Nick Garrido blasts his way to victory in the 1st. Annual Kick It Colonial vs Schuylkill League Specialist Contest at Rotary Field ! @KickItJZ @nickgarrido_15 @NDGP_FOOTBALL

Tagged under: District 11, News

Daniel Reed | June 30, 2021

Nick Garrido blasts his way to victory in the 1st. Annual Kick It Colonial vs Schuylkill League Specialist Contest at Rotary Field !

Kick It® is a an organization that is committed to developing football specialist to perform at the highest levels of competition. Attendees receive individual and group coaching in kicking, punting and snapping. The program offers year round skill development, strength training, mental and physical preparation to perform weekly during the season, offseason training and college recruiting services. Over several years, John Zima, owner-operator of Kick It® has been working with Berks and Lehigh County high school players, Collegiate and Arena players. John has produced Berks County All State Kicker, All County punters, Lehigh County High School State Championship Team kicker and several awarded kickers and punters. He has worked with Hunter Rubright at Wilson, Matt Hook at Fleetwood, Will Wagner at Conrad Weiser, Jonah Bowman at Wyomissing. For more information about the Kick It organization, check out their website at:

http://www.kickitjz.com/

On Sunday, June 27th, at Rotary Field in Schuylkill Haven, Pa, 8 kickers and punters from around the two leagues took to the field to compete in the 1st. Annual Kick It Colonial vs Schuylkill League Specialist Contest. The contest consisted of 3 events, kicking(extra point, and field goals), punting, and kickoffs.

Event 1: KICKING – Players start by kicking an extra point, then they would have to kick 20 and 30 yard field goals from both left and right hash marks, once they were completed, the ball would be spotted at the 35, 40, 43, 45, and so on from center. Once a player misses two kicks, they were eliminated from the event. All players moved on to the 20 yard field goal attempts with 3 players missing, one player unfortunately, Travis Benson from Jim Thorpe, who is strictly a punter, was eliminated. The next kick was from the 30, and 1 player, North Schuylkill’s Gavin Mentzer missed again and was eliminated as well as two others in Jacob Seibert from NDGP, and Gabriel Cruz from Wyomissing. That left us with just 4 kickers remaining in this event, now at the 35 yard dead center. Three players made their kicks with one missing, that was Michael Willbillich from Palisades. Still all four competitors moved on to the 40 yard field goal try. Once again, Michael would miss and be eliminated setting up a three player kick off between Nick, Ayden Scharper from Southern Lehigh, and Jacob Christopher from Saucon Valley. This time the ball would be spotted at the 43, both Nick and Ayden drilled their attempts, while Jacob would miss his and be eliminated. Nick was the only kicker that didn’t miss until there were only two competitors left in the event. The ball, now at the 45. Unfortunately, both kickers just missed their kick by slight margins, with Nick slicing it just wide right, and Ayden missing just short, bouncing it off the top of the soccer goal, up onto the crossbar. Nick was decided event winner due to the fact that, this was Ayden’s second miss to Nick’s first.

Event 2: PUNTING – Punting score was calculated with a formula that included distance and hangtime from a total of 5 punts per player that would then tally up a total average score.  Once again, Nick Garrido, as well as Travis Benson from Jim Thorpe would put on a clinic. Nick would eventually win the event by a close margin over Travis 64.35 to 63.37. No other competitors in this event scored over 60.

Event 3: Kick-Off – Kickoffs were done from end zone and measured in distance, and hangtime. Each player would get five attempts, which would again be tallied up for a total average score. Nick had the two farthest kicks of the competitors at 68 and 65 yards, with hangtimes of 3.78, and 3.76 but that wouldn’t be enough to win this event as Jacob Christopher, of Saucon Valley would eventually take that honor with a total average score of 78.20. In a close second was Ayden, scoring an average of 77.60 and Nick rounding out the top 3 with a total average of 76.29.

At the end of day, it was the overall consistency that would wind up being the deciding factor to Nick Garrido’s win, in two of the three events, and the overall win. To say the least as of right now, and of the players that came to the contest, the Colonial League definitely has some very talented kicking specialists. Everyone at the contest had a great time and finished the event even with the scorching temperatures on the field to which you could literally see the heat haze coming off the turf before the competition began. After the contest, Owner and Operator of Kick It mentioned that he plans to make this an annual contest, rotating between different venues between the two leagues each year, for example, next year, being held somewhere within the Colonial League, and hopes that as the years come, will bring more attention to the contest, and more players from all league teams. This 1st. Annual Kick It Colonial vs Schuylkill League Specialist Contest was sponsored by: St. Luke’s Orthopedic Care, Hidden River Credit Union, and Christina Hale “Judge”.

Video Highlights from the Day… Open in YouTube for Full Size view

Official Contest Results:

OVERALL SCORE:
1. Nick Garrido-Notre Dame Green Pond – 462
2. Ayden Scharper-Southern Lehigh HS – 413
3. Jacob Christopher-Saucon Valley HS – 362
4. Michael Wallbillich-Palisades – 243
5. Gavin Mentzer-North Schuylkill – 175
6. Gabriel Cruz-Wyomissing – 164
7. Jacob Seibert-Notre Dame Green Pond – 163
8. Travis Benson-Jim Thorpe – 121

Photos:

Kick It would like to also mention that their next contest will be on July 11th at 1pm.-3pm at BASD Stadium, pitting the EPC(Eastern Pennsylvania Conference) vs the Colonial League. Welcoming all rising 9th thru 12th grade specialists throughout the EPC, and Colonial League.

FULL GALLERY HERE: https://pafootballnews.smugmug.com/1st-Annual-KICK-IT-Colonial-vs-S

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