By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Every time long-snapper Bill Oldach has attended a Ray Guy Prokicker.com camp, he has looked bigger and better, said staff coach Jacob Claycomb.
Oldach, a rising senior from Hopkinton, Mass., was attending his third Prokicker.com camp and Claycomb has been his instructor each time.
“Coach Claycomb is great, he breaks it down,” Oldach said. “Even just getting somebody who knows what they’re talking about, it’s hard to do. Not a lot of people know how to long-snap, much less coach it.”
The highly regarded Oldach says most of his technique has come from the instruction at previous Prokicker.com camps.
“He’s got the work ethic, the size, the snap – everything you want in a long-snapper,” Claycomb said. “I remember him as soon as I see him. I remember his problems and they’re gone.”
Oldach admits to being a student of long-snapping and a top-notch student overall. He’s attracting interest from Ivy League schools along with Boston College, Elon, N.C. and Furman.
Oldach, who is 6-foot-3 and 275 pounds, also plays offensive tackle at The Rivers School in Weston, Mass. He’s been long-snapping since he was turned onto it as an eighth-grader by Steve Burton, a friend of the family. Burton introduced him to Steve DeOssie, a one-time longsnapper for the New York Giants and a radio personality in Boston.
That put him on the right path as a long-snapper. Oldach has built on that by attending the Prokicker.com camps where he has soaked up information from Claycomb, a former long-snapper at Eastern Kentucky University.
“He has a great future ahead of him,” Claycomb said. “This kid is a worker.”
Oldach estimates he works between 45 minutes and an hour six days a week on long-snapping. He wants to long-snap in college and also play either guard or center.
“Frankly it’s not like playing wide receiver or quarterback or even punting or kicking, where sometimes you at least score points,” he said. “(But) Now that I’ve gotten decently good at it, I have fun doing it. It’s like the offensive line, you don’t get any glory. That doesn’t bother me any, as long as I can help the team win.”
When Oldach needs some help on long-snapping, he works on drills that Claycomb has taught him through the Prokicker.com camp visits.
“They’ve taught me how to coach myself and fix my own problems,” he said. “Coming to these camps has been very helpful.”
Claycomb said “he’s got his head on straight” and expects to hear big things from Oldach in the future.
kicking talent identified
Justin Renninger, a rising senior, and underclassman Brandon Mandes were two kickers identified in the talent search at the Philadelphia area camp.
Renninger, of Pine Grove, Pa., made 70 percent of his field goals in charting and averaged 58.25 on kickoffs with several reaching the end zone.
“He’s another guy who came out and showed a lot of potential,” said kicking coach Logan O’Connor. “He’s got a real strong leg that he’s working to harness. He had never had coaching before the Prokicker camp.”
O’Connor and fellow staff coach Josh Raphael took Renninger under their wing and the improvement came almost immediately.
“We saw the potential in him to get better,” O’Connor said.
Mandes, who will be a junior at North Pitt High School in Colmar, Pa., also made 70 percent of his field goals and bombed all of his kickoffs in the end zone. He hit a 70-yard kickoff and a 68-yard kickoff, O’Connor said.
“His hang time on kickoffs was a little low but that’s very fixable,” O’Connor said. “He’s got the leg, he just has to get it up through it.
“Brandon has a real strong leg and a good talent. That’s exciting to see at such a young age. ”
