Sports
College of San Mateo Hopes Former El Camino Kicker Will Bring Team Farther This Year
After losing the state title due to missed kicks, the College of San Mateo hopes quality kicker Kenny Anderson will help lead them to victory.
Kenny Anderson hadn’t even suited up for his first real football game at the College of San Mateo when already the weight of the world was thrust right smack onto his shoulders.
The former El Camino High kicker was called upon with 30 seconds remaining in the Bulldogs’ scrimmage Aug. 28. His 43-yard field goal attempt, under heavy defensive pressure, would either send his team into overtime or conjure up some very bad memories the CSM coaching staff is trying hard to erase.
You see, the Bulldogs won the Northern California community college championship last season, then lost 7-6 to Mt. San Antonio in the state title game. A botched extra-point attempt and two missed field goals contributed big-time to the defeat.
When the Bulldogs’ coaching staff came to South San Francisco last fall to take a look at Anderson, they viewed him as simply a quality kicker.
One thoroughly disheartening loss later, however, and now Anderson, the Peninsula Athletic League’s Special Teams Player of the Year in 2008, is seen in a completely different light.
“He’s got a chance to be an impact guy in our program,” head coach Tim Tulloch assured. “If we can get guys kicking well, we could do even better this year.”
Anderson’s kick in the scrimmage, which sailed straight through the uprights, has College of San Mateo’s spirits high as it prepares for a long road to, hopefully, a state title-game do-over.
“Every player in the locker room, that’s what we’re striving for,” Anderson, an 18-year-old freshman, observed. “I know I will have a very important role. You can win it or you can lose it. All the pressure on me. That’s what every athlete wants.”
And that’s exactly what Anderson got in the scrimmage.
“My heart was pounding,” he admitted. “I took a deep breath and just kicked it.”
The kick sailed straight through the uprights. But before he could celebrate, something unusual occurred.
“Coach T [Tulloch] jumped on me,” Anderson noted.
Tulloch has seen his fair share of good kickers at College of San Mateo. Brian Powers, for example, earned a scholarship to Mississippi, where he played the past two seasons.
The coach likes not only Anderson, who once kicked three field goals in a high school game against Jefferson, but a bunch of his new freshmen this season.
“This freshman class is the best in my 14 years here,” Tulloch boasted. “Anytime you win the NorCal, title, it’s going to sway a couple more recruits your way.
“We heard good things about (Anderson while at El Camino), so we sent an assistant coach to watch him. He liked him. He’s got a good work ethic and a very strong leg. We're happy to have him.”
Like his teammates, Anderson has his sights set on a state championship this fall. But his vision extends four or five years into the future, when he’s hopefully completed successful community- and major-college kicking stints and has landed on an NFL roster somewhere.
“I’d love to do that,” said Anderson, who calls the Tennessee Titans’ Rob Bironas his favorite kicker. “I know being here (at College of San Mateo) could help me go another step farther.”
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