As the nation’s top kicker, Corr gives Winchester leg up
Kieran Corr had an eye-opening experience during the Boston Kicking World camp and contest at Medford High in April, 2021.
Then a freshman, with plans to play varsity soccer the next fall, Corr continued to drill field goals, all the way back to 50 yards, beating out a field full of upperclassmen.
“From that point on, I thought, ‘Wow I might have a chance to make it to college and maybe get a scholarship if I continue with this,’” said Corr, now a senior at Winchester High.
While he decided to stick with soccer as a sophomore, Corr continued to work on football kicking that winter and spring, and he continued to climb the national rankings with stellar performances at camps.
After switching from soccer to football last fall, he moved up to No. 21 in the country while winning a kickoff competition at a camp in Pennsylvania in December.
At the National Underclassmen Challenge in Florida in January, he nailed a 61-yarder. And shortly after committing to Harvard in July, he hit a 65-yarder at the National Invitational Scholarship camp in Tennessee, earning Under Armour All-American status along with the No. 1 national ranking for kickers in his class.
“The pressure is what you make of it,” Corr said. “In games, the pressure comes from fans and trying to win for your team, but in these camps, it’s more about your own need to succeed and get recruited. If you told me a few months ago I would be an All-American, I wouldn’t have believed it, but I kept kicking away.”
Corr is the first Under Armour AllAmerican selected from the Middlesex League. The Red & Black (3-0) will honor his achievement prior to Friday’s league game against Belmont (1-2) with a jersey presentation at 6:15 p.m. at Knowlton Stadium. The 16th Under Armour All-American game is scheduled for Jan 3, 2024 in Orlando.
This season, Corr is 6 for 6 on extra points and 5 for 7 on field goal attempts, with his misses coming from 43 and 50 yards. In a Week 2 matchup at Waltham, the senior drilled kicks from 42, 38, and 44 yards in a 16-7 win.
“At some point this year he’s going to make a couple from 50 yards,” said Winchester coach Wally Dembowski. “If we get to the 35 [yard line], I have no problem sending out the field goal team. And that puts more pressure on the opposition knowing they might have to get three scores instead of two.”
It takes more than one strong leg to turn a kicking team into a weapon.
Dillon Keough, a senior wide receiver and safety, acknowledges he didn’t take his duties as long snapper very seriously entering last season, which limited Winchester’s ability to get kicks away. In October, Corr started to convince him that he had enough potential to snap at the collegiate level, and in December, Keough started going to camps.
Several months of rigorous training later, Keough turned in a good performance at Rubio Long Snapping camp in Las Vegas, and was classified as a 4-star recruit.
His improvement came from relentless workouts in his backyard and before or after school throughout the winter and spring. Keough estimated he snapped between 50 to 100 balls per day, six days a week, from December to April, to get his technique down.
“A lot of it is flexibility, in your hamstrings, and a lot of it is timing. Your hands have to be in sync with your legs. Other than that, the spiral is key,” Keough said.
“Last year I was throwing the ball at Kieran’s head or his feet and it cost us. This year I’ve been pretty much on point the whole game. It feels great to see the hard work pay off.”
The holder on the kicking unit, Jack Centurelli, is a multi-positional athlete with offers from Kenyon, Carleton, and Macalester. Last season that unit produced 23 points, a total that they can top in their fourth game of 2023.
Dillon’s twin brother, Bronner, is a linebacker who came up with a clutch interception during Winchester’s 10-7 win over Masconomet last Friday. Senior cornerback George Nelson and safety Joe Guida both have three interceptions each, and the Red & Black have combined for 10 takeaways on defense.
Winchester is balanced and has impressive special teams depth, with senior Cillian O’Connor ready to take on kicking duties should Corr need a replacement.
O’Connor and Corr both have parents who emigrated from Ireland in their 20s, and they both grew up playing soccer. In middle school, O’Connor dealt with a number of knee injuries that interrupted his progression as a quarterback and linebacker on the football field.
After missing his freshman and sophomore seasons, O’Connor decided to give kicking a try, and he’s improved rapidly while working out with Corr. Dembowski said he trusts O’Connor to kick up to 40 yards in a game situation and Corr claims that O’Connor would be the starting kicker for almost 99 percent of teams in Massachusetts.
“It’s definitely helpful to have the number one kicker in the country in front of you,” said O’Connor, who attended Bryant’s kicking camp this past summer.
“When I get reps in practice, he can tell me what I did wrong, and in games I’ll try to tell him what he’s doing, so he can adjust.”
Whether they’re kicking or snapping, these seniors have become elite through repetition.
Ask Corr about his workout routine, and he can rattle off a list of dynamic stretches and squats that help him maintain his strength. He can squat 360 pounds, but recognizes that strength can be pointless if he can’t consistently strike the ball after taking two and a half steps to wind up.
“Everything I’m doing is repeatable, while still maintaining my power,” said Corr.
“The great thing about it is that I love kicking. I would go out and kick for fun when I was younger, and all of a sudden it started to become this larger goal. To see the fruits of your labor pay off is really cool, especially in a game scenario where I can see it help our team and affect our town.”