'I just want to learn from the best': Brookings kicker Drew Johnson striving for greatness
While 140-plus of the best high school football players in the area competed in drills during the Sanford Sports Academy High School Football Combine over the weekend, the lone kicker at the event was on an island all by himself.
Brookings sophomore kicker Drew Johnson was blasting balls from a red kicking stand into the upper netting of the Sanford Fieldhouse, over and over again. He grew up playing soccer — he remembers playing since he was 3-years-old — but joined football in seventh grade and was instantly drawn to the kicker position.
“It just came natural to me and I just fell in love with it,” Johnson said.
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During the combine, Johnson focused on the wall behind the netting, more specifically a letter on the wall and visualized hitting his target.
“‘Aim small, miss small,’” Johnson thought. That’s the mindset his Sanford Academy kicking coach wanted him to adopt.
On this particular day, Johnson couldn’t miss. They used smaller-than-normal goalposts to ensure he was “missing small,” and after his initial attempt missed the mark, Johnson was successful on every other kick.
Kurtiss Riggs, Director of the Sanford Sports Football Academy, said the plan was to film Johnson going through his reps and send it to college coaches for him.
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Johnson also took part in Elite Training, the six-week program designed to prepare the players for the combine, but in the first training session, there was a slight hiccup. Johnson said the Academy initially forgot there was going to be a kicker taking part in the program, so he spent his first week training on a field largely by himself until “a random dad” approached him, saying he used to hold in college and could help him out.
But since that first week, Johnson has worked closely with Sarris, who played three seasons of college football with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and currently plays with the Sioux Falls Storm. The Elite Training essentially turned into one-on-one sessions with Sarris, where Johnson was able to pick his brain.
“He learned from the best and he's trying to transfer (that) down to me,” Johnson said.
Since working with Sarris, he’s learned the importance of staying slow, making more contact, and how to kick off the ground instead of off a one-inch block. Johnson said in a lot of ways, that kicking is similar to golf because so much of it is mental.
“You can have the strongest leg, but if you’re not mentally prepared for something, it won't click,” Johnson said.
Still only a sophomore, the Brookings kicker is hoping to attend more kicking and team camps and draw the attention of college scouts.
"I just want to learn from the best," he said.
Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brookings kicker Drew Johnson striving for greatness
