ROCKINGHAM — Trevor Moss and Mack West spent the weekend trying to get a leg up on their competition, as the two rising junior football players spent time at kicking camps outside of North Carolina.
Moss, the Richmond Senior High School football team’s placekicker and go-to field goal kicker last season, and West, who has has fulfilled the kicking responsibilities on the junior varsity team the past two seasons, competed against some of the east coast’s top competition in preparation for the upcoming season.
Heading west to Knoxville, Tenn., Moss participated in a specialists camp at the University of Tennessee on Friday. West traveled south to the University of Georgia on Saturday, Richmond head coach Bryan Till’s alma mater, and capped his weekend with another outing at Furman University in Greenville, S.C.
All three camps were open to any kickers interested in attending, and the two Raiders took full advantage of spending their early summer on the field.
“The biggest thing a lot of folks won’t see is how hard these two young men work,” Till said of Moss and West. “I have even heard our other position players comment ‘we have the hardest working kickers in the state.’
“The other thing that is impressive is how they work together to try and compete but make each other better,” he added. “They are both very talented but work really well together in spite of the competition.”
The pair of Raiders don’t carry the flashy roles of skill position players, but both have come in clutch for the Raiders the past couple of seasons. For varsity last year, Moss used his powerful left foot to record 23 touchbacks on his 80 kickoff attempts. He also drilled 80 percent of his PATs and made four field goals.
West helped the JV Raiders continue their undefeated streak which saw the team win its second consecutive Sandhills Athletic Conference title. He served the role as the kickoff guy, the team’s punter, as well as the PAT kicker.
The duo also trains together at Dan Orner Kicking and Punting, a Charlotte-based facility that trains high school special teams players. Orner played his college ball at the University of North Carolina before playing in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings.
At UT, Moss was among roughly 70 kickers from across the country, all of whom were there to work on fundamentals as well as compete against each other.
“I participated in the kickoff, field goal and punt drills,” Moss explained. “There were a lot of really good kickers there, I think I did really well. I was pleased with myself.”
Moss noted in each of the competitions, the “biggest ball”, or farthest kick, determined the winner. In the kickoff drill, he booted a ball 63 yards on the fly, but said a warm-up kick sailed 67 yards. He added that the objective of the field goal competition was more accuracy than distance, saying he “drilled most” of his kicks, including a couple of 45-yarders.
“My biggest takeaway was competing with some of the best guys in the country,” Moss explained. “There were a lot of college coaches there to scout us, so that was cool. I’m hoping this camp (and others) will help me help the Raiders to a state championship this season.”
In Athens, Ga., West was one of over 150 kickers in attendance at UGA, and added that the group was much smaller at Furman. He explained that he focused only on punting, and that both of his experiences were almost purely fundamentals based.
With the Bulldogs, West finished the one-day camp as one of the top seven punters, which qualified him for the final competition. Ahead of the finals, West took five snaps in a row, explaining that many camps don’t do it that way, which makes it much tougher.
In the finals, he kicked two rounds of three punts each, averaging 39.2 yards from the line of scrimmage (which is roughly 10 yards shorter than from where he kicks the ball). His longest punt on the fly was 41 yards.
“I definitely learned a lot going to these camps,” West said. “I really focused on my form and the right way to drop the ball and how my arm should be. Now I just need to make it a habit when I kick in practice and during games.
“I’m just excited to get out there and practice,” he added. “My plans are to work a lot this summer. We all want to get past the third round of the playoffs this season.”
Both agreed that part of their responsibility is to help the Raiders win any way possible, but each explained the importance of bringing a brighter “spotlight to what kickers do” on Friday nights.
Up next for Moss and West will be a kicking camp at North Carolina State University this Saturday, and Moss will head to Notre Dame University on Monday.
West will visit Coastal Carolina University and Elon University later this month, and Moss’ biggest event this summer will be the Chris Sailer Kicking Underclassmen Invitational in Los Angeles July 18-19.
“It’s special to see them excel at large camps with tons of other kids,” Till said. “We are really blessed to have such talented kids on our team. The biggest benefit we will see from them attending these camps is hopefully they get more and more comfortable performing in front of lots of people they don’t know.
“It’s great when any position, but especially a kicker, can get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It can be lonely out there,” he closed.
