NCS: Tell us about your kicking business.
I began Rafter Pro training in March of 2004. My initial reason for starting the company was to surround myself in my dream of being a pro kicker, help other athletes with similar dreams and goals and provide a living for my family. Now, I do it because it is a true calling for me and I love coaching. RPT does camps, lessons, weekly champions club, recruiting websites and films, PT sessions, consulting and athlete promotion. I have helped hundreds of high school athletes become great college players and 12 of them get into the NFL. I coach athletes such as Sam Martin, Detroit Lions, Chandler Catanzaro, Arizona Cardinals, Robert Malone, NY Giants and Ryan Quigley, NY Jets.
NCS: Why did you join the National Camp Series and why do you feel it
is valuable?
I met with Michael Husted and discussed NCS in great detail. Michael seems great and full of integrity in a business that really needs it when it comes to camps and rankings. The NCS camp system and kicker, punter and snapper index rankings gives athletes a great opportunity to demonstrate their skills and be compared to their peers on performance and not how much money is spent visiting the same camp and company time and time again. Being in an industry that is solely based on performance, the NCS system has really nailed a solid way for athletes from all over to be compared and analyzed. Many great kicking coaches, former high level pros and special teams companies are now in the NCS program. These are absolutely the events and system I am happy to offer all of my athletes as a result.
NCS: What are your thoughts on the Kicking Index? What is your feeling about objective rankings versus subjective rankings?
I really like it a lot and look forward to my students involvement, scores and rankings. I'm a mechanical engineer out of college so I'm sure it is easy to see how I would really appreciate this type of system. I've had my share of politics and bologna along the way, as most of us have or experience at some point, and am a huge fan of results and performance based competitions and rankings. Rankings that are not influenced by personal opinions, huge egos, daily emotions and feelings? Great stuff.
NCS: What was your high school kicking experience like?
NCS: What was your high school kicking experience like?
I kicked in 8th grade, field goals and kickoffs. I loved it but had full blinders on to try to be a pro soccer player and did not kick in high school.
NCS: What was the kicking scene like when you were in high school? Where there a lot of camps to attend?
NCS: What was the kicking scene like when you were in high school? Where there a lot of camps to attend?
I don't think so. I played soccer for a perennial power house that was always in contention for the state championship in Ohio. Even among us, no one ever talked about kicking footballs back then unfortunately.
NCS: What was your college kicking experience like?
NCS: What was your college kicking experience like?
Still had the blinders on to play pro soccer as I played club soccer for the University of Dayton. I always looked at kicking as something beneath me and not a very athletic position. I sure wish I knew then what I know now. Great kickers and punters are seriously talented special operators playing the greatest sport of all time.
NCS: Did you pursue kicking at the Pro Level? If so, how was that experience?
Yes. I blew my knee out 2 months before pro soccer training camp with the Dayton Dynamo began. At 23 years old, my soccer game was as sharp as I had hoped it would be and got the attention of the Dayton Dynamo head coach. However, now missing the ACL in my right knee had drastically changed my life. I became a sales engineer dealing in conveyor systems and material handling. What in the world happened? Where did sports go again?
So, at 25 years old, remembering my nice 8th grade balls, I started calling NFL teams asking when tryouts were. As you all know, it doesn't work like that. Finally, after having a good conversation with Mark Dominik, formerly with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I filmed myself kicking field goals and sent it to him for review. Mark was really cool and got back to me with some thoughts. He said that he could see a nice, big leg on me but a lack of sound technique and game experience. Mark encouraged me to try and play in a semi-pro league, get training and do the best I can with what little time I had left. He was very honest about the huge challenge I faced and what it would take.
Over the next 4 years, I kicked and punted for the Columbus Battlestars and Columbus Fire in The National Minor Pro Football League. In addition, I went to train with former NFL kickers Micah Knorr and Danny Kight. Year after year, I was progressing and getting much better. It was amazing learning how much technique is involved and how absolutely little it had in common with soccer.
Semi-pro went really well and I was named the all star kicker and punter for the league for my final two years. Some accomplishments during my play then were a successful 42 yard national championship game winning field goal versus the Pittsburgh Colts with 19 seconds remaining in the game. I also connected on a 58 yard field goal late in the first half playing against the Huntington Hawks and Major Harris. I believe this is still a league record long FG.
In addition to my NMPFL play, I also kicked and punted for a team in the national 8 man flag football championships in Orlando, FL for two years. These teams that I played on we're not exactly at the highest level of play in the football world by any stretch but I was on a mission and had quickly fallen in love with football and being a sharp shooter...I loved the pressure situations...I wanted every chance I could get to be the hero or the goat. Approaching my late twenties, I had a professional highlight film made for me. The film combined game footage and a field goal and punting session at the Woody Hayes Facility in Columbus, Ohio. I had a very solid session with video. This turned out to be just what I needed to display on a film.
Over the next couple of years, I got my shot with the pros. At the time, Joe Decamillis with the Atlanta Falcons brought me in for a private workout. Result: great field goals, kickoffs needed work. Jerry Rosberg with the Cleveland Browns brought me in a private workout. Result: awesome field goals, 67 yard kickoff avg at 3.79s avg hang, not high enough. Strong but inconsistent punt for NFL standards. Back to working more on kickoffs.
The next professional shot was with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL. I attended and won a tryout camp with them at Rutgers. I was then invited to their next camp in Birmingham, AL. I was invited to training camp in Saskatoon held at the University of Saskatchewan. Here I competed against David Miller Johnston and Mike O'Brien. During scored field goals at the end of each day at camp, I did not miss...100% on FGs. My kickoffs we're now better, finally getting over the 4s mark with distances in the upper 60s and low 70s. I thought I was going to win the job.
After waking up on what was to be one of the coolest days of my life, I read the Regina newspaper. "The Saskatchewan Roughriders have agreed to terms for a new contract with veteran kicker Paul McCallum."
Roy Shivers told me that Paul and his agent finally came to terms with the team and that he had previously kicked for them for 8 years. He let all 3 of us go from camp and offered me a shot to come to camp the following year to compete directly against Paul which I had not had the chance to do yet.
My final shot at pro ball ended up being with the Buffalo Bills. I was invited to a tryout with some other top kickers, punters and snappers in June of 2004. Result: good FGs, decent kickoffs, mediocre punting on this day...unsigned. In 2006, I was set for a Jets workout but broke my ankle before I got the opportunity.
NCS: When and why did you become a kicking coach?
March of 2004; initially, to help propel myself into the league. Ultimately, I discovered that I was born to be coach! I had really found my calling and embraced my new occupation.
NCS: What is the most rewarding aspect of being a kicking
coach?
There are so many rewarding aspects of coaching for me it is hard to cover them all. But, one of the best things for me is being able to train kickers and punters with the proper techniques, mechanics and guidance at ages when they need it the most. All of what I became good at doing and learned came way too late for me to be an NFL kicker. However, none of it was wasted and extremely valuable for my students now. It is all about them and their goals, dreams and futures. If I could go back to high school/college and do it all over again kicking and punting, I would get the best training and experiences that I could possibly get. I know this now but that is obviously not possible. Therefore, I put every ounce of energy and work into helping the young student athletes realize their full potential on the right pace at the right age.
NCS: What is the most frustrating aspect of being a kicking coach?
Hearing of coaches and people teaching it to kids and professing that it is the right way to do it when they can not properly demonstrate it themselves, at all.
NCS: If there is one thing that you could tell aspiring kickers, punters and long snappers out there, what would it be?
NCS: If there is one thing that you could tell aspiring kickers, punters and long snappers out there, what would it be?
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today. It is an extremely competitive industry and great technique with fluid mechanics and the experience to boot takes a big effort every day, week, month and year.
