Just for kicks

Monday, September 28, 1998

Just for kicks

KICKER: All-American

kicker and punter Chris Sailer's career in football began with his love for soccer

By Rocky Salmon

Daily Bruin Staff

He is the player who goes unnoticed unless he does something wrong.

He is the player who can singlehandedly determine who wins the game.

He is the player who stumbled onto football through his love for soccer.

Chris Sailer was a highly touted soccer player at Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks. Sailer lettered three years in soccer gaining such accolades as League MVP, All-California Interscholastic Federation, State Player of the Year in 1994 and All-American.

He was courted by professional soccer clubs in Europe and offered scholarships all across the country to play soccer.

In the end UCLA won out.

But Sailer did not become a Bruin soccer player. He now is one of the premiere placekickers and punters in the nation. Through a slight kick in life Sailer was propelled towards America's version of soccer.

His life was redirected in P.E. class, during a game of football.

Sailer kicked the football and one of the teachers happened to be a coach on the Notre Dame High squad and immediately told head coach, Kevin Rooney, about the student in P.E. class who boomed his first kick into the end zone.

Rooney approached Sailer after the football season and set up a demonstration.

"Sailer actually played basketball his first year at Notre Dame not soccer but became highly touted," Sailer's former coach said.

"After his freshman year we asked him to come out and kick one for us. His first time off the tee he put it in the endzone.

"We then had to arrange it so he could kick for football and soccer clubs. He would play Friday nights then Saturday was for soccer."

In his first year kicking Sailer was an average five for twelve with a 39.4 punting average. But his determination and natural ability would eventually rise to the surface.

In his senior year, Sailer had a break-out performance, helping his team to a 14-0 record and a Division III championship title.

That year Sailor would also walk away with honors from USA Today's first team, Blue Chips Illustrated's first team dream squad and Valley Player of the Year by the Los Angeles Daily News as he hit 22 field goals setting a state mark, while nailing three over 50 yards.

"His last year was a wake-up call to the nation," Rooney said. "He just had the natural ability. He never has really been coached because we only knew what we saw in film and read in books, so we let him kick it anyway he wanted to. What he does is just natural ability, something we could not teach."

This ability prompted many colleges to court Sailer for both his football and soccer abilities. But his heart still hung onto soccer and that is why he became a Bruin.

"The coaching staff said I could play both," the senior communications student said.

"I had been playing soccer since I was five and grew up with parents from Germany who knew little about football. They thought football was people running around hitting each other but let me play because I told them that I would not get hurt. They were not into it until my second year of high school ball.

"But I looked at the situation and decided that I could not play both soccer and football and since football was paying for my degree I stuck with football."

The incredible stress that would have been placed on Sailer from playing two sports and flying cross country disappeared when he accepted that he would be a kicker, not a soccer player, at UCLA.

But Sailer would not start out as the place kicker because of All-American Bjorn Merten, rather, he began as a punter. In his first year punting Sailer averaged 42.2 yards per kick, including an 81-yard kick versus Washington State.

Two years later Sailer became UCLA's prime kicker, handling kick-offs, field goals and punts, the first to do so since Frank Corral in 1977. But Sailer would continue undaunted, as he was selected second-team All American by the Associated Press and was a finalist for the Lou Groza place-kicking award.

Sailer attributed his ability to handle all three jobs on the confidence he built up while punting for two years.

"Not place kicking the first two years gave me confidence," he said. "While punting I learned about the pressure and the spotlight which slowly built me up."

Sailer's first ever field goal attempt in college would be crucial but would be a misfire against Washington State last year. He pushed a 46 yarder wide right, and in the end UCLA would end up losing by three as Jermaine Lewis was stopped short of a touchdown with the time winding down.

But Sailer is not one to relive the past as the rest of the season he would put together an amazing streak of 15 consecutive field goals before faltering at Cal.

In a game where interceptions, spin moves and diving touchdown catches are what makes the highlight reels, Sailer realizes that his job is to not push for fame rather to help the team.

Even his own coach, Bob Toledo, said that he hopes Sailer's job is not important, echoing the words of Sailer. Because if Sailer does not have to kick field goals it means the offense is scoring touchdowns.

But Sailer's job is much more then field goals. Sailer is the one who is called on to play the field position game. He has to punt the ball and try to pin the ball inside the 10, he has to kick the ball off into the end zone.

In a game where field position almost dictates the scores, it is Sailer who must step up and put the UCLA offense in position to win.

"I do not feel under appreciated," Sailer said. "If anything I think I'm over-appreciated but kicking is a hard thing to do. It takes a lot of practice. You can grab all the players on the field and probably 80 percent can throw the football reasonably well, but if you tell them to kick the ball only a handful could kick it without looking like a child.

"If you do one thing wrong in kicking then the kick will not go where you want it to. I have to kick three or four days a week year round to keep sharp. It may look easy but I encourage people to go out and try it themselves then judge."

If all things go according to plan then Sailer may only be relegated to point-after attempts. But it would be sweet justice if, in the season after the World Cup, a stand-out soccer player-turned-football player decides the Fiesta Bowl.

BAHMAN FARAHDEL/Daily Bruin

Senior Chris Sailer is the prime kicker for the Bruins and handles kick-offs, field goals and punts.

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