Passing along some city high school football tidbits . . .
Nick Visco started his kicking career on a whim, then added a prayer.
As a seventh-grader, he'd just abandoned soccer in favor of football, and his coach, one day at practice, wondered whether someone, anyone, might like to take a whirl at extra points.
"I was a little hesitant at first," Visco said. "But I decided to pursue it and found I had some talent. Everything just clicked."
And how. Though still a junior, the 6-2, 190-pound Visco, a right-instepper for ever-mighty Wood, now owns the city (and likely state) record for career PAT. Thanks to six Saturday vs. Dobbins in the Class AAA City Title, his total stands at 173, six better than 2010 West Catholic grad Tim Carroll.
The national record? An eye-popping 350 by Tyler Lewis, of Albemarle, N.C., from 2000-03.
Visco's yearly breakdown is 41, 65 and 67, and he also hammered 14 field goals for 215 career points. Pat Kaiser, a St. Joseph's Prep grad ('03), owns the city mark in that department with 235.
"I owe a lot of this to my team," said Visco, who's in his third season of joining forces with snapper Colin Thompson and holder Joey Monaghan; Jerry Rahill did some holding in'09. "If we weren't so good, I wouldn't have all these opportunities.
"There can be some downfalls to kicking, because people tend to look down on you as 'only a kicker,' but I don't really get that at Wood. The coaches and players respect me for what I do.
"It's a great feeling to have this record. I didn't even know about it until just before I went out for that [fourth kick]."
In 2012, Visco hopes to expand his grid horizons.
"I should be seeing some time at other positions," he said. "Not sure about defense, but on offense, I'm looking at playing wide receiver. I've been talking to coach [Steve] Devlin about that. I play it now on the scout team and it seems to be going pretty well.
"I like it. So next year, I'm hoping to get the opportunity to do a little more than kick."
