Sean Luenz: A Different Kick

His eyes slowly read down the list of 21 names. When they reached the bottom, he scanned back up the list one more time, looking for his name anywhere. Still not seeing it, he turned off the computer and went to bed. Junior Sean Luenz was officially cut from the JV soccer team, but other than an initial feeling of surprise, he didn’t experience the shame or grief that often accompanies getting cut from a team. He had an alternative that was just as good.

Luenz planned on trying out to be kicker of the football team. He had never played a day of football in his life, but that didn’t matter. The next day, he went to head coach Chip Sherman with the idea. Sherman told Luenz that the JV team needed a kicker, and gave Luenz the weekend to decide if being kicker was what he really wanted.

By practice on Monday, Luenz was warming up with the team.

Being a kicker had always been in the back of Luenz’s mind during his soccer career. He started playing around the age of five with recreational teams, and continued on into high school, playing on C team both freshman and sophomore years at East. After being cut this year, Luenz knew the time was right.

“It’s always kind of been my back-up plan,” Luenz said. He got the idea that being a kicker was an attainable goal while watching college football.

“They show the bios for the college kickers and it always says soccer player or former soccer player and I just thought, ‘I could probably do that.’”

Soccer coach Jamie Kelly fully supported Luenz’s idea to tryout for football.

“I always encourage the boys to, if they’re not asked to be a part of the soccer program, still get involved and do something to help out the school,” Kelly said. “I think that’s great that he chose to go do football and that he’s still kicking.”

Luenz is now the full-time JV kicker, and back-up varsity kicker to senior Chase Woofter, who has been kicking since elementary school. Woofter believes that so far, Luenz is taking to the transition well.

“He’s doing pretty well,” Woofter said. “Football and soccer are pretty similar, so it’s not too hard of a transition.”

“With a kicker, there’s a lot of times at practice where he’s off on his own, so he’s got to be disciplined enough to just keep working on something even though he’s all by himself,” JV football coach Jason Filbeck said. “There’s that accountability aspect to it.”

This routine is key to making every field goal, every extra point.

“The short field goals and extra points should be almost automatic once you get good at it,” Luenz said.

A missed field goal or extra point can be game-changing, and often is, so practicing them every day is an essential part of training. Luenz thinks of it like a penalty kick in soccer. You get one try, one opportunity to get a goal, and that’s it.

The prospect of failing a kick is one of the essential differences that Luenz finds between soccer and football.

“If you have a bad opening kickoff or something, you have to wait a long time before you can make up for it,” Luenz said.

His technique to tackle the enormous pressure that comes with each kick to just not think, and get it over with.

“As soon as the ball is snapped I just start going. I don’t think about it, because the less you think about it the better you do,” Luenz said. “If you over think it, you’ll shank it.”

One of the reasons Luenz has had so much success in both soccer and football is his work ethic. Athletic director Jim Ricker has known Luenz since he was in 8th grade at Mission Valley. Ricker, the intramurals director at the time,  remembers Luenz for his enthusiastic attitude.

“He showed up to everything I did intramurals wise, and was always a hard worker, always had a smile on his face, and always wanted to be there,” Ricker said.

Before Luenz had even mentioned trying out for kicker, he was already getting the attention of the summer weights coaches for his dedication.

“Even the football coaches, before tryouts this year, were talking about how he was the one kid that showed up every day to weight training, and did everything they were doing,” Ricker said.

Because of this dedication, Luenz’s transition from soccer to football has been a smooth one. He has already kicked in one game with the JV team as of Sept. 15, and despite both ups and downs, he is finding his place on the team.

The JV squad currently stands at 0-1 as of Sept. 15, and they hope to have a successful season with the help of Luenz at the kicker spot.

Next year, Luenz plans on trying out for soccer again, but if that doesn’t work out he has football to fall back on. Throughout the transition in sports, Luenz’s thoughts on kicking have evolved.

“I certainly have a lot more respect for the kicker,” Luenz said. “It’s a lot harder than everybody thinks.”

Luenz is still in the process of transferring the skills he had on the soccer field to the football field. Kicking a football is completely different from kicking a soccer ball, and Luenz is adapting everyday.

“A lot of people think if you can play soccer, you can automatically kick a football, and you do have to learn some finer points to it, but he’s doing fine,” says Filbeck. “He’s come a long way.”  •

>>Photos by Lindsey Hartnett