Metamorphosis of a Kicker: Swank Transformed From Soccer Stopper to Gridiron Great
By Evan Lepler

Oct. 14, 2008

Sam Swank has always had a knack for kicking, a skill that surfaced on the pee-wee soccer fields of Florida in the early `90s and flourished during his middle school years in Jacksonville Beach.

Through the completion of eighth grade, however, Swank's foot had solely toed spherical soccer balls, never before connecting with the oblong pigskin. On the verge of entering Duncan U. Fletcher High School in 2000, Swank was literally coerced by his soccer coach to give football a try. The usually stacked Fletcher roster was absent a kicker, and since the head soccer coach (a winter sport in Florida) doubled as the football offensive coordinator, Swank, then a teenage novice, was needed to embrace the craft.

"Soccer led me to football," says Swank. "I've played soccer since I was five years old. Freshman year of high school rolls around and my coach [makes] me come out and kick for the football team. The soccer coach, who just so happened to be an assistant football coach, kinda got me out there.

"And the rest is history," adds Swank.

"He had no choice," recalls a laughing Ricky Medlock, the Fletcher visionary who initiated the transformation of Swank from futbol to football. "I went to him after [8th grade soccer] season and told his parents, `he's gonna play football next year.' They were like, `What?!' And I was like, he's gonna be the starting kicker as a freshman. He'll probably get a scholarship [to college] because he has all the tools."

Having watched the future Deacon through sixth, seventh and eighth grade soccer, he clairvoyantly realized early on what all Wake Forest fans now know. Undoubtedly, Swank is a special talent.

"He was just one of those kids on the soccer field," Coach Medlock explains. "Not only could he kick the ball good, but it was his temperament. He never got flustered, never got upset. Some kids, mentally they start losing focus. That doesn't happen to Sam. He understands everything that's going on. He doesn't panic. He was like that in sixth grade.

"He came out his freshman year and lit it on fire. All-state freshman year. With a minute to go in the state playoffs, Sam had to make a 45-yard field goal. They called a timeout to freeze him. I told the head coach, `Just relax. You give Sam a chance to think about it, it's a done deal.'"

Finishing the story, Medlock echoed a familiar refrain uttered by his pupil, "The rest is history."

As the starting stopper on the high school soccer field, Swank routinely shut down the opponents' top offensive threat throughout a career that ascended Fletcher High into the state's elite. In his senior year alone, he also scored three goals from 45 yards out, illustrating his long-range precision as a harbinger of things to come. All the while, his early time in football was equally superb, earning all-conference honors three times and scoring over 200 points on the gridiron in his four years.

His arrival to Wake Forest was similarly spectacular. After redshirting his true freshman year in 2004 behind then-starter Matt Wisnosky, Swank became an All-American for the Demon Deacons, rewriting the record books during a golden age for the Old Gold and Black.

The memorable highlights are numerous, while the accomplishments have, indeed, been historic. He returned to his hometown and won a championship during the glorious 2006 campaign, taking home MVP honors in the process. He has routinely converted game-changing performances while simultaneously possessing the cool crunch-time character that helped send him to football in the first place.

Consequently, he has become far greater than a simple kicker. In the eyes of his fellow Deacons, Swank is a true teammate and the cornerstone of Wake Forest's success.

"I've always been really thankful for the people that I've played with," Swank says. "They've always treated me with respect, unlike some other teams where I hear stories [about how] their kickers just get annihilated by the guys. Our guys have always had respect for me and I for them. We've always had a good relationship going into it. They definitely like when I make field goals, that's for sure. But if I miss them, it's not that big a deal, as long as they see me in practice working to get better."

With so many wins directly impacted by Swank's sturdy right leg, it is easy to understand why Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe is among the many members of Deacon Nation who value Swank's particular presence on the field.

"He's always been a guy that takes his responsibilities very seriously," Grobe says. "When he takes the field, he understands that the team's counting on him, and he takes that very, very seriously. Anytime you're kicking the football, it's not a science. It's not something that's automatic. It's hard to do, but he handles it as well as anybody I've ever been around. And that's maturity just as a guy. He's a guy that understands that he has a very important role on our football team."

Swank has come a long way, both on and off the field, since the early days of booting field goals as a freshman for Fletcher High.

"I've grown mentally," admits Swank. "Really just having the confidence in myself on the field to do what I do during practice. It's really hard to translate the whole practice scenarios to a game-type situation because the crowd is thumping, and it's just a lot faster; it's just something else. With each year, you grow more and more as a person. Age definitely helps with being a good kicker."

The fact that Swank has grown into one of the nation's top long-range threats evokes great pride from the man who jump-started his kicking career.

"All his success is not surprising at all," Medlock says. "Good things happen to good people. He's a great kid. He deserves everything he's got."

At the postseason football banquet following the 2007 FedEx Orange Bowl, the ever modest Swank acknowledges he was shocked when he did not win the program's Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award. Later that evening, he would find out why.

After the most remarkable season in school history, Swank's teammates had a greater prize in mind for their peerless kicker. It was Athletic Director Ron Wellman who owned the honor of announcing that Swank would be receiving the ultimate distinction.

"As a sophomore, when we won the ACC Championship, he was voted the MVP," remembers Coach Grobe. "And that tells you how he's thought of by his teammates. I've been on football teams before when we weren't very successful, and a kicker/punter might be voted MVP. But that's typical when you're not playing well. You very rarely ever see a championship football team vote their kicker the MVP, but that's how much our players think of Sam Swank."