By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Taylen Morales is not your typical football kicker. Entering his junior year at Hoisington High School, Morales wrestled in the state tournament in February and medaled in the pole vault at the state track and field meet in May. His attention has again turned to his other sport: football. Morales recently attended the Kohl's Kicking Camp in Littleton, Colo. As one of the top three kickers at that camp, he's been invited to a national kicking showcase in Gatlinburg, Tenn. where he can demonstrate his talents to recruiters from around the world.
"I ended up doing pretty well if they decided to invite me to Tennessee," Morales said. "It was a surprise because I didn't know until they told me to stay after the last day."
Morales played soccer before playing in the Pride of Kansas Football League. Handling kicking duties was a natural transition.
"I kicked one day and my coach had me play it," said Morales. "When I started kicking, it just carried throughout, and I ended up becoming better than I thought I would."
Morales made 36 of his 42 point-after attempts last season, and was 44 of 49 the year before that. He booted through a 38-yard field goal as a freshman. With Hoisington's high-powered offense putting plenty of points on the board, Morales averaged 45 yards a kick on 60 kickoffs in last year's state runner-up season. He also had 42 tackles for the Cardinal defense and ran the ball 27 times for 182 yards. The National Invitational Scholarship Camp in Tennessee July 20-21 will be all about the kicking.
"I'm looking to show that I've improved and that I'm good enough to maybe be in the eyes of some colleges," Morales said. "That's kind of my main goal."
Three former Kohl's kickers were selected in the most recent NFL Draft, and 36 of the last 46 drafted specialists over the past decade have been Kohl's kickers, including Chief's kicker Harrison Butker and former Colts kicker Pat McAfee.