 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Hartman should anchor Pirates' suspect kicking game
East Carolina's sophomore kicker possesses tremendous leg strength
Any football coach will tell you the importance of the kicking game and how it can sway a game one way or the other. However, when your season opening game is at Virginia Tech—which always ranks near the top of the nation in blocked kicks—you had better be extremely sound in that phase of your game.
As Skip Holtz and East Carolina prepare to encounter and withstand “Beamerball”—the name given to Virginia Tech’s style of play that places an emphasis on having an aggressive defense and strong special teams—there is a fair amount of uncertainty surrounding the Pirates’ kicking game. However, a bulk of that concern stems from the Pirates’ punt team, as the unit will attempt to minimize the loss of one of East Carolina’s greatest punters in four-year starter and current Green Bay Packers’ rookie Ryan Dougherty. While that issue remains unsettled, there is more stability in the placekicking dimension of the game. Fortunately, for ECU, it returns redshirt sophomore kicker and part-time 2006 starter Ben Hartman to handle those duties. |
Hartman, who went 3-of-5 on field goals with a long 47 while sharing the duties with Robert Lee last season, will also handle the kickoff duties (which were handled by Dougherty in ’06) this year.
After walking-on prior to the 2005 campaign, the North Davidson high school product’s strong showing earned him the split role last season when the Lou Groza Award candidate Lee struggled. Hartman and Lee engaged in weekly kicking competitions to see who would man the duties for that week’s game.
 |
Ben Hartman connected on all five point-after touchdown attempts and a 36-yard field in his Pirate debut versus SMU last season. |
“Competition started to open up, I saw the opportunity to play and I did my best to take advantage of it,” Hartman responded recently when discussing the situation.
Despite losing the job to Lee late last season, Hartman took a great deal from the experience gained and feels that he is much more equipped for this year than he would have been otherwise.
“I did start for two games, but lost the job the remainder of the season. However, I took that as a learning experience because just because you’re the man for one week doesn’t mean you’re going to be for the next. I got to play at “The Rock” (Southern Miss’ M.M. Roberts Stadium), at Carter-Finley (N.C. State’s Stadium) and at home in Dowdy-Ficklen, so the butterflies that you can have when playing in front of fans and those types of distractions I’m pretty calm about. Now I’m sure I’ll have some butterflies come September first, but after the first kick all that goes out the window.”
CUSA Fans features ECU football hats & apparel online! |
Hartman, who certainly possesses the potential to place himself among the best Pirate kickers of all time, had the luxury of playing with and learning from a couple of these during the past two seasons.
He says Lee taught him the importance of developing a practice routine, sticking with it and trusting in it.
Meanwhile, Dougherty showed him how to “practice smart” and be successful in the “defining moments” that kickers are essentially guaranteed to face. “Ryan taught me a lot of things. He taught me to be smart about my kicking, not to do too much in order to save the leg for the season, and to do “your job”. He also showed me how to recognize what a critical play or a defining moment in the game is and how to define the moment instead of letting it define me.” Hartman’s typical game week practice routine begins with around 30 field goals (including warm-ups) on Tuesday and then decreases by approximately ten kicks per day, which means he kicks around ten on Thursday. This will be even more important this season since kickoffs have been moved back to the 30-yard line. The change, which is obviously intended to decrease the number of touchbacks while increasing the excitement in the kick return game, will place a premium on hang time. “Well, it’s affected me by causing me to add more hang time than distance. Yeah, I’d still like to hit it eight yards deep (in the endzone), but if I don’t get enough hang time on it then I could technically outkick my coverage. I’ve been trying to work on the goal line, but hanging it up there.” As his physical preparation tapers off, he turns his attention to his mental readiness. Many people often compare placekickers to golfers. |
When asked if he would agree with many of the analogies that are drawn between the two, Hartman responded by saying, “Yeah, I would agree. Golfers don’t really reach their prime until their 30’s or so, and the kickers that go to the league usually reach their prime around 30. Kicking is similar to golf. Tiger may not be the biggest overall guy on the tour, but his distance comes from his swing speed, and a lot of your distance with kicking comes from leg speed.”
When it comes to preparing himself mentally, Hartman does a number of things such as studying film and scouting reports of upcoming opponents or reading a book.
 |
Hartman connects on a PAT in the 2007 Purple-Gold game. |
“I will usually read a book in the off season to prepare mentally. This past off season I read “Talent is Never Enough” by John Maxwell and it helped me realize that even though you’re talented, there are other things that come into the equation for you to be successful.”
While Hartman—a former soccer player who didn’t really devote himself to his kicking until his senior year of high school—has already shown a little bit of the lively leg he possesses, his brightest days are undoubtedly ahead of him.
The Pirates’ sophomore, whose favorite NFL kicker is the Colts’ Adam Vinatieri due to his tendency to deliver in the clutch, has aspirations of kicking in the NFL some day and has had the opportunity to learn from some coaches who have tutored current pros.
“I have a camp I go to in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It’s run by 4 th Down Sports. The head guy is Bill Renner, who is a former punter at Virginia Tech. He has a set of coaches up there that I work with and a lot of great kickers have come through the camp such as pros Josh Brown, Neil Rackers, and Shayne Graham. It’s really good instruction, but good competition as well.”
Hartman, who says his favorite Pirate moment thus far was either beating NC State or Southern Miss last season, just plans on taking it one game at a time this year.
“I’m one of those guys who just takes it one game at a time and lets the good Lord take care of the rest. Like last year’s motto, ‘just go 1-0’.”
by Thomas "Bubba" Rosenbaum-
|
|
Purchase college football tickets through Coast to Coast Tickets. We also carry premium NFL seats, baseball tix, concert tickets, tix to basketball games, and more!
