Taking a punt

By Lachlan Ellis

A local man has won a full college scholarship in the USA, playing American football for the college team as a punter.

21-year-old Jack Burgess grew up playing Aussie rules for Bacchus Marsh, but switched codes to American football last year – and Weber State University in Utah has picked him up to play for their team, the Weber State Wildcats.

Mr Burgess said he’d had an interest in American football for years, but it wasn’t until he heard about a program called Prokick that he realised he could make it at college level.

“I found out about the Prokick program, they were set up by two guys called Nathan Chapman and John Smith. It’s pretty much an academy-type program where they train you up and teach you the fundamentals of American football punting…there’s a lot of spiral-type kicks that they kick a lot more than we do [in Aussie rules],” he told the Moorabool News.

“The colleges come to Prokick with a sort of criteria they want filled, what they want out of a punter. Prokick assess that and match people in the program to those criteria.”

The day he accepted the offer of a full scholarship playing with Weber State’s football team was “hectic”, he said.

“Nathan Chapman messaged me and said, ‘Hey mate, are you free now?’. He told me that the head coach at Weber State wanted to chat, I had a 15-minute chat with the coach, and he offered me the scholarship right there and then.

“It was a bit out of nowhere, usually guys have a bit of time to prepare for a call or think things over, they might talk with the coach ten times before they get an offer – but mine was pretty instant, it was kind of 0 to 100.”

Mr Burgess said he was on the way to breakfast when he got the call.

“I was about to leave with mum and my sister. I told them to go without me and I’d see them in a bit…when I got to the café I told them, they were very emotional, very happy. Mum started crying her eyes out, it was probably a sight to be seen in the café.”

Jack’s mum, Maria, said that while it was daunting having her son decide to move across the other side of the world, it would be an exciting journey for him.

To read the full story – Simply click on the following link

https://issuu.com/themooraboolnews/docs/mn_2022-03-01/3

in the 1 March 2022 edition
OR
pick up a paper around your town.