Boerne's 'freak of nature'
Lawrence is 'just a kicker,' but he might just be the area's best player
Web Posted: 08/21/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Jeff McDonald
Express-News Staff Writer
BOERNE — The teenager who may be the best high school football player in the San Antonio area has never scored a touchdown.
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Express-News 2005 high school football preview
Boerne kicker might just be area's best player
Boerne kicker Hunter Lawrence at a glance
He's never caught a pass or made a pancake block. He only makes a tackle if it is absolutely necessary.
The best high school football player in the area could, ostensibly, be confused with the best high school football waterboy in the area — he is 5-foot-11, weighs 165 pounds and doesn't look capable of scaring a fly, much less opposing coaches.
Meet Boerne's Hunter Lawrence, who very well may be the best high school football player in the area. Of course, he doesn't think of himself as such.
"That's kind of weird to say," Lawrence said. "I'm just a kicker."
Just a kicker?
Lawrence boasts a howitzer leg and a laser beam's accuracy. He can hit field goals from as far out as 50 yards. From less than 50, it's almost a gimme.
Almost all his kickoffs sail out of the end zone as if being nudged by the wind. Even when they aren't.
He hit a state-record 20 field goals last year, with a longest of 48 yards. He scored 93 points. In the offseason, he became only the second high school place-kicker (non-punter) to earn a scholarship offer from Texas in Mack Brown's seven seasons as coach there.
He is as reliable as an old hunting dog, as automatic as a sunrise — and possibly the only person in Boerne who thinks of himself as "just a kicker."
"He's a freak of nature," said Pete Padilla, Boerne's special-teams coach.
Added head coach Tommy Bludau: "Nothing's for sure in this world. But Hunter is as close as they come."
Lawrence also alters game plans, both offensive and defensive. How many other players in San Antonio can say that?
With Lawrence the Leg warming up, opposing coaches have to try everything to keep the Greyhounds outside the 40-yard line.
"Otherwise, they're going to get a field-goal attempt out of it," said Harlandale coach Isaac Martinez, who watched Lawrence calmly bury kicks from 48 and 42 yards to help beat his team in the playoffs last year. "They're getting three points, where most teams are punting."
By racking up touchbacks on kickoffs, Lawrence also puts pressure on opposing offenses. Because of him, Boerne almost always will win the all-important field-position battle.
"You know you're always going to be starting from the 20-yard line, no matter how hard the wind is blowing," Alamo Heights coach Don Byrd said. "That's a huge weapon."
Lawrence's path to place-kicking stardom began in familiar fashion — on the soccer fields of his hometown.
He began playing the other football before he was old enough to enroll in kindergarten. In the sixth grade, he decided it was time to add another sport to his repertoire.
He tried out for kicker on a youth football team and — surprise — found out he was good at it. Six years later, he had blossomed into one of the best kickers in state history.
"At the end of (last) year, I started adding up all my points," Lawrence said. "It added up faster than I thought. Everybody was shocked."
The shock didn't quite wear off over the summer, which Lawrence spent traveling to — and often dominating — kicking camps across the nation.
He won the kickoff contest at one in California, knocking his kicks on average 7 to 8 yards deep in the end zone.
At another camp in San Antonio, Lawrence outkicked the event's host.
Former Dallas Cowboys kicker Chris Boniol, it seems, couldn't quite keep up with the wunderkind from Boerne.
It all leads Padilla to one self-evident conclusion.
"From the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains," Padilla said, "he's probably the best kicker around."
But could Lawrence be the best player — period — in the San Antonio area?
There will always be arguments. There will always be debate. But Lawrence can make a pretty stiff case.
Even if he is just a kicker.
