Ziska kicks up a Thunder

By John Kovach

Placekicker Rick Ziska from Lafayette hopes to make winning kicks for Thunder.

YOUNGSTOWN — One of the advantages of having the Chevrolet Centre and the Mahoning Valley Thunder in Youngstown is that they attract athletes from all over the nation to become part of the af2 experience that will help to enhance the downtown renaissance.

For example, if the Thunder’s season opener Saturday night against the Albany Conquest at home proves to be a close game, the outcome could be riding on the toe of a Florida native who graduated from West Lawn (Pa.) High and Lafayette College (Easton, Pa.), who now lives in Pittsburgh.

He’s diminutive Rick Ziska (5-foot-8, 160 pounds), who has been kicking since he was 10-years old and scored 174 points in four years at Lafayette.

Ziska, who has been bouncing around the arena football circuit for about a year primarily at tryout camps and workouts since graduating from Lafayette in 2007, will be commuting from Pittsburgh to Youngstown and is hoping he can win some games for the Thunder beginning Saturday against Albany at the Chevrolet Centre at 7:05.

“I have been going to camps and attending workouts ever since graduation. I guess the names of kickers get around [the arena football leagues]. But I got a call from the Thunder after someone read my statistics on-line,” said Ziska, whose only previous indoor football experience proved to be a brief and unhappy one with the Pittsburgh River Rats of the American Indoor Football Association.

“I played one game last year. It was in a small arena and it was difficult to kick there because it had a really low ceiling and a hanging scoreboard.”

Going through his first kicking practice at the Chevrolet Centre Thursday morning, Ziska displayed a powerful kicking leg for kickoffs and field goal attempts.

But he also knows the importance of accuracy and hopes to find it before or during his first game Saturday.

“I have leg strength. My accuracy really came along my senior year at Lafayette. I’m glad it did because I’m going to need it here,” said Ziska, who was 6-of-10 in field goal attempts his senior season at Lafayette, with two attempts blocked and one miss from 52 yards. His longest FG was 51 yards.

“The uprights [here] are narrow. The [NFL] uprights are 181‚Ñ2 feet wide while these are 9 feet wide.” (The af2 crossbar height is higher than the NFL —15 feet compared to 10 feet — while college uprights are 23 feet, 4 inches wide and the crossbar 181‚Ñ2 feet high.”

Ziska said his main focus right now is “just trying to stay accurate on field goals. I have no problem reaching the nets on FGs or on kickoffs. I have no problem with distance. I’m just trying to be accurate on my field goals and extra points.”

He is trying to get the feel for location of the three nets on each end of the 50-yard long field (85 feet wide), including two wide and rigid nets that flank the narrow loose nets behind the uprights.

“I try to kick the ball into the middle of the nets where the net is loose and not rigid, so that the ball will come down out of play or in the end zone so that it cannot be returned,” said Ziska, who also played soccer and wrestled at West Lawn High in addition to placekicking for two years. In fact, he said playing soccer has made him a better placekicker, and vice-versa.

“If the ball [on a kickoff or missed field goal] hits the larger and more-rigid nets to the left and right of the goal post, it will bounce back into the field and will be in play and can be returned by a player.”

The son of Bob and Dona Ziska of Lancaster, Pa., in “Amish country,” points out Rick, has an older brother, Bobby, who works with their father at Deka Batteries in Lyons, Pa.

Rick majored in economics and business at Lafayette with a 2.6 grade-point average, and recently was hired for a job in Pittsburgh working for Federated Investors. He will be involved with mutual funds and will begin work Monday.

kovach@vindy.com