Younger Kicking Standouts

Working with over 130 kicking specialists this Summer has given me access to punters and kickers from across the state of Tennessee.

Over the past few weeks I have written about the college specialists I have worked with this Summer along with the top seniors and juniors in the state of Tennessee. The talent in the state of Tennessee is phenomenal and I have been blessed to work with quite a few of them.

I love working with the top college and high school senior specialists in the state but I also enjoy working with younger kickers to help them learn the right way to kick before they develop bad habits.

There are going to be some very good kickers and punters coming up in the state of Tennessee over the next few years...

Brett Beeler (Oak Ridge High School) will be entering his second season as the starting kicker and has a lot of talent for a Sophomore.

He had a tendency to really crunch in his kicks and I worked with him to be a little more fluid on his approach and follow through.

Brett has some nice pop in his leg and the kicking coach at Oak Ridge had already done a nice job with Brett before I even worked with him. I was able to fine tune a few things to make Brett even better.

I believe that if he continues to develop his technique than he will have the chance to kick in college.

Ben Boatright (Brentwood Academy) is a sophomore who is competing with star senior punter, Nathan Renfro, to be the starting kicker.

He is a bright kid who is smaller in stature but packs some punch in his kicks. Ball contact is such an important thing for a kicker and that is something he does very well.

I am expecting big things from Ben and I look forward to seeing him develop and wish him the best of luck this Friday.

Aaron Medley (Marshall Co.) has one of the stronger legs I have ever seen for a freshman kicker.

During the kicking session we backed up to 55 yards on field goals and I was very impressed with his ability to understand concepts.

Aaron is an extremely quiet guy which took me a little time to understand as I have a tendency to talk for the entire hour and fifteen minutes I am on the field for a kicking lesson.

I firmly believe that if Aaron continues to improve than he will be on path for a Division 1 scholarship.

Gary Wunderlich is a very talented freshman over at Memphis University School. He has some big shoes to fill as he is taking over for Mr. Football Finalist Christian Kaufmann.

I started working with Gary because of a referral from Christian and Southern Miss kicker Corey Acosta.

Gary is a very talented kicker who has the capability to hit 50 yard field goals and kick kickoffs around the end zone.


If he keeps up the pace that he is on than he will have a chance to be a Mr. Football Finalist in the next few years.

Logan Cooke is from Kokimo, MS and will be the quarterback and kicker on his junior high team this year. I met Logan at the Tennessee vs Florida game in 2006 as he was a guest of one of my teammates from Mississippi, Josh McNeil.


He is a freshman this year but his team is still kicking with the middle school football. Good kickers actually lose distance with the middle school ball compared to a high school ball, because there isn't as much surface area to kick on the smaller ball.


Logan has worked with me numerous times and I am very pleased with where he is at right now and expect him to have a great season.


Hayes Foster is an 8th grader at Siegel Middle School. Hayes' father, Tom, contacted me in March and wanted me to evaluate if Hayes had some potential as a field goal kicker.


Hayes has played traveling soccer for quite some time and had a natural ability to strike the ball.


As I started the evaluation with Hayes I watched him kick 5 field goals and I was convinced he had talent.


Hayes has done some kicking lessons over the previous months and I have really seen him improve.


Just recently he kicked 4 touchbacks in a middle school game!


I am actually playing golf with Tom this morning and working with Hayes in the afternoon so it will be great to see Hayes' progress from when I worked with him earlier this Summer...

The final kicker that I want to talk about is someone I worked with when I conducted a clinic for Karns Youth Clinic. His name is Roberto and he will be an 8th grader at Karns.

Roberto is very talented for an 8th grade kicker. I worked with he and a few other specialists at this clinic and it was hard not to notice his potential.

At the beginning of the clinic he was inconsistent on his field goals and by the end he was able to kick 50 yarders with pretty good accuracy. It was amazing seeing such a transformation so quickly!

In conclusion, I am excited about the younger talent that is in the state of Tennessee and it is going to be fun seeing some of these guys become household names in college football in the next few years.

Visit: www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

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