Rookie kicker aiming for state title

By Steve Silver (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008 | 3:15 p.m.

Palo Verde sophomore Garrett Dunlap is truly a lonesome kicker.

Every day at practice while his teammates run through various drills in preparation for Saturday's 4A state championship, Dunlap resigns to the vacated end of Panther Stadium and practices kicking field goals alone – over and over and over again.

“Yeah, it’s a lot like that movie, ‘The Replacements’ when the kicker would just sit around alone all of the time,” Dunlap joked. “That’s just the life of a kicker.”

Although Dunlap’s position might not be the most glamorous on a team that wins its games by an average margin of 27 points, the Fort Rucker, Ala., native is just thrilled to have a spot on the varsity roster.

After all, Dunlap had never even worn a football helmet until this year.

Dunlap grew up in a military family playing soccer and golf, but when the Army re-stationed his father, Brad, a lieutenant colonel., to Nellis Air Force Base, Dunlap decided a new school would be a perfect place to try a new sport.

“At first I really thought my mom was kidding when she told me we were moving to Vegas,” Dunlap said. “But I was going to try to be a kicker at my old school, so I decided to see if I could join the team here.”

When his parents opted to move to Summerlin, rather than live in military housing, Dunlap surprised coach Darwin Rost with a phone call.

“Here is this freshman calling me up out of the blue, and he tells me that he’s never played before, but he wants to be a kicker,” Rost said. “But you know, I was so impressed with the way he spoke to me as a young man on the phone and I told him that I didn’t care what his background was, if he could play, we would use him.”

The only problem with Dunlap’s plan to kick for one of the top teams in Nevada was that he knew nothing about kicking.

Two weeks before the start of summer training camp, Dunlap spent hours watching field goal and punting videos on YouTube and he even read a few football books, including “Football for Dummies.”

Apparently Dunlap is a skilled teacher, because whatever he taught himself worked.

Rost allowed Dunlap to kick in the varsity squad’s season opener against Reno before sending him back to junior varsity since the Panthers returned an All-Region kicker in senior Alex Bonczyk.

Yet Dunlap had not missed an extra point all season at the junior varsity level, so Rost decided to call up Dunlap when Bonczyk injured his leg prior to the Panthers' showdown with Cimarron-Memorial in the Sunset Regional semifinals on Nov. 14.

Dunlap booted five extra points that contest, but his next varsity playoff experience didn't go so well, as he missed two first-half field goals against Bishop Gorman in the Sunset Regional championship.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous,” Dunlap admitted about his missed 30-yard and 40-yard attempts. “I really didn’t have faith in myself. As a kicker you just have to kick. If you think too much, it will mess everything up.”

But some stern words from Rost at halftime of that game seemed to have struck a chord with Dunlap, who players and coaches affectionately call, ‘Bama.’ The past two weeks Dunlap has made all 12 extra point attempts and he is averaging 54 yards per kickoff.

“He’s money from the 25-yard line and in,” Rost said. “So when he missed that one right before halftime against Gorman, I told him ‘Listen, this is varsity football, if you miss another one, you won’t play again.’ I don’t think he’s had a bad kick since then.”

Dunlap, who at 5-foot-7, 125 pounds looks like a kicker, redeemed himself by making a touchdown-saving tackle during a kickoff return against Las Vegas High in the state semifinals on Saturday. He also kicked three of his seven kickoffs into the end zone for touch backs against the Wildcats.

Yet despite being a few months removed from the first time he ever kicked, Dunlap will be booting the ball in the 4A state championship against Reno's McQueen High and its highly touted kicker, Anthony Martinez.

“I told all my friends back home and they wouldn’t believe me,” Dunlap said. “I know it’s the championship and everything, but trust me, if I just get to kick extra points and kickoffs, that is fine by me.”

Steve Silver can be reached at 948-7822 or steve.silver@lasvegassun.com.