Grassland HS Kicker Amanda Shepps makes a game saving ST tackle, in addition to going 3/3 on XPs & a 26 yrdr. You can check out the story here. Attended a camp at Virginia Tech, got to spend time with Fuente & Foster, hopes to become a walk-on for the Hokies. If/when she does well enough, sign her up.
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As far as I'm concerned, she can try out. It'd be great if she were good enough to make the cut.
Would love to see her at Virginia Tech regardless.
That was my line of thinking as well.
I love the last line of the article.
I hope she gets a serious shot.
I'm down for the #kickerswag revolution
Straight up if she can consistently make field goals from a reasonable distance, I'm all for it.
That was a hell of an undercut to annihilate the returner
Id be pretty concerned about her frame against D1 talent. Shit, im concerned about our guys against D1 talent. Im not trying to see someone get hurt.
Well if we have good special teams and she never has to tackle then her frame doesn't matter
If she's kicking field goals reliably out to 45 yards, I don't care if she kicks the ball and runs to the sidelines, but I doubt she would. If she is, sign her up.
I feel like taking a potential tackler off the field is an unnecessary disadvantage.
Ummm, it was a joke?
I feel like missing jokes puts me at an unnecessary disadvantage.
Fantastic recovery. Have a leg.
Yeah, because kickers are known for having imposing frames. /s
Don't let the fact that we've had some jacked kickers cloud the fact that by-and-large kickers have smaller frames.
They talk about it but I wonder what her actual measurables are. What's her range on kicks and all that. They mention that she drills a 26 yd FG but that honestly should be a chip shot for any competent D1 kicker. Not saying it's not for her but you get the point.
I think for any kicker you need to be able to have the range of at least 45 yds. I don't know what coaches look for in kickers but that's just what I think.
Not sure what the great story is though. I mean if your playing football I hope your not afraid to tackle. Let's not treat her any different than any male kicker playing the game.
The video in the linked page shows the FG and while the angle isn't great, it looks like she had the distance to make a kick in the 35-40 range at least. Obviously the coaches have a much better idea of her range from camp but if she could consistently hit from the 40+ range, that would be a feat our recent kickers have unfortunately struggled with despite their leg strength.
I hear ya. I was feeling kinda mopey & down about our program & loluva getting one on da U & needed a pick me up. So I went on one of the Hokie fan fakebook pgs & saw this post about an outstanding player from the 757 that seems very passionate about playing for us. What also stood out to me was the verbal affirmation & verification of "leadership qualities" from her HC as well as her teammates. Leadership is something we'll always need at Tech.
Definitely agree. Football is a meritocracy. If she can help the team win games then I want her on the roster.
Virginia Tech has a remarkable track record with walk-ons. If she's a legit prospect, that's great. If she's not, then I don't want a situation where we take away a walk-on spot from a potential Sam Rogers or Jack Taylor for a PR stunt.
There's no limit to how many walk-on players we can have on the team.
There's a hypothetical limit. Fuente can't make every student at Virginia Tech a walk-on player.
Yes, but taking on an extra kicker isn't going to take a walk-on spot away from a running back or a linebacker.
In the abstract that's true, however, there's an allocation in the football budget for walk-on players. Fuente (probably) has a hard set number of walk-on players he can have on the roster simply because of financial restrictions. I would be shocked if Fuente didn't max that out every year.
If she's given a walk-on spot, it means someone else isn't given that same spot.
I get that there can be financial restrictions on the number of uniforms or the number of players that travel to away games, but I don't see how a single walk-on moves the needle much at all if they don't get either of those things, and if they do get a uniform that means they're likely contributing in some way.
there is a roster limit of 105 players for offseason activities. That restriction is eliminated during the season though. (separate from the 85 scholarship limit)
Who sets that limit? Is it the NCAA, the ACC, or the school?
Lmao, love it. Not even the world's toughest jockstrap could guard against taking one directly to the fam grapes from a kicker.
There was another young woman, Lauren Luttrell, who tried out for Beamer in 2012. She made it to from fall to spring tryouts but didn't have the power to match the other candidates.
I was wondering if she was going to get mentioned. Beamer gave her a legit shot. But if I remember right, she was petering out about 35 yards.
In the late 90's our rival school had a girl linebacker. She started and was a pretty good football player.
ESPN ran a feature on a another female athlete recently that is currently a student coach as a freshman for her college team but plans to try out to kick next year, also played the secondary in high school. Oh and she is blind in one eye. Just goes to show if you have the drive and ability it might happen.
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Based on the article she seems like a real gym rat, the first girl in/last girl out type, deceptively athletic and a really cerebral player.
everything you'd expect from a coach's son, except she's the coach's daughter
So a student of the game you say? A real first one in, last time out kinda gal?
Honestly, if she did make the team, I cringe thinking about the number of cliche things ESPN's C-Team would probably say about it. Just think of how much time they spent talking about Jarrett Boykin's hands and multiply that by 1000.
I taught Ashley Martin, the first female kicker to score a point in a Div 1 game, in high school. Talked about Tech with her, but we had Shayne Graham at the time. Heckuva soccer player, and really nice kid too. And her mom was a stunner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Martin