Neshannock soccer player getting his kicks in football, too
Written: Oct 01, 2010
 
By JOE SIMON
New Castle News
Pat Cuba was at Neshannock High School over the winter, when something caught his eye.
It was a young man on the football field booming kicks in the freezing cold.
That young man turned out to be Johnny Fennick, a sophomore at the time. It caught Cuba by surprise because Fennick wasn’t a football player then. He strictly played soccer, and Cuba had to find out why.
“He’s been playing soccer since he could walk,” Cuba said. “I saw him play — he’s a good athlete. He has a naturally strong leg, so I said, ‘Johnny, why don’t you play football? You don’t have to come every day. I only need you a few days a week when we kick.’ ”
Fennick said he’s always been a big fan of football, but soccer is his favorite sport. Since the two seasons are at the same time of year, he couldn’t do both. That is, until Cuba and soccer coach Sam Reino talked and found a middle ground.
“The soccer team doesn’t practice ’til like 6, and we’re usually done by then,” Cuba said. “Sam is good at letting us have the kickers to work with. Sam and I talk, and we never have any problems.”
Fennick said his father, Jon, who played quarterback at Laurel High School, talked to him about playing football before, and after thinking it over, Fennick started to take it seriously last year.
A knee injury over the summer kept Fennick from participating in two-a-days, but he still wanted to give football a try. So, when he finally was healthy, a week after school started, he showed up to practice.
“I didn’t come back (from the injury) until about a week into school,” he said. “I came to my first practice, and they said ‘Fennick, you’re playing in the next game.’ ”
Fennick’s first chance at a field goal came in last week’s game against Sto-Rox. The game was tied 0-0 and time was running out in the first half. Although it was a 40-yard field goal, Cuba showed faith in the inexperienced Fennick.
“I wasn’t sure if they were going to put me in or not, and I heard coach Cuba say ‘field goal.’ I couldn’t even walk, I was so nervous,” Fennick said. “I just told myself, ‘Don’t put too much power into it. It’s is all technique.’ That worked. ... I felt like I was on Cloud 9 after that.”
It’s that feeling and being part of a team that keeps Fennick dedicated, which is something he had to do to learn how to kick. The process isn’t as easy as some may think. A soccer player kicks a round ball that weighs roughly 15 ounces. Most soccer players, mainly those on offense, want to kick low, line drives that bend or curve into the net.
A football, on the other hand, is a completely different shape and requires a specific approach. That’s where Neshannock special teams coach Dave Bowen comes in. He’s worked with Fennick to help him understand how to tweak his style.
“In soccer, you whip your leg across your body more (when you kick),” Bowen said. “In football, you want your leg to stay straight. The other thing I make sure they do is keep their chest down and sink their plant foot. It drives the hip more so you get more force into the ball. They (soccer players) have a tendency to come up when they kick.”
Fennick has caught on quickly. Cuba said if Fennick continues to improve, he could have a bright future.
“I coached college ball for 20-some years, and Fennick is as good as any kid I had in college,” said Cuba, who coached at Slippery Rock University and Westminster College. “If that’s only what he focused on, he could at least be a Division II kicker. I’ve been impressed with him.”
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