TRAVELING LONG DISTANCES BY FOOT

One-hundred seventy-four feet.

Two-thousand eighty-eight inches.

Fourteen Geo Metro Coupes arranged end to end.

Any way you slice it (or hook it), 58 yards is a long way to kick a football.

To kick it straight 58 yards is a whole different matter.

It's such a remarkable feat that only two high school kickers in the state's history have ever made a field goal of at least that distance. And Cape Central's Brian Emmendorfer is one of them.

Emmendorfer's 58-yard boot last Friday in Central's 27-8 win over St. Charles West was 4 yards shy of tying the state record, which was set by Pattonville's Danny Huesgen in 1995.

The boot beat Steve Williams' Cape Central record by 11 yards. Williams is now coaching Emmendorfer.

Although Emmendorfer had the wind blowing at his back, the kick wasn't a fluke. He also nailed a 41-yarder against that same wind. And, immediately following the 58-yard strike, he sent the kickoff through the uprights."I hit a 57-yarder in practice so I knew I could do it," said the junior place-kicker of his record-breaking field goal. But once his foot made contact with the pigskin and headed toward the yellow posts, he wasn't so sure."I didn't know if it was long enough, but I knew it was straight enough," Emmendorfer said. "In Kentucky (on a 52-yard miss that hit the cross bar against Graves County), I thought it was long enough, but it wasn't, so I wasn't sure. I was just waiting for the referees to raise their hands and they did. At that point, I was happy."I give a lot of credit to my holder Jeff Dunaway and my snapper Alex Spradling. They both did a great job. It's a team thing."Central coach Lawrence Brookins said earlier this year that Emmendorfer, who practices with his father during the summer months, could be a college kicker some day if he wanted to be.

Emmendorfer proved last week that Brookins wasn't exaggerating."That 58-yarder should have a scholarship written on it," Brookins said. "That was an awesome kick. It was wind aided, but it cleared it pretty easy. And that 41-yarder had plenty to spare.""I'm hoping to get a scholarship," said Emmendorfer. "Everybody was telling me that this could lead to one, but I didn't want to get too big on it yet."Emmendorfer, who credits his soccer playing as a kid to his interest and ability in kicking a football, rarely sees time on the field on offense or defense on varsity, so he has to make the most of his opportunity on special teams."It was fourth and like five," Brookins said. "And we had the wind behind us. He already had the 52-yarder off the crossbar. So Steve and the other coaches said, `We've got the wind here.' I've seen him kick it from there in practice. If he misses, so what. They get the ball near midfield. And our defense had been doing a good job to that point.""I think the coaches are behind me 100 percent," Emmendorfer said. "I didn't know if the coaches would want me to kick (from that distance), but they said 'Let's give it a try.' They have a lot of faith in me."There are good reasons for that."He's got a real positive attitude," Brookins said. "He's not afraid to kick it from just about anywhere. He goes out there expecting to make it. He doesn't go out there thinking 'Oh gosh.' He likes the challenge. And he's worked hard for us all year. He works on it almost every day."It's ironic that Williams, who in addition to being a great baseball player at Southeast Missouri State University was also a kicker and punter for the Indians' football team, had a hand in someone breaking his own school record."He's helped me a lot on how to take my time," Emmendorfer said of Williams. "And he's really helped me with my steps.""I had guys who worked with me when I was in high school," said Williams, who kicked a 47-yard field goal in a playoff game against Hazlewood at Lindenwood College in 1979. "Every summer, Mike Wood (former Southeast Missouri State kicker who played in the NFL) worked with me and that's how I learned how to kick. So I'm just passing along things that I've learned from other people. And Brian's picked up on a lot of things. We've made some slight adjustments in his form and it's paid off. He's kicking the meat of the ball every time now."We feel like if we have the ball on their side of the field, we have a chance to get at least get three. The fact that he's done it in practice for a long time lets us know that he can do it in games. In the last three weeks we've played better and have had some chances to let him kick."