Stock heats up for kicker

The Golden State of California could be home for two of the nation's best kickers. Rivals.com has kept you up to date with Kai Forbath from Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame. Now there is another kicker from California who seen his strong leg give boost his stock of late.

The place-kicker in question is Kyle Peterson (6-4, 190, 4.7) from West Covina (Calif.) South Hills.

"Kyle had an outstanding day at the National Kicking Combine two weeks ago at UNLV," South Hills coach James Escarcega. "So much so that kicking expert Chris Sailer thinks he has the strongest leg of any kicker in the state of California. As you can well imagine, business has picked up with him in a hurry."

Not one to rest on his laurels, Peterson was at Cal participating in a kicking camp with special teams coach Pete Alamar. Immediately after the kicking camp at Cal he headed to Tempe, Ariz., for a kicking camp at ASU.

Right now, the serious inquires are from ASU, Cal, Oregon State, Washington State, Washington and Stanford.

The word on the street is Oregon State and Washington State are just about ready to pull the trigger and offer the strong-legged kicker from South Hills high school.

USC is also keeping an eye on Peterson and wants to see him perform at their camp this month.

Missouri, Baylor, Duke and TCU are the schools from outside the west coast that are showing Peterson serious recruiting interest.

Peterson has a very busy month of June lined up. He will camp with Oregon State during the week of June 24th – 28th, where he will only be up there for one day and kicking in front of Coach Bruce Reed (Special Teams Coach) and head coach Mike Riley.

Peterson will attend one more camp and that one will be to USC on June 27th and 28th for the Trojan Rising Senior Camp.

Peterson primarily handled the punting and kickoff chores for South Hills in 2004. His performance saw him be selected second-team all-state underclass and second-team all-CIF D-VII as a punter.

The strong legged Peterson had the longest punt in the Golden State as a junior with an 85-yard effort. The kick went 60 yards in the air and received a very kind roll for the other 25 yards.

On the season, Peterson had 14 punts that were downed inside the 20-yard line. When kicking off Peterson racked up 22 touchbacks. Now that is what we call a weapon.

"Kyle is the complete package as a kicker," South Hills coach James said. "He has height, he has a strong leg, great hands and he's tough. Kyle saved our bacon more than once with touchdown saving tackles."

"I do the special teams for South Hills," Escarcega said. "Not only can Kyle punt for distance but he has a great short game. He can place the ball on a punt inside the 20 with great proficiency."

Peterson will also take over all the kicking chores for South Hills this fall. He will add kicking field goals and PAT's to his punting and kickoff obligations.

An outstanding all-around athlete, Peterson also participates in basketball and swimming.