By Mark Maynard/ Prokickernews.com
PITTSBURGH – Pittsburgh brought out the stars during the Ray Guy Prokicker.com camps at Upper St. Clair High School.
Long-snapper Zach Ross, buoyed by a 22-of-30 charting performance, zoomed up to No. 5 overall in the Prokicker.com national standings. The rising senior who will play this fall at Franklin Regional High School (Pa.) is impressive, said staffer Jacob Claycomb.
“He’s not a real big guy but he can throw a good ball,” Claycomb said. “He has the opportunity if he works at it. You can tell he works hard. I was pretty happy with him.”
Ross came out as a charter only but stuck around for some individual instruction from Claycomb, who called Ross “a good kid, very coachable. He wanted to work and get better. That’s a good sign.
Two kickers, also both rising seniors, were identified in the talent search by staff member Logan O’Connor.
Matt Carter of Wheeling Park (W.Va.) High School was consistently knocking long kickoffs during charting. While he was only 60 percent on field goal attempts, the strong leg was enough for O’Connor.
“He’s got plenty of leg,” O’Connor said. “Kickoffs were the main thing for him but he’s got room to improve. His hang time could have been better; it averaged around 3.5. But he’s got the distance down.”
Killan Mulkern, who was kicking on his home turf at Upper St. Clair, made 70 percent of his field goals and took three of four kickoffs into the end zone.
“He averaged about 3.7 on hang time and needs to get closer to 4,” O’Connor said. “But he has a strong enough leg, too.”
O’Connor said a high school kicker with a hang time of around 4.0 is ideal for what college coaches are wanting to see. However, it’s not often that happens, he said.
Kickers can improve hang time without hurting distance through proper technique, O’Connor said.
“Without a doubt it can be done,” he said. “A lot of kids don’t make good clean ball contact and they lose a lot of distance on kickoffs.
Prokicker.com uses a hurdle drill to make sure kickers get the maximum distance and hang time on every kick.
