Getting a leg up: Suwannee kicker highlights differences in recruiting for kicking specialists

LIVE OAK, Fla. (WCTV) - Consider if you will, the kicker: Always the first player to touch the ball, often the leading scorer in a program’s history books, yet somehow almost always the last to get a call about a scholarship.

Such is the case for Braxtyn Green, the sophomore who puts toe to leather at Suwannee High School.

“They say if you can get in touch with anybody on their staff, that’s a big deal,” Green explained.

Like many other kickers and punters dreaming of one day signing a letter of intent, Green has started hitting the camp circuit to showcase his leg, leaning on kicker-specific services like Kicking World rather than the traditional Rivals and 247Sports camps.

“You don’t hear of many that show up just to watch the kicker at practice, so the camps have been huge,” said Glen Green, Braxtyn’s dad and a coach for SHS. “We started out, he just wanted to go to camp to learn some more drills and it’s led to bigger things.”

Green was a breakout hit at the last Kicking World National Showcase in Austin, Texas, finishing top 25 in every category out of almost 90 invited and finishing fourth overall in the 2023 class.

“Braxtyn had super impressive performances at our Atlanta and Orlando kicking camps this summer, winning the younger group field goal competitions thus earning his National Showcase invite,” said Coach Brent Grablachoff who owns Kicking World. “I expect big things from him through high school and beyond.”

Still, even with such accolades, kickers have to be proactive in finding a college home.

“It’s a whole new world, really, of looking at all of that and making sure we have him linked in with the right people and people who support them, support kickers and are out to really help them,” added Traci Green, Braxtyn’s mother.

So on Wednesday, when you’re all excited about the newest skill players and trench monsters to sign on the dotted line for your team, consider the kicker.

“The kicker can win or lose the game,” Green said. “Somebody can drop a pass, but if the kicker misses the game-winner, he lost the game.”

Or don’t, at your own peril.

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