Blose ready to kick his sideline habit
YOUNGSTOWN — This is the year that Stephen Blose has been waiting to arrive.
The junior placekicker from Erie, Pa., has spent the past two seasons handling the Youngstown State football kickoff duties and was backup to veteran Brian Palmer.
Palmer has graduated so this year Blose is the heir apparent to all of the placekicking duties, something that he has really been looking forward to doing.
The 5-foot-10, 190-pound kicker has just completed what he considers an outstanding summer workout session and those results have been very noticeable in the early workouts in fall camp.
He’s kicking the ball longer, higher and more accurately.
“Summer workouts really helped, in fact it helped the entire team,” Blose said.
“I worked a lot this summer with punter Ben Nowicki and some of the other kickers and we worked on fundamentals and techniques and it seems to have helped out a lot,” Blose said.
“It’s been a big change for me and the coaches have stressed a lot of work on fundamentals and have had me working on a lot of little things, which in turn will help out with the bigger things,” Blose said.
Consistency has been one of Blose’s problems the past two seasons. He’s always had a strong leg, but had trouble putting good kicks together.
“My consistency has really improved,” he said. “I’m doing a lot more work with the No. 1 snapper and No. 1 holder and it has really helped to get my timing down this fall.”
For the past two seasons, the Harbor Creek High all-state standout, has done nothing but kick off in games for the Penguins.
Last year, he handled 52 of the team’s 53 kickoffs, averaged 58.2 yards with four touchbacks in all 12 games.
In 2007, he played in nine games and had 47 kickoffs, averaging 59.9 yards with two touchbacks.
He has only kicked one field goal and it was the only one he’s attempted as he booted a 41-yard kick in the Penguins’ 2007 season opener at Ohio State.
Blose has spent the last three years on the sideline of every game, home and away. Even in his redshirt season of 2006, he dressed for all 14 games as Palmer’s backup kicker.
During his high school career, he just about never left the field.
In his senior year, Blose set a state record with 488 yards rushing against Fort LeBoeuf, a game in which he scored six touchdowns and averaged 17.4 yards a carry.
He scored 44 points including eight extra points. He also played defense (49 tackles as a senior), punted (average 39 yards) and had 28 kickoffs for touchbacks.
Blose is also a standout in the classroom where he carries a 4.0 grade point average and has been named to the Gateway and Missouri Valley All-Academic teams.
He, like the rest of the Penguins, would like to see a big improvement over last season.
“Spirits are really high this year,” Blose said. The younger kids coming in have added a lot of enthusiasm and fresh attitudes and everything is starting to mesh together.”
mollica@vindy.com