On the football field, everyone has a role. The quarterbacks throw the ball, the wide receivers catch the ball and the running backs carry the ball. Every role is important. If one player doesn’t do his job, the whole team suffers. This is true for every position, including punters.

Junior Tony Park has embraced the “punting life.”

“Punting is really a lifestyle,” Park said.

Park, originally a soccer player in middle school, decided to make the change to football in high school.

“I decided to play football, and they needed a punter. The team didn’t have anyone to do it, and I knew I could kick the ball. So I tried out freshmen year and got the job,” Park said.

Coming into this season, Park had only punted for the freshman team at WHS. Since last year’s punter Blake Welti has graduated, the position was available.

“During the punting tryouts, no one looked at me as a punter. I was just another player, but I had the confidence to ask Coach Murtaugh if I could try punting, and he gave me a chance. I was pretty inconsistent at first, but I had some big punts,” Park said.

Park believes that his most important job is giving his team good field position and pinning the opposing team deep in its own territory.

“My favorite part about punting is knowing that it’s going to help our defense win the game,” Park said. Park believes that his most important job is “putting the defense in a good position to succeed.”

Park has his own punting routine during practice. During each practice, Park goes out on the field 30 minutes early and punts back-and-forth with JV punter Zachary Goldstein. Park only gets three chances per practice to show coaches what he can do punting the football.

“I have to make these chances count. They have to mean something because you only get a couple of chances to punt in games. You practice so much for it that you have to take the chances you get and do your best,” Park said.

Fellow teammate and junior Brendan Kiernan thinks Park’s punting performance makes a big difference in the outcome of games. “Special teams win games, and Tony is such a good punter, and he really gives us a chance to win games,” Kiernan said.

Park is currently averaging over 43 yards per punt with nine punts downed inside the five-yard line.