Foot Soldier : Camarillo’s Ciuffitelli Takes Necessary Steps to Become Top Kicker

Lee Ciuffitelli says that you simply have to forget about missed kicks. But he remembers.

Two years ago as a neophyte Camarillo High kicker, Ciuffitelli missed two field-goal attempts in a junior varsity game at Agoura. Both were from the 27-yard line on the right hash mark.

“I was so disgusted with myself that game,� said Ciuffitelli, now a senior. “My dad had the game film, and I was just going ape. I promised myself at the time, ‘I’m never going to miss another field goal on that field.’ �

So last summer, knowing that the Scorpions would play at Agoura this season, Ciuffitelli (pronounced Shiff-a-TELL-ee) sneaked onto the Agoura field several times at dusk, alone with his memory, his determination and his kicking tee.

He would begin the workout with a private ritual.

“I would always put the first shot on the 27, right hash,� he said.

On Oct. 2 this season, at that same Agoura field, Camarillo faced fourth down on the Agoura 33-yard line. An assistant coach called for the punt team, but Coach Carl Thompson overrode that order and barked, “No, Ciuffitelli, go in for a field goal!�

“When I went out there, the Agoura team was saying, ‘No way he can kick this field goal. No way, it’s a fake!’ � Ciuffitelli said. “They only sent five rushers so I took advantage of it.�

He calmly booted the 50-yard field goal along with five extra points, honoring an angry promise he had made two years earlier. Camarillo won, 38-20.

That kick was one of eight field goals he has made this season. Ciuffitelli is 13 for 15 in PATs. He is tied for the Southern Section lead in scoring by kickers with 37 points. Ciuffitelli has missed six field-goal attempts; three of those misses were blocks and the others came from 47, 52, and 57 yards.

The transition from missing two short kicks as a sophomore to nailing a 50-yarder as a senior is an accurate measure of the two-year journey that has seen Ciuffitelli transformed from a lifelong soccer player who played a little defensive back to a single-minded kicker who might earn a Division I football scholarship.

Ciuffitelli moved with his family to Camarillo from Escondido before his sophomore year in high school. He had played defensive back as a freshman at San Pasqual High and wanted to do the same at Camarillo. But when an assistant coach announced a one-hour kicking tryout, Ciuffitelli, a soccer player since he was 5, figured, why not?

When Thompson saw him kick, he told him, “You’re not playing defensive back or anything else. You’re going to kick and that’s all you’re going to do.�

So that’s all he has done.

His progress as a kicker has come with some assistance. Lee’s father, Larry, played tennis with the father of Sean Cheevers, a kicker at Thousand Oaks High, Moorpark College (1988-89) and Cal State Long Beach (1990-91). The elder Cheevers suggested at the beginning of last summer that the two kickers practice together because Sean would be working out at Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks.

Again, Ciuffitelli figured, why not?

Cheevers, who had a tryout with the Raiders last summer and had a shot at playing in the World League of American Football before it suspended operations this year, gave Ciuffitelli the kind of tutelage that high school coaches rarely have time for: teaching proper mechanics, kicking theory, and advising him on the appropriate attitude. “Sean Cheevers is about the only kicking instruction I’ve ever had,� Ciuffitelli said.

After going toe to toe five days a week, 2 1/2 hours a day all summer, Cheevers thinks his pupil has the tools to succeed in college.

“He’s got a lot of power and he’s very, very mature for his age,� Cheevers said. “Obviously, he has the ability to play at a Division I school. If he has fun with it, he’s going to go real far; if he tries to take it too seriously, he’s going to have problems.�

Ciuffitelli seems to have struck the right mix of work and play. His attitude toward kicking is like a good satire--jaunty and lighthearted in tone, serious in content.

Wearing bright blue and neon pink shorts at practice that immediately set him apart, the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Ciuffitelli takes a place on the offensive line in a non-contact punting drill, growling at the linemen.

He engages in kicking competition with the junior varsity kickers to keep from getting bored, booting kickoffs out of the end zone.

“If you hit a truck or one of those cars parked back there, it’s three points,� he said, pointing to the parking lot. “If you don’t make a game out of it, it gets real monogamous.�

He means monotonous. Still, his practices must seem monogamous in a sense--in football, he can be married only to kicking.

His workouts begin with an hour and a half of stretching, loosening up with easy kicks and then “burying� 50-60 field goals and 25-30 kickoffs at full strength.

And kicking is a lonely existence. During a game, Ciuffitelli stands about 20 yards from the rest of the team on the sidelines. But it can be downright solitary when the game goes down to the wire and the outcome rests on the leg of one guy. Ciuffitelli has faced only one such situation: In his second game last season, he kicked a 40-yard field goal with about two minutes left to give the Scorpions a 20-18 win over San Marcos.

“My girlfriend, after the game said, ‘You know, if you had missed that one, everyone would have hated you,’ � Ciuffitelli said.

He shrugged off her comment the way he shrugs off the pressure inherent in kicking.

Said Cheevers: “You just have to block everything out. Not a lot of people can do that, but he can. That’s pretty rare.�

It is rare enough and Ciuffitelli is good enough that he has attracted recruiting interest from Arizona State, Mississippi State and Nevada Las Vegas. But he needs to block that out as well. “Sean’s always telling me, ‘Don’t worry about colleges. Just worry about this season. The letters will come after the season,’ � Ciuffitelli said.

Cheevers offered similar counsel about Ciuffitelli’s kick that was blocked Oct. 9 against Channel Islands.

“Just blow it off.�

Yep, forget about it. Just like those two you missed as a sophomore. Don’t give it another thought.

Right. Ciuffitelli will probably think about it all summer, and imagine kicking a field goal over the guy who blocked it. As Agoura will attest, he doesn’t easily forget.