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.
