Green Valley kid getting his kicks

By Ron Kantowski · September 22, 2008 · 10:52 PM

NOW:

One of my pet peeves is college football teams who are reluctant or downright refuse to "waste" a scholarship on a kicker, considering how crucial they are to a team's success.

Last Friday, I saw a kid UNLV -- or BYU, for that matter -- should keep its eye on. His name is Nolan Kohorst, No. 6 on the Green Valley High Gators.

He's six feet tall and weighs just 160 pounds but his right leg appears to be spring-loaded, like the kicker in those old electric football games. I saw him kick a 35-yard field goal against Foothill that, although slightly wind-aided, would have been good from 55 yards.

Kohorst, whose dad, Keith, was an offensive lineman for UNLV in the early 1980s, is only a junior. His kicking leg is only going to get stronger.

As a sophomore last year, he made 10 of 14 field goals -- remarkable for a high school kicker -- with a long of 42 yards. He missed just one of his 22 PAT kicks.

Kohorst is the latest protege of Daren Libonati, the director of the Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium, who used to kick field goals for the Rebels. And even that hasn't messed him up.

I'm only joking. Libonati was a pretty good kicker and has helped eight local kickers get college scholarships by tutoring them in his free time.

Kohorst should make it nine.

THEN:

Former NFL great Alex Karras, on his disdain for field goal kickers in general, and teammate Garo Yepremian in particular: "When they'd kick a field goal, they'd jump up and down and say 'I kick a touchdown! I kick a touchdown.' "