Lukas Scott had a shorter leg, and wore a smaller kicking shoe, when he first discovered the joys of swinging his foot into a brown leather ball.
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ rookie kicker was once a standout on the provincial Pass, Punt and Kick Competition circuit.
“It was a good starting point for me, and a main contributor to why I started kicking,” Scott said this week prior to a practice session at Griffiths Stadium.
Scott, also a competitive soccer player, competed in the kick portion — measuring distance off a kickoff, with an emphasis on keeping it straight. He won the provincial 10-under titles in 2014 and 2015, 12-under in 2016, and 14-under in 2018.
Each time he won, he got a free pass to Mosaic Stadium for a Roughriders game and an announcement of the champions — which led, in a less than linear path, to a moment this past Friday, when he lined up a 47-yard field goal with a game against the Alberta Golden Bears hanging in the balance.
The Huskies’ kicking coach, Braden Suchan, had a few words with Scott before he headed onto the pressure-packed field of play.
“I said to him: ‘These are the plays we think of and dream of when we’re kids. Just go and have fun,’ ” Suchan recalls. “At the end of the day, you’re going to miss it, or you’re going to make it. You might as well be confident in your abilities and just enjoy the moment.”
Scott nailed the kick with 54 seconds on the clock, and the Huskies hung on for a 33-30 victory.
After a wobbly start to the season, Scott — who redshirted in 2023 — has provided a sure foot for the 2-3 Huskies, who host the unbeaten Manitoba Bisons Friday at 7 p.m.
He’s made eight of his 10 field-goal attempts, including an overtime shot Sept. 13 against Calgary and the 47-yarder this past Friday.
“Those first two weeks, I was pretty stressed out, walking on the field and on the sidelines,” said Scott, who kicked and played receiver at Saskatoon Holy Cross before joining the Huskies prior to last season. “I’ve learned to stay calm throughout the game. It’s like any other kick I’ve done for the last three or four years.”
Scott works hard at his kicking, and he also does a lot of thinking about the craft. Suchan said he sometimes has to apply a brake to his young charge, who finds himself in game-preparation mode after apprenticing under now-graduated David Solie last season.
“He’s got long legs, he works hard in the gym, and he’s been kicking for a long time,” Suchan said. “He obviously likes to kick. He doesn’t stop working, to a point where I have to tell him, ‘You’ve got a pitch count in your leg, and your leg gets tired. You’ve got to tone it down a little bit.’
“Trust your ability, and be confident in your ability — that’s the biggest thing Lukas has to learn. He’s done it so many times. He just has to be able to do it when we need him to do it.”
After Scott’s game-winning kick on Friday, Saskatchewan running back Ryker Frank said: “It’s a career-defining kick right there, and it takes a lot of guts to make that.”
Scott, meanwhile, said he’s focusing more on the mental side of the game right now than the physical. Kicking is a novel position — long periods of inactivity followed by high-wire, high-tension moments with clocks ticking down.
“You put in all the physical work in the off-season, getting to the best form you can,” Scott said. “Once you get to the season, you know you have those skills.
“One of our special-teams coaches says if you do it once, you can do it every time. It’s mental fortitude — staying strong when you’re on the field, and being able to wipe bad memories. If you have a bad kick, wipe it, and make the next one a good one. There’s definitely a big focus on mental right now.”
Scott said his predecessor Solie is a role model, and they still keep in touch. Solie helped him both physically and mentally last year as he made the adjustment from high-school football to the collegiate level.
And now he’s the team’s full time placekicker and punter, in the midst of a playoff push, with leaves falling and the weather cooling.
“I’m living the dream,” Scott said. “I’m playing for my home-town university, and kicking. It’s something I love.”
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