Beach Begins On Bench (Daily News-Record)

In an upset, Kyle Beach won’t kick in Bridgewater College’s season opener Saturday.

Daily News-Record - By Jeremy Cothran

BRIDGEWATER — Kyle Beach has waited two years to kick for Bridgewater College, a journey that’s taken him from the Shenandoah Valley to construction work in Arlington to a community college in Huntsville, Ala.

Turns out, he still has some waiting to do.

In a surprise, Beach -- the starting place-kicker in 2002 and 2003 -- lost a battle to kick for the Eagles in the season-opener Saturday at McDaniel. That honor instead will go to Luke Taylor, a sophomore from Williamsburg.

"Kyle has done it before for us on Saturdays when it matters," BC coach Michael Clark said Wednesday. "It’s just not going to be this Saturday."

Clark said Beach’s 18-month layoff was a factor in his decision. He didn’t want to rush the junior from Manassas back into action too quickly, especially after he suffered a herniated disk in his back early in summer practices.

Taylor, who has never kicked in a varsity game for the Eagles, said he’s ready.

"I’ve been making them in practice," Taylor said. "So there’s no reason to believe that I can’t make them in the games. There will probably be some nerves when I step on the field [at McDaniel], but I’ll go into my normal kick routine I use in practice, and I’ve been making those."

Clark plans to give Taylor a little leeway with the kicking duties, because he knows how pressure can play havoc with a kicker who’s constantly looking over his shoulder at his backup. Even so, he said Beach still has an opportunity to unseat Taylor because there are so few variables in evaluating players. Either he makes it, or misses it.

"It’s the easiest position to judge," Clark said, "because it’s so cut-and-dry. What’s your range? What’s your percentage? I told Luke that one kick wouldn’t make or break it [for him]. I want him to relax."

Taylor spent two years backing up David Blackwell and knew it would be tough to edge out Beach, who held a trump card with the experience factor. What sealed the deal for Clark – who coaches the Eagles’ special teams when part-time assistant Harry Trevathian is not with the team – was Taylor’s performance in the Eagles’ pressure-kick drills at the end of each practice.

Still, he’s yet to kick a game-winning field goal in a competitive game.

"Most of my games in high school were blowouts either way," said Taylor, who attended Bruton. "I know that a big kick validates what the entire team has worked hard for, and that’s a lot of pressure."

He may be in that situation on Saturday. Last year, Blackwell missed three field goals – including a 39-yard attempt with 4:18 remaining – and had an extra point blocked in the Eagles’ 36-35 loss to the Green Terror.

For Beach, he looked at his return as a way to make up for a missed opportunity. He was working construction in Arlington after dropping out of school because of academic failures when he woke up one morning and asked himself, "What am I doing here?"

"It’s not a fun life," Beach said. "That was my motivation [for returning to school]. I thought, ‘Somebody else should be doing this.’"

Beach had a successful debut season at Bridgewater in 2002. He beat out Blackwell for the kicking job as a freshman, even though he was recruited out of Osbourn Park by ex-BC offensive coordinator Bob Colbert to play wide receiver. Beach was good enough his freshman season to earn second-team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference honors, going 7-for-10 on field goals and 46-for-51 on extra points.

"The year before, we were 1-for-14 in field goals," Clark said. "We still played for the national championship, but [Beach] didn’t have a tough act to follow."

Beach slumped his sophomore season, going 5-for-9 on field goals as he split time with Blackwell. It was then that his academic troubles bubbled into legitimate problems and he left school. From there, he bounced around from his construction gig to waiting tables at a seafood restaurant while he attended Calhoun Community College in Huntsville. Once he brought his grades up, a call was placed to Clark.

"He told me I could come back if that’s what I really wanted to do," Beach said. "I wanted to make sure that I’m graduating. I’m not a 19-year-old freshman anymore. I’m 22. It’s time to get on with life."

NOTES: Clark announced the rest of his special teams starters on Wednesday, including a pair of local players. Scott Ruebush, a sophomore from Fort Defiance High School, has been named the starting punter, and freshman lineman Louis Sanchez of Harrisonburg will start as the long snapper for field goals.