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Ontario high schooler kicks 53-yard field goal; not knowing if it’s a record is very Canadian
On some level, it's kind of reassuring there is still a level of sport where an extraordinary feat can be underhyped.
Down south of the border, if a high school football player connected on a field goal from a range that might vex a pro placekicker — inevitably the ones for your favourite team — there would be way to verify whether it was a league or provincial record. That is not the case down in southwestern Ontario's Haldimand-Norfolk high school league, an association of teams south of the Hamilton area. During the league's championship game, 18-year-old kicker/student council president Caleb Girard bisected the uprights from 53 yards away for the Waterford Wolves.
That is one yard longer than the deepest field goal converted during the Canadian Interuniversity Sport, where only two kickers have made a 50-yarder. This being Canada, no one is sure what record Girard set. Some asking around revealed that Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Shaun Suisham, who hails from Wallaceburg, Ont., made a 58-yard try during a 1999 high school game.
Is it better to not know? Perhaps.
From Daniel Pearce:
Nobody can say for sure because the provincial high school athletic association doesn’t keep formal records on individual achievements in football.
But consider this: the third longest field goal in the history of the CFL is 59 yards.
Girard, of the Waterford Wolves, was a mere six yards behind that. In other words, he achieved something normally reserved for the very best professionals in the game.
“If it’s not a record, it’s pretty darn close,” Peter Morris, who is in charge of football for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, said when told of Girard’s kick. (bisected the uprights from 53 yards away for the Waterford Wolves)
Picture any high school coach whose team ever lost a big game 7-6 or 14-13 thanks to a botched convert weeping bitter tears. The fact there is no record of the longest successful placekick on an Ontario high school gridiron speaks to the Canadian predilection for understatement. It's like, he made it, move on, nothing to see here, eh. Even the Reformer's commenters seemed to think it wasn't worth a fuss since Girard was kicking with the wind, even though he had to adjust for a cross-gust to curl the ball between the uprights. Football isn't track and field; accomplishments aren't tossed out for being wind-assisted.
Girard helped spur Waterford, coached by former McGill University all-Canadian offensive lineman Jim Merrick, to a 41-28 victory. All in all, it's a noteworthy feat of formidable foot for the converted soccer player, as Pearce notes:
He came to the game as an accomplished soccer player (he captained the Waterford high school soccer team to a third-place finish at he provincial finals in 2011) and with a strong work ethic.
Girard spent hours over the summer practising by himself at the Waterford football field. He did stretches to extend his “range of motion” and punted tennis balls to sharpen his accuracy. “It makes it more precise,” he explained. “If you kick a tennis ball and it goes straight, you know you are doing well.”
Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.
