CL Football: A Special Player for the Special Teams

The ReSporter will be running articles through the month of May on athletes from each sport from two

Eduardo Covarrubias on a run to 100 yards during first quarter of Boerne game

perspectives.

1. The all-time student athlete in that sport from a performance stand point. Do note that this would be just an opinion from the ReSporter Staff.

2. A spotlight player that The ReSporter thinks will be the athlete to watch as this next year will unfold.

This series will start with Fall Sports.

Please also note that The ReSporter does not have an opportunity to see every sport and will not have an article if that is the case.

Canyon Lake’s Special Teams have not been a humongous part of this school’s seasons as of yet.

There has been a good play here and there, but for the most part, the Hawks would not have a lot of medals to show for this part of their game.

Graduating senior Doug Hubnik certainly has had a good showing with a returned kick-off for a touchdown during the 2011 season against Luling.

Then you have Gene Williams during the 2009 season when he amassed 174 yards in kick-off returns in a game with Llano.

That is still far and away the best showing ever in CL’s history.

Richard Howell had one returned punt 36 yards for a touchdown in a game with La Vernia during the 2010 season. That touchdown was scored with a little over a minute in the third quarter giving the Hawks enough breathing room for a 24-19 win.

For the most part a punt return here or there has not put enough wood on a fire to keep it going through the night. Those memories just haven’t happened enough or given the– Wow– in them to put those returns to the forefront for consideration.

Canyon Lake has had some decent kickers and the Hawks just had Jake Robinson, who was a recipient of having enough touchdowns scored during that 2011 season to move his name up to the top of that leader chart.

Here are the kickers with their point after kicks as well as field goals.

name               epa  epm       fga  fgm     total pts
Jake Robinson      67   71        5    6          82
Juan Martinez      29   33        4    6          41
Jacob Crabb        34   38        0    0          34

epa: extra points attempted
epm: extra points made
fga: field goals attempted
fgm: field goals made

Punting is a part of the special teams that you hate to see happen, but know if it is done well then you can pin your opposition further from pay dirt.

name                 punts       ave.
Branson Belcher      33          40.5
Matt Magness         16          36.4
Matt Magness         42          37.5
Eric Nelson          40          33.7
Ross Wagliardo        1           3.0

Branson Belcher has the best punt average for Canyon Lake. Belcher averaged 40.5 yards per punt last season.

Matt Magness had the honor of punting for two years and as you can see from his number of punts during that 8-2 year he was not called upon that often.

Eric Nelson has been mentioned on each of these editions of recapping your Hawks through the short history of games.

You might get the feeling that this young man did not get much rest when a game started in earnest. He did have the best per game punt average in his game with Ingram when he finished with a 51 yard average.

Ross Wagilardo gets a lot of ribbing from his teammates for his 3 yard punt. It was a result of a snap going over his head on a fourth down play and he found himself on his own one or two yard line when he looked up and saw a defense coming in on him like a surfer in Hawaii during high tide.

Suffice to say, Wagliardo did save his rushing totals by getting a punt off, but that punt average will certainly be around for a long time.

The ReSporter will go with Jake Robinson as the Special Teams best for Canyon Lake.

Extra points are important and Robinson was true with a better percentage and he also had a great percentage with his field goals. Having doubled the number of points scored over Juan Martinez also helps in making this decision.

If Martinez would of made his last field goal try in his game with Somerset, then all bets would be off.

Another aspect was Robinson’s kick-offs being consistently having the opposition receiving the ball deep enough for a chance to wrap a returner up without much yardage.

The Spotlight for this coming year’s Hawk Special Team recipient is certainly a tough player to peg.

If The ReSporter knew if Gordon McCleary was going to make Varsity, then that would be our pick simply by watching him last year before his injury during his freshman year and also while he was playing as an 8th Grader..

This young man can kick the ball further than any player The ReSporter has seen play in a Hawk uniform up this point. And yes, he will be a Sophomore this next go round.

Since the Hawks graduated a punter with a 40 yard average and a kicker that was just picked as the best in CL’s history, then this ReSporter will be mum on trying to give credence on any of the players at this junction.

In other words, The ReSporter is going to wimp out and let the players decide on who might want to take this mantle and play themselves onto a starting spot on one of the many positions that will be open for Special Teams.

Time will tell who that Special Player will be, can hardly wait to see how it will unfold.