The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Kickstarters
Speed, reliability, fearlessness key to good returns
There could be a touchback, could be a squib, could be a short popup. But it’s also possible that either a Wilby or Ansonia kickoff returner on Thursday could be the first player to touch the ball in anger in a CIAC football game since Riley Ward caught that fairy-tale touchdown to end the 2019 Class LL final.
A night later at Staples Stadium, Benji Titlebaum will be hoping he gets to be that guy for the Wreckers against Trumbull.
“If we’re fielding it, that’d be an awesome feeling just to get it started,” said Titlebaum, a Staples senior who has experience returning kicks, “hopefully get some good yardage and start it off fast.”
A lot of what goes into being a good choice to return kicks probably isn’t particularly shocking. Speed, shiftiness, actually catching the ball: yeah, they’re important.
“And a little bit fearless, too,” Shelton coach Mike DeFelice said. “You’re catching that ball and running 1,000 mph at a guy running 1,000 mph at you.
“It takes a special breed to be a returner. You’ve got to have all those intangibles. You’ve got to be fast. You’ve got to be smart. because the way we set up our return, you want to make sure you’re following your blockers, not just going off rogue, doing whatever you want to do.”
Shane Santiago will likely be back for the Gaels when they return their first kick against North Haven on Sept. 10. He said getting reps are important for everyone on the kick-return unit, whether in practice or before a game.
“Just the blocks. That’s the most important, getting the block and holding the block,” Santiago said. “Without them, there’s no run.”
The Shelton senior said he watches YouTube clips of kick returns (and of defense; he’s a cornerback, too).
Titlebaum was one of the lucky ones who got to return some kicks last year; Staples was one of the
teams that played in two private leagues last fall after the CIAC didn’t sanction a tackle football season.
“It’s like riding a bike. You kind of haven’t done it for a while, but once you get back there, you get right back into it,” Titlebaum said.
“It’s a lot less scary than it seems. I always used to think it was terrifying, special teams in general: the ball’s in the air, and you might get hit. Kickoff return, you actually have a lot of time. When you slow the game down, it’s easy to get back into it.”
For some other teams, especially those that didn’t play at all or only had 7on-7 passing leagues, it might be a little more difficult to hop onto that bike.
“The kids have been
doing a good job with it,” said Norwalk coach Pat Miller, who got to coach the Bears in 7-on-7 last fall in what would’ve been his first season in Norwalk.
“We just have to take a little bit more time trying to find those guys, and honestly more importantly the guys in front of them,” Miller added during the Ruden Report FCIAC media night earlier this week. “Who are the guys who can get back? Those are some of the hardest blocks, especially for the front-line guys to get back there and block a guy running full-speed on a 40-yard sprint.”
DeFelice said in a normal year they could tell a young player to watch an older player who’d filled the same role a year earlier. Two years removed from Shelton’s last game, they can’t so much do that, so they have practiced kick return a little more this preseason.
Darien coach Mike Forget said he’ll try out kick returners in a pretty straightforward fashion: kick to the receivers, and see who can catch it and who can do something with it. Speed is the next tiebreaker for Staples coach Adam Behrends.
“The first thing is to field the ball, make sure it doesn’t hit the ground,” Titlebaum said. “You have to make sure you know where the blockers are going, whether it’s a turn right or turn left.
“It’s a whole process. It all works together. The blockers are a big part of it, opening the holes.”