Kicking Is His Game: Palisades High Senior Ethan Erickson Stays Cool Under Pressure

When the game is on the line, Ethan Erickson wants the ball on his foot.

Palisades High head football coach Tim Hyde likes his team’s chances in that scenario as well, because he knows his senior lefty is perhaps the best kicker at his position in the City Section.

“Ethan is a luxury at this level,” Hyde said. “He’s got the leg, he’s got the academics and he’s going to kick somewhere in college. He’s a poster child for developing your skill and mastering it.”

Erickson was ranked among the top prep kickers in the nation before suffering a stress reaction in the L4 vertebra in his spine a few weeks after the season ended in mid-November – an injury that kept him off the field for six months.

“At first I wasn’t sure what was wrong so I tried kicking through it, taking a break and trying again, but it didn’t get any better,” Erickson said. “Finally, I got a bunch of x-rays and in late February I found out what the problem was. I went to physical therapy two days a week, did pilates once or twice a week and yoga to maintain my flexibility.”

Erickson started kicking again in early June and has since improved his accuracy and distance. A key ingredient for all successful kickers is self-confidence and Erickson has that in spades.

“I love the pressure, in fact I embrace it,” Erickson said after practice last Thursday. “Our biggest game last year was at Harvard-Westlake. There were five or six thousand people there and I made a 43-yard field goal, which is my career long. I can’t just talk the talk, I want to walk the walk.”

A prime example of Erickson’s fearlessness – and Hyde’s confidence in him – was the final play of the Dolphins’ 36-35 loss at Fairfax when he tried a 57-yard field goal that would have split the uprights but fell two yards short.

Erickson was 35 of 37 on extra points and made six of 12 field goal attempts last season, including two in the Dolphins’ playoff game at Garfield – not bad for a kid who took up the sport only after failing to make the soccer team his freshman year.

“I thought I had the leg to make the soccer team, but it all worked out for the best,” Erickson said. “One day my P.E. coach Perry Jones, who also happened to be the football coach, saw me kicking it 40 yards barefooted and told me to join the team.”

Although the kicking game is sometimes under-emphasized in high school, Hyde knows a well-placed punt, deep kickoff or clutch field goal can impact a game as much as a touchdown pass or an interception.

“If you make the other team go the length of the field, you’re not going to give up as many points,” Hyde said. “The best thing about Ethan is that you know he’s going to put the ball in the end zone. He can change field position in an instant.”

The Dolphins held almost every opponent under its scoring average last season and Erickson’s booming kickoffs were a major reason why. His powerful left leg produced 38 touchbacks on 51 kickoffs in 10 regular season games.

“My consistency on kickoffs is my strength,” said Erickson, who walks to campus in 10 minutes from his home in the Alphabet Streets. “I’m pretty sure I’ll put 90 to 95 percent of them in the end zone. I hit them all 60-plus yards and they stay in the air about four seconds. Those that might not make it will probably be because I’ll have a strong wind in my face, but I’ll still try to get it down there.”

Leg strength has never been a problem for Erickson, who nearly kicked the ball out of the end zone on his very first kickoff as a sophomore on junior varsity. Hyde took over the program last year and nurtured Erickson’s rise to the top five nationally in both kicking and punting – a position he hopes to return to this season.

“I was one of the best in the country at one point and I’m still one of the most highly-regarded kickers in the state,” he said. “I’m definitely striving to get to that No. 1 spot. I definitely have the leg to do it, I just have to show it.”

Erickson is also the Dolphins’ punter and will be asked to get the Dolphins out of trouble or pin the other team deep. He may be blessed with natural ability, but he hones his skills, having attended eight Chris Sailer Kicking camps since the end of his sophomore year.

“I was really raw at first, but I’ve really worked hard on my punting with my instructor Aaron Perez,” h e said. “I wasn’t consistent but he taught me to do every kick the same and shaped me into an elite player. In a way, punting is more fun and when your spiral is prettier than a quarterback’s spiral you make people drop their jaws.”

Although distance is his priority, Erickson is also working on getting rid of the ball faster, reducing the risk of it being blocked.

“I’m trying to punt it further rather than higher because blocks won’t be as well-maintained here as they are in college or the pros,” he said. “My goal is 35-plus yards from the line of scrimmage with a nice spiral and a hang time of 4.2 to 4.5 seconds. That’s my goal.”

Erickson has gained 12 pounds since last season and believes that extra weight behind the ball is helping him drive it farther.

“If he had one weakness last  season it was his punting,” Hyde said. “He’s really improved in that area and now it’s a strength.”

His grandfather played quarterback at UC Berkeley, but Erickson’s first love was soccer, which he began playing when he was 4 or 5. He switched from AYSO to the Pacific Coast Soccer Club when he was 12, playing center or left midfield and taking all of the free kicks for the program’s Silver Elite squad.

Erickson went to Village School and Paul Revere Middle School before Pali High and has two sisters – Jenny (who attends the University of Michigan), and Rachel, a sophomore at Archer School for Girls in Brentwood. His father Brad played high school football in Kingsburg (near Fresno) and is now an Executive Director at UCLA and his mother Julie is an artist and therapist.

“I’ve met a bunch of friends at Pali High and I love it,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how I’d fit in at a huge public school but I’m glad I decided to come here.”

Erickson has set an ambitious goal for field goals this season.

“One hundred percent within 50 yards is my goal, then try to get a few from over 50,” he said. “I can consistently make it from 55 yards on a nice field and  the other day I was hitting some 60-yarders, so I can definitely do it.”

Helping Erickson achieve that will be two fellow seniors: long snapper Aria Mahinfar and  Herbert Acosta.

“What they do is more important than my skills to be honest because it’s all about timing and no matter how good a leg you have, if the timing or placement is off, you’re going to miss it.”

Mahinfar has been Erickson’s long snapper on kicks and punts since both were sophomores on junior varsity and Erickson chose Acosta, a wide receiver with sure hands, as his holder last season.

“Everything starts with me — if I don’t snap it well, Herbert won’t plant the ball right,” said Mahinfar, who wears a rubber wristband with the word ‘confidence’ on it. “No one remembers good snaps, only the bad ones.”

Mahinfar said he has developed  a strong repoire with Erickson and Acosta and the trio now has its routine down to a science.

“I just try to stay focused and tune everything else out,” Mahinfar said. “I don’t like to be looking upside down for too long, so Ethan will give me a thumb’s up when he’s ready, Herbert gives me an open palm and I snap it!”

Despite the national attention he’s drawn, Erickson isn’t letting it become a distraction.

“I could get a Division I-AA or Division I-A offer but I may decide to walk on at UCLA, USC or Cal because I’m confident I could beat out other guys,” Erickson said. “It’s all about the next 40 years, not the next four.”