You’ll get a kick out of this one

When I was growing up in the 80s, NFL kickers had great names like Rolf Benirschke, Uwe von Schamann, and my personal favorite — Ali Haji-Sheikh.

This year’s hopeful Mill Valley Jaguars kickers are named Mason, Max and Luke. While their names may lack the flair of Rolf, Uwe and Ali, their dedication to their craft can’t be questioned.

On any given practice you can watch the guys on the sideline doing - well, not much of anything. While the position players go through their drills on the turf the kickers wait. And wait. And wait. 

But that’s ok, because the real work doesn’t happen in the limited time the trio have on the field but rather on their own time.

Max Meoli, Luke Standley and Mason Gellender are all hoping to become the Mill Valley Jaguars varsity kicker this season.

This year’s crop of Mill Valley kickers are relatively new to the art of kicking a football ball. 

Mason Gellender has the most experience of the trio. Mason, a transfer from Lawrence Free State High School, is a junior, and has been kicking for three years. Last year he kicked for the Firebirds junior varsity team. If anything, he has the genetics for it. His father Tad kicked for Pittsburg State and his brother Connor was an all-state kicker for Lawrence High School and now kicks for Washburn.

“I wanted to follow in their footsteps,” Mason said.

Mason said both his brother and father have helped him improve his kicking technique. His father serves as his kicking coach. The two work together three times a week.

Mason doesn’t have any deep thoughts on the art of kicking outside of “practice, practice, practice.”

Mason says he likes to keep loose by stretching and working on his kicking form over and over.

“It’s difficult to maintain that form each time,” he said. “People make it look simple but it’s more difficult than you think. You’ve got to stay consistent.”

Not all kicks are going to be perfect, Mason said, but he trusts in his technique.

“It’s all mental,” he said. “You have to think positive. If you have a bad kick, just take deep breaths and go on to the next kick.”

Until last year, Max Meoli, was a soccer goalkeeper, but decided he wanted a change. 

Football was never a big part of his life. He never played for the Junior Jaguars. His only experience was a year of flag football with the YMCA. Still, he thought he would give football a chance. 

“I was hoping my soccer skills would transfer over,” he said. “I worked as a kicker and tried some other positions but I wasn’t very good at them so I just stuck with being the kicker.”

He kicked for the freshman team and, because junior varsity didn’t have a kicker, he kicked for them also.

“Before my first JV kickoff I was super excited but nervous too,” he said. “I was shaking before the game.”

It didn’t take Max long to fall in love with the game. 

“I absolutely love the sport and the energy that everyone here has,” he said. “It’s been a great experience for me and I’ve made lots of new friends.”

If you look closely at Max’s feet you might notice that he’s wearing two different shoes. No, his mother didn’t dress him funny, it’s all intentional. 

The cleat on his left plant foot is a football cleat while the one on his right foot is a soccer cleat. It’s also one size smaller. 

“I get better traction when planting my foot with the football cleat but I get better contact with the ball with the soccer cleat,” he said.

Max wants to be the varsity kicker this year. While he acknowledges that Mason has a stronger leg and more experience he’s bringing his A game to every practice.

“I think the competition between us is pretty even,” he said. “But it’s all going to come down to who’s the most consistent. Whoever can get the ball through those uprights most of the time is going to win this job.”

The wildcard in this equation is sophomore Luke Standley. If the name sounds familiar it might be because Luke’s brother Aiden was the Jaguar’s kicker last season. 

Luke is a relative newbie to football. He’s only been kicking for a few months. Like Max he played soccer until he decided to switch to football this year. 

One would think that moving from kicking a soccer ball to a football would be an easy transition but Luke says that hasn’t been the case for him.

“It’s a different form of kicking,” he said. “I had to get rid of the soccer form and learn the football form.”

To do that he’s been working with a kicking coach and kicking the ball — a lot.

“I’ve been improving,” he said. “When I started out I wasn’t very good but I’m improving.” 

In addition to his kicking coach, Luke said that brother Aiden also offers his advice.

“He’s basically another coach,” he said. “He comes to the field with me a lot because he wants me to do well.”

Luke says that despite appearances, kicking a football with accuracy is not easy. 

“It’s a lot harder than you think and takes a lot of time to get good at and master,” he said.

For the Jaguars kickers, their main concern is to kickoff and kick extra points. Punting is not part of the equation as the Jaguar’s quarterback usually handles those duties as head coach Joel Applebee likes the threat of having a punter who can drop back and throw the ball on fourth down.

But those plans aren’t set in stone. After a couple games last season the Jaguars abandoned the punting quarterback and turned to Aiden Standley to take over those duties. 

Max was called on to punt for the junior varsity last season in an emergency after two quarterbacks went down. The result is not one of his cherished memories. 

As he recalls, the Jaguars were backed up to their own five yard line and needed him to give them some breathing room.

“I was super nervous because I have terrible hands and I was worried I was going to miss the ball and it was going to go out of the endzone and cost us points,” he said. 

He caught the ball, got the punt off but shanked it out of bounds at the 20 yard line. Not exactly flipping the field.

“It was awful,” he said.

All three kickers hope for better things this year playing on a team that’s expected to contend for a state championship. Who’s going to win this battle? The answer will be revealed on Sept. 4 when the Jaguars travel to Olathe East to open their season.