Kicker

John Lee Womack Jr., 42, a 1986 Glassboro State College graduate who at age 33 became an outstanding placekicker for the college's football team, died Wednesday at South Jersey Hospital Systems/Elmer Division after a two-year battle with a rare form of cancer. Born in Camden, Mr. Womack was a lifelong resident of Elk Township and a 1970 graduate of Delsea Regional High School. In his high school freshman year, he went out for football but got into one game only in the closing moments - and the team's quarterback fumbled away the ball, according to a 1985 Inquirer story.

Fans who follow the flight of Jon Burling's long, high kickoffs often miss the Haverford School kicker's favorite part of the play. Opponents who keep their eyes on those towering kickoffs suffer worse consequences. "There are always a couple of wanderers on the other teams," Burling said. Burling likes opponents with limited attention spans. "I look for them. I like to lower the boom. I like to smash the guy," he said. At 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, Burling isn't the the biggest boomer on the field.

How easy is it to catch a football and place it on the ground so the kicker can boot it for a game-winning field goal? Tommy Hutton notwithstanding, pretty damn easy. After Monday night's devastating loss to the hated Dallas Cowboys, the Daily News wanted to see how tough it is to take a center snap and hold the ball for a kicker. Hutton's failure to handle that task cost the Eagles the game. Not to pile on the misery for the hardluck ball-holder, but we found that anybody can do the job. Even a city councilman.

In the recruiting circles, nothing is as uncertain as the recruitment of a kicker. Many colleges wait until they are down to their final scholarship before making an offer to kickers. Others don't offer kickers immediate scholarships and have them walk on and earn one later on. Kickers that play on winless teams are usually even less in demand, but that hasn't been the case for Greg Frade, a senior for Cherry Hill East (0-10). Frade was an Inquirer first-team all-South Jersey kicker after converting 5 of 7 field goals and all eight extra points.

For Phoenixville's football team, using a soccer player for field goals and kickoffs is nothing new. "We've had that type of kicker on the team as long as I've been here (since 1987) except for one year," Phantoms coach Bill Shirk said. "It makes for an easy transition to go from kicking a soccer ball to kicking a football. The more popular soccer became in the high schools, the more football teams started having (soccer players) be their kicker. " Senior Emerson Johnson, also a forward on the fall soccer team, is back to kick for the Phantoms this season.

AS WORD has spread that New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams paid his players bonuses if they took out the opposition - which is to say, injuring them with intent - it came as no surprise to Eagles fans of a certain age. The so-called "Bounty Bowl" between the Eagles and Cowboys in 1989 has become a staple of team lore. To revisit what happened that Thanksgiving Day: In the aftermath of a hard hit by Eagles linebacker Jessie Small on Cowboys placekicker Luis Zendejas - who left the game with a concussion - Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson alleged that Eagles coach Buddy Ryan had placed a $200 bounty on Zendejas.

Phil Karn is a soccer player playing football. Or is that a football player playing soccer? Who cares? It doesn't really matter, because while those two fall athletic programs at Abington are enjoying dream seasons, Karn and his powerful right leg are smack in the middle of all the fun. You see, Phil Karn is a wanted man. In soccer, the sport he has played since he could barely walk, he is a dominating striker shattering all school scoring...

Luis Zendejas has to watch every week as the seesaw sways up and down. He has to stand on the sideline as the Eagles go through yet another fourth- quarter convulsion. And then, when the quakes and shakes build to a crescendo, he trots onto the field and into the spotlight himself. "I have never been on a team like this," Zendejas, the Eagles' placekicker, said yesterday. "I mean, this is a team that, as a kicker, every week and every game I have to be ready to the last second.

Laura O'Malley answered the door dressed the way she was after almost every other school day. So it was Halloween, so what? Who knew she was a scary sight to an old-school guy? "I was giving out candy in my uniform," the Coatesville junior said. "This guy from my neighborhood said, 'Hey, where did you get a Coatesville football uniform?' I said I play on the team. He said, 'boys' football?' " It shouldn't be such a shock any longer. O'Malley is the regular placekicker for Coatesville's junior varsity, and has appeared in a few varsity games and kicked several extra points for the Red Raiders, who entered play against Downingtown West last night ranked second in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer.

Norristown and Council Rock got their kicks playing each other Saturday afternoon in a Suburban One National Conference game. But host Council Rock (3-4 overall, 3-3 league) got more satisfaction, winning, 3-0. Council Rock kicker Mike Kahan emerged the hero as he nailed a 30-yard field goal with 3 minutes, 16 seconds left in the game. "It feels great, it feels great," he said. "It doesn't usually come down to the kicker, especially this early" in the season. In a game of scintillating defensive plays, Kahan had attempted a 21-yard field goal with 4:41 left in the second quarter, but the ball sailed wide left.

TWENTY, 30, 40 years from now, people still might be discussing Howard Lynn's upcoming performance at Lincoln Financial Field. Hopefully, they'll do so while talking out of both sides of their mouths. Such an approach would not qualify as a sign of disrespect. In fact, it would be quite the tribute, seeing as how Lynn is ambifootrous. Yes, you read that correctly. When Lynn, a 6-3, 210-pound senior at Northeast High, performs kicking and punting duties for Public vs. Non-Public in the 38th annual Philadelphia Eagles City All-Star Football Classic, set for May 10, 7:30 p.m., at the Linc, he will be using his right foot for the former and left for the latter.

AS WORD has spread that New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams paid his players bonuses if they took out the opposition - which is to say, injuring them with intent - it came as no surprise to Eagles fans of a certain age. The so-called "Bounty Bowl" between the Eagles and Cowboys in 1989 has become a staple of team lore. To revisit what happened that Thanksgiving Day: In the aftermath of a hard hit by Eagles linebacker Jessie Small on Cowboys placekicker Luis Zendejas - who left the game with a concussion - Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson alleged that Eagles coach Buddy Ryan had placed a $200 bounty on Zendejas.

NOBODY USUALLY notices a kicker until he screws up. The fact that we've really only noticed Alex Henery twice this season is a pretty good indication that the rookie out of Nebraska has had a pretty good year. The two times we've noticed him came in the same quarter of the same game. The fourth quarter of the Eagles' 24-23, Week 4 loss to the 49ers. Henery, who was the most accurate kicker in college football history, had a chance to turn a fragile, six-point lead into a comfy, nine-point advantage early in the fourth quarter, but sent a 39-yard field-goal attempt wide right.

Before closing the books on another football season with our all-Southeastern Pennsylvania squad, we use our last timeout and rank the area's best fullbacks and kickers. (Yes, kickers deserve love, too.) When it comes to the fullbacks, please note that the names of players who were already mentioned as being among the top running backs (e.g. Archbishop Wood's Brandon Peoples) or linebackers (e.g. Ridley's Shane Dougherty) will not be duplicated here. Fullbacks 1. Justin Pyle, Garnet Valley, sr., 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.

Before closing the books on another football season with our all-Southeastern Pennsylvania squad, we use our last timeout and rank the area's best fullbacks and kickers. (Yes, kickers deserve love, too.) When it comes to the fullbacks, please note that the names of players who were already mentioned as being among the top running backs (e.g. Archbishop Wood's Brandon Peoples) or linebackers (e.g. Ridley's Shane Dougherty) will not be duplicated here. Fullbacks 1. Justin Pyle, Garnet Valley, sr., 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.

Alex Henery remembers the exact place and time he received the call. No, not that call. This was just before the draft, when Henery was working at Memorial Stadium, the home of University of Nebraska football, where the kicker booted field goal after field goal on the way to becoming a Cornhusker legend. But Henery wasn't on the field practicing his chosen profession, or at least the one he had hoped would entice an NFL team to draft him. He was waiting for an elevator that would take him to the skyboxes that were being built for the Cornhusker fans who consider Nebraska football a religion, and in certain cases have built shrines to the kicker from Omaha.

On the Eagles sideline, Alex Henery stood alone practicing kicks into a net, staying in his routine - his thoughts focused, Henery said later, on getting his hips through on the next kick, if he got back on the field for a potential game-winner. The rookie kicker couldn't remember ever missing two field goals in a row, at any level. So what could be the odds of missing three straight? We'll never know, after a late Eagles fumble took the game away from Henery's foot. On the sideline, he whipped his helmet off and swiped the ball into the bottom of the net, knocking it slightly off its moorings.

SAN DIEGO'S Nate Kaeding, who entered the season as the most accurate kicker in NFL history, is out for the year after injuring his left (non-kicking) knee during the season's opening kickoff. Kaeding is believed to have torn his anterior cruciate ligament. Coach Norv Turner said only that the kicker tore ligaments and would have surgery. Kaeding was hurt trying to tackle Minnesota's Percy Harvin, who returned the opening kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown on Sunday. "He planted and he kind of got spread out," Turner said.