In every part of the country, kids of all age levels are competing and training to be the very best in their sport of choice. Most that are in the sport of football are working towards becoming a better quarterback, running back, receiver, or any other typical position that earns them time on the field. Any coach will tell you in order to have a winning team or program you must be good in all phases of the game. The 3 phases are offense, defense and special teams. We all have seen the games that show a fast offense like the Oregon Ducks put up points to run their opponent out of the stadium. Then we have all heard the phrase “Defense wins championships” like the Seattle Seahawks showed us in last years Super Bowl. Then we can never forget the games we see more and more every week, that ends in a game winning field goal, kick return for a touchdown, or the punt that gives the other team such bad field position they are forced into a safety.
Special Teams are the component of the football game that really makes a difference between winning and losing. Fourteen year old Simon Samarzich knows a ton about winning. In fact that is all his Jr. All American football team did at the Midget level this past season going undefeated the entire season. Simon does something most people see every week in football games that only gets noticed if there is one bad snap over the kickers head, or a snap too low for a holder to control for the kicker. Simon Samarzich is considered one of the top long snappers in the country for his age group. He started working on his craft as a long snapper in the 4th grade following his older brothers footsteps. They got the idea to work on long snapping from their God Father who happens to be none other than NFL Hall of Fame player Bruce Matthews. He thought it would be another talent to offer colleges in addition to playing a traditional position.
Simon has taken that advice and ran with it. He will be a freshman at Upland High School in the fall and looking forward to staring on Varsity as the long snapper. Simon already has a snapping speed and accuracy that is well above the high school average right now. He has been working with long snapper coaching great Chris Rubio for over 4 years. Simon will soon take his talents to Las Vegas this weekend for what is considered the Super Bowl of long snapping. Simon will compete against others in his age group, for top rankings as a long snapper in the country. Class of 2019 is sure to be loaded with lots of talent but Simon as a long snapper will be the true specialist, colleges will be looking to offer.
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