Dylan McLain, Kicker at Waxahachie High School (TX)

By Matt Alkire

With any player that is being recruited, upside is a big part of projection. Dylan McLain is in an odd situation given that he plays a position that not many people are experts on – kicker – and that he also got started a bit late. When you look at the raw ability and how quickly he has developed though, the Lone Star State product is a player that is a little bit hard to pass on.

 

He walked me through his career recently which started how most kickers do, on the soccer field.

 

“I’ve been playing soccer since I was three or four years old and ended up playing both high school and club soccer,” McLain stated. “I quit playing club soccer so I could focus on football and kicking last year and just stayed on the high school team. I play forward and midfielder and I’ll probably end up making All-District this year.”

 

“Football ended up coming into the picture my junior year of high school because my dad had been mentioning it for a while,” McLain added. “I went out for the team and started kicking with Coach (Sean) Riley and it was really easy at first. He had me change my form and some little things that I did, but things really came together for me to where I was a very effective kicker for our team. We had a kicker on the team who had been a four-year starter, so they didn’t take him out of the lineup for me and I ended up playing junior varsity and then playing a few games of varsity.”
 

 Obviously for a young man to not only start kicking in 11^th grade is surprising enough, but to see them have as much success as McLain has had as a senior is downright unbelievable. The 5-foot-11, 165-pounder was a star this year for the Indians as a Second-Team All-District kicker and First-Team All-District punter.

 

“I just came in and wanted to do well and while I could have done better on my field goals I think I had a pretty good season,” McLain said. “I led my league in punting and had a long of 79 yards and ended up made 6 of 9 of my field goals.”

 

In defense of the kicker, one of his field goals was blocked and on the other two, he could have had much better snaps. McLain had a long field goal of 49 yards and has kicked all the way up to a 62-yard field goal.

 

Waxahachie High School went 6-5 this season with the help of Dylan McLain and now he looks to the next level. Right now many schools are looking at him with the most serious interest coming from Abilene Christian.

 

He spoke to us about what he’s looking for in an institution of higher learning.

 

“I’d like to be on a bigger campus because that atmosphere of having a lot of people around me would just be such a change from what I’m used to growing up in a small town,” McLain explained. “I feel like if I end up at a small school I’m not really growing or experiencing anything new at all. Some things that interest me are Marine Biology, teaching and coaching and while I wish I had that figured out past college I really don’t yet. As long as I know the school I’m attending is going to provide me with a solid degree I’ll be happy. I’m not too picky.”

 

McLain has been to quite a few national kicking camps including Kohl’s and three National Camp Series. He’s found those contests bring out the best in him.

 

“I placed in the Top 10 at the Kohl’s camp and finished right behind a kid who is committed to the University of Houston. They were very detailed in charting our kicks, teaching us technique and filming everything we did. I had a good time while I was there and it was good to see that I compared well against some of the top kids from around this region.”

 

“The NCS camps are a lot smaller and a ton of fun because you just get a lot of reps when you’re there,” McLain added. “I’ve always done well when I’ve been there and felt as if I’ve been one of, if not the best kicker there.” 

 

One important thing that colleges will have to determine with this young kicker is how he projects given that he has only been at his position since he was a junior in high school. The fact that he is already a proficient field goal specialist and punter has to be a plus for most recruiters, however there will be plenty of players on their board with more experience and polish. We asked McLain where he thinks he is in the course of his development.

“Like I said, I just started doing this and have gotten to this point very quickly. I believe I not only still have a lot of room to improve, but am going to get a lot stronger and learn my craft as I continue to kick and punt. I guess the thing I’d say is that there is a lot of upside left in me compared to someone who has been kicking for several years.”

 

The Waxahachie, Texas product carries a 2.3 core GPA and scored a 1000 on his two-part SAT. He did take some AP courses as part of his work load. McLain was also 40 for 40 on extra point attempts, his team recovered two of his four onside kicks and he had 24 touchbacks on kickoffs.