By Mark Maynard / Prokickernews.com
CHICAGO – Jason Van Buren understands lessons can be learned from both good and bad experiences.
While he has been a highly successful field goal for Floyd Central High School in Floyd Knobs, Ind., the past two years, it was a miss in the playoffs last season that stays with him.
“It was definitely humbling because it was to win a sectional (playoff game),” Van Buren said. “It’s made me a lot better kicker."
Van Buren, who is determined to kick in college, won the Ray Guy Prokicker.com camp’s Long Distance Field Goal competition on Saturday with a 56-yard kick at St. Rita High School.
Van Buren said he reached back into his memory to that missed 38-yard field goal I the playoffs.
“Going back to that kick I missed, I wanted to block everything out where no one can get to me (mentally),” he said. “I practice that every day."
Van Buren, a rising senior, has been kicking field goals and extra points and punting since he was a sophomore. He also kicked off for Floyd Central last season. He made “80 percent of his field goals and PATS” last year. His longest field goal in competition has been 45 yards and his longest so far in practice is 62 yards.
At a Prokicker.com camp in Indianapolis earlier this year, he won the Hang Time competition with a 4.57 punt. He said he’s never been challenged as a punter at Floyd Central, where he will begin his third year of punting this fall.
“I’m equally good at all three (placekicking, kicking off and punting),” he said. “I really feel that way.”
Van Buren isn’t just a kicker either. He was the team’s third-leading scorer and played both running back and receiver for the 5A school in Indiana.
“We haven’t won any state championships but we have a pretty good program,” he said. “We’re always a top contender.”
Van Buren is a mostly self-taught kicker although he also credits Prokicker.com camps for much of the instruction.
“I love Prokicker,” he said. “I’ve gone to other football camps but find myself coming back to Prokicker. I always pick up so much from them.”
Van Buren said kicking has been educational for him on many levels.
“It really teaches me a lot about life,” he said. “About being calm, being in pressure situations and not tripping out.”
He said he decided one day that he wanted to be a kicker and he began practicing with his father. The more he worked at it, the better he became. The Prokicker.com camps helped him polish the skills and now he’s a top prospect and college candidate.
“My thing is kicking,” Van Buren said. “I want to kick in college.”
Van Buren takes care of business in the classroom, too. He’s an honor student with an eye toward a college education. He just wants football to be part of that education.
