In the clutch, Brennan Allen scores

Posted Dec 18, 2009 by Eddie Daniels

Updated Dec 18, 2009 at 06:21 PM

Pasco senior kicker Brennan Allen had never heard of Chris Sailer Kicking before. But after Pirates coach Tom McHugh received a pamphlet in the mail, Allen was intrigued.

After researching the camp, Allen knew the camp, which was held in Atlanta, would be well worth his time.

“All of the kickers have already committed, the big kickers in the nation. They’ve gone to this camp for multiple years,” Allen said. “The No. 1 kicker in the nation has gone to this guy’s camps for four years.

“I realized they are going to this, so I figured if I want to be a top-notch kicker and go to a Division I school and play college ball then I need to be getting noticed by this guy.”

The program boasts alumni who are kicking for Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Stanford and Southern California to name a few.

During the trip to Georgia on Dec. 5, Allen put his name right up there with some of the best in the region, if not the country, by winning the competition. Although it didn’t start off as promising, Allen found himself in the finals, dueling with another kicker.

Making this event that much more interesting is that morning, the temperature dropped to 24 degrees, warming up to the 30s by the time the roughly 55 kickers, punters and long snappers began stretching.

During warm ups, Allen was accurate and had plenty of distance, but when the competition began, things didn’t go as planned at first. After lunch the kickers participated in two field goal, one punt and one kickoff exhibition.

In the first kicking event, they had to make field goals of 40 and 45 yards. If you make both, you have to hit a 51 yarder. He missed his first kick and then drilled the 45 yarder. So he didn’t win that.

The second competition was to start at the 35 yard line and if you make it, back up five yards. He missed his first kick again and didn’t win that one.

The kickoff competition was for the furthest distance and best hang time. The kickers with the furthest distance and the kicker with the longest hang time would face each other.

Allen won the furthest kick and another kid had the best hang time. The two then fought it out for the furthest and longest hanging kick. Allen won that and then faced another kid in the punting event.

He boomed a 46 yard punt with 4.6 second hang time, which gave him the lead for a while. Eventually, he kicked a 45-yard field goal and then a 51 yarder to win the competition outright.

“When it came down to it, I was actually pretty clutch with the last two kicks,” Allen said.

Although there are no offers on the table thus far, Allen has gotten feelers from Ohio University, Iowa Western Community College and N.C. State.