The kick(er) is true: Bingham's Sorensen is the real deal

Here's the kicker about all this, so to speak: "A lot of people don't realize that Justin is kicking off grass," says Peck.

Unlike collegians and professionals, high school kickers are allowed to kick field goals and PATs off plastic tees, raising the ball well above the level of the grass. It gives kickers the same advantage that a golfer enjoys with a tee. Sorensen has elected to kick field goals and PATs without a tee this season to get ready for next year's collegiate season, even though rules allow it and it provides a distinct advantage (last season, he used a two-inch tee for kickoffs and a one-inch tee for field goals).

"Now he's gotten comfortable without it and prefers to kick that way," says Peck.

Says Sorensen: "If I put it on a tee, I can kick farther, but I'd be worried if I changed things now."

There's rarely, if ever, been a kicker like Sorensen, with his odd combination of size, strength and kicking ability. He bench-presses 330 pounds, squats 500 pounds and power cleans 330 pounds, the latter being close to a national high school record. During last spring's power-lifting season, he set the state record for the power clean.

Sorensen developed his kicking skills as a youth soccer player and began playing football in eighth grade, as a linebacker, fullback and kicker. "My son was on that team, and I remember seeing Justin kick off," says Peck. "Even then you could tell he was a strong kicker."

He also was a hard-hitting position player. Given Sorensen's size, strength and taste for contact, Peck was tempted to play him at another position last season but considered him too valuable as a kicker to risk injury. He considered using him as a fullback again this season but abandoned the idea when Sorensen sustained a shoulder injury while rock climbing.

"The one thing I miss as a kicker is the hitting," says Sorensen, who nonetheless has made several teeth-rattling tackles on the rare occasions when his kicks have been short enough to field.

Sorensen's size and physicality make him a bruising force on defense for the Bingham soccer team in the spring. "I try not to use my size that way," he says, but it's not easy when playing against players who are usually on the small size.

Predictably, Sorensen has attracted much attention from college football recruiters. Coaches from Oregon, Stanford, Colorado, Illinois and Washington were recruiting him before BYU convinced him to commit ("I still talk to Washington," he says).