Knowing how the game was unfolding and where it might go, Skip Bessey made a decision many in Maine high school football might not have made.
Back in Week 1, Bessey’s Maranacook team made the long trip to Lincoln to face Mattanawcook Academy in a Class D showdown. The Black Bears emerged from halftime of that contest with a 20-14 lead, and in the third quarter, a drive into the Mattanawcook territory was met with a fourth-and-medium in the red zone.
With Mattanawcook a run-heavy team out of the Wing-T, the second-year Maranacook head coach knew a nine-point lead would make a comeback difficult for the Lynx. So, without hesitation, he sent out Parker Rand, who drilled a 35-yard field goal straight through the uprights to make it a two-possession game.
“He can make it from up to 45, and we have a good line, so if they do their jobs, I’m comfortable sending him out there,” Bessey said of Rand. “With the offense Mattanawcook had, I felt going up two scores would make them struggle, so I just said, ‘Let’s kick it,’ and he nailed it. It was huge for us — it’s a weapon (to have a kicker like that).”
That’s a train of thought that’s catching on with more coaches across central Maine these days. The region is chock full of strong kickers, and the ways those players can impact the game to the benefits of their teams is making local coaches rethink strategies and the way they see football.
Rand’s kick, which punctuated a 23-14 Maranacook win, was far from the only big one in central Maine this year. In Week 4, Winthrop’s Gabe Robinson made a 31-yard field goal that ended up being the difference in the Ramblers’ 22-21 victory over Oak Hill. That same week, Messalonskee’s Fin Minkel hit not one but two 40-yarders in a 13-6 win over Gardiner.
If any game was fit for a kicker to generate points, it was that Messalonskee-Gardiner game. Minkel’s first kick came with the Eagles on the 23-yard line with just three seconds left in the first half, while his second came on fourth-and-long from the same spot early in the fourth quarter. Given the strength of Gardiner’s defense that night, relying on “Money Minkel” was Messalonskee’s best bet.
“Having that option changes your perspective of the game and the way you manage the game,” said Messalonskee head coach Blair Doucette. “You feel better about field position when you have somebody who can kick, and in a tight game in the second half or even before half when you don’t have much time left, you just have more ways to put points on the board.”
Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale knew what it had in Robinson even before season year started. Last year, on the same field where he made his 31-yarder in Week 4, Robinson made one from 30 as time expired to give the Ramblers a 17-14 Class D South semifinal victory over Oak Hill. He had been making kicks from as long as 45 yards in pregame warmups.
After the season, Robinson was ready to take on an even bigger role in his 2024 — and the Winthrop coaching staff wasn’t about to pass up that opportunity. The Ramblers went to Robinson right away in the opener against Leavitt as he kicked a 26-yarder for their first points of the season. He’s 31 of 32 kicking extra points this year with the lone miss being blocked.
“Last year, when we met with Gabe for his exit interview, he said to us, ‘Any time we get down inside the 20 and have fourth-and-goal, kick the ball; I can get it for you,’” said Winthrop head coach Joel Stoneton. “It’s such a buzzkill to get all the way down there and not get points, so that’s really what drove us this year to start taking a look at those things.”
A similar thing has happened at Winslow, where Hassan Hobbi has emerged as another top kicker in the region. Last year, Hobbi hit a 34-yarder with just over a minute left to lead the Black Raiders to a 16-14 win over Madison. He made a 26-yarder against Foxcroft this year, and Winslow has since gone from a team that usually goes for 2 to one that frequently opts for single point-afters.
“(Our coaches) send me out there a lot more now because they’ve started to trust me more after seeing me kick it,” Hobbi said. “(Head coach Wes Littlefield) definitely started to implement me more and more because it was more consistent than going for 2. He’s been going for a lot of 1s recently because he knows I can go out and do it.”
Most kickers come from soccer backgrounds. Minkel played the sport up until the fifth grade, while Rand played through middle school before switching to football. Hobbi played street soccer in Iraq before moving to the United States in the third grade. Robinson? Well, he was playing soccer just last year before switching to football midseason after his school, Kents Hill, joined Winthrop’s co-op.
Training, though, is starting to go beyond that. Robinson went to Auburn University to attend a kicking camp over the offseason, while Minkel and Rand both traveled to Boston to attend a Kicking World showcase. Minkel also spent time over the summer working with Sam Lenson, a former University of Maine punter who runs Lenson Punting & Kicking.
“I kicked all season last year, and I wanted to get really good at it — even better — so I just worked at it all offseason with different coaches and tried to practice it as much as I could,” Minkel said. “It was great working with Coach Lenson. He knows everything about kicking, so it was cool to learn from him. He taught me a lot of technical stuff.”
When he started Lenson Punting & Kicking in spring 2021, Lenson worked with only two or three Maine high school kickers, with most of his clients coming from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Now, just three years later, he works with 10 Maine-based kickers from Noble all the way to Hampden Academy.
Lenson doesn’t think that’s a coincidence. Coaches across the state, he said, are placing more emphasis on special teams as football concepts and strategies continue to grow. As more and more players and coaches reach out to him, he feels Maine is only scratching the surface in terms of what the kicking game can do.
“I think a lot of coaches are realizing how important it is,” Lenson said. “The amount of coaches that talk to me that want to do more with special teams and help with their guys has progressively grown. I really think there’s more potential in the state of Maine, and I really want to help push that and help bring that wave forward.”
Stoneton sees it, too. In the 29 years he’s been on Winthrop’s coaching staff, he’s never seen as many teams lining up for field goals and extra points as they do today. Teams everywhere, Stoneton said, are doing more to take advantage of field position, whether that means turning unfavorable downs and distances into three points or using kickoffs and punts to flip the field.
The Ramblers have been one of those teams. In the offseason, Winthrop’s coaching staff sat down and decided it wanted to place a greater emphasis on special teams. Assistant Mark Feith stepped in as special teams coordinator, a new position on the staff, and has helped provide a new dimension that’s helped 7-0 Winthrop emerge as one of the best teams in the state.
“It’s one thing to have a great special teams unit full of great bodies and great athletes, but it’s another to say, ‘OK, these guys do this well but not this, so we’re going to attack them here and make them do something they’re not comfortable doing,’” Feith said. “Whether that’s rushing the punt or giving them a different look on your own kick, those changes from week to week really change the game.”
It starts with having a kicker who can pin opponents deep on punts and kickoffs, another area where Robinson has been a boon for Winthrop. Minkel has also been strong on kickoffs for Messalonskee, while Rand said his training at Kicking World added roughly 5 yards on his kickoffs, which he can now boot 50 yards consistently.
As for the kicks that score points? Well, much of that comes down to mental fortitude — and central Maine kickers seem to have it. Robinson says he’s a blank slate when he goes on to kick, and the senior’s coaches say he has “ice in his veins”; Minkel says the key is to not overthink the process; Rand? He just has faith in his abilities to do something he’s done before.
“It all comes down to knowing you can make the next one,” Rand said. “Kicking takes a lot of practice, but if you do it many, many times, you know you can do this, and it’s just about actually proving it that becomes the issue. Yeah, you can always miss some, but if you know you can do it, I just don’t see why you would doubt yourself.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is found on our FAQs. You can modify your screen name here.
Comments are managed by our staff during regular business hours Monday through Friday as well as limited hours on Saturday and Sunday. Comments held for moderation outside of those hours may take longer to approve.
Join the Conversation
Please sign into your CentralMaine.com account to participate in conversations below. If you do not have an account, you can register or subscribe. Questions? Please see our FAQs.