, Ky., last weekend. He worked with Vanhoose, saying “he has nothing but options in front of him.”
Long, who knows a thing or two about long-range kickers, said Vanhoose had one of the strongest legs he’s seen on the high school level.
Longest FG competition
Jeff Nussbaum, who will be a senior at Beechwood (Ky.) High School in northern Kentucky this fall, won the Longest Field Goal Competition with a 55-yard kick.
"I thought I got it pretty good," Nussbaum said.
(ABOVE: Nussbaum)
Sang said the kick was so strong it would have probably gone another 10 yards if it hadn't nestled into the net behind the goalpost.
"I was confident when they moved it back (to 55 yards)," he said. "My longest before that had been 55, too.
"I thought it was going to be short but it kept going. I was surprised. I didn't think it would go that far."
Nussbaum said he worked on his follow through on both kickoffs, extra points and field goals at the Prokicker.com camp. The advice he received was put to good use in the Long Field Goal Competition.
"I really do think it helped me," he said.
