OP_012320

More documents

Recommendations

Info

46 | January 23, 2020 | the orland Park Prairie sports OPPrairiedaily.com Richardson gets carried away with kicking for NIU 3 RANDY WHALEN Freelance Reporter John Richardson remembers when he first tried kicking back in sixth grade at St. Michael School in Orland Park. “I started playing football in fifth grade, and I started kicking in sixth,” said Richardson, who originally had played soccer. “They needed someone to kick off on the grammar school team, and when I was kicking the ball down to the 5- or 10- yard line, they were like, ‘There might be something here.’” There was. Soon Richardson was kicking extra points at St. Michael. Since those were harder to make, they were worth two points rather than the one if the conversion was run or passed in. Eight years later, Richardson still lives in Orland Park, and he is still kicking. But now it is on a much bigger stage, as he is the placekicker at Northern Illinois University. While the Huskies (5- 7) had a losing record this past fall for only the second time in the past 11 seasons, they won a pair of close games in the final seconds on field goals by Richardson — both on the road and in the state of Ohio. First was a 37-yard kick for a 39-36 victory with no time left on Oct. 12 against Ohio University. The second came on Nov. 13 in a 31-28 win over the University of Toledo on a 25-yard field goal with 41 seconds to play in the game. “In the Ohio game, the snap came with three seconds left,” Richardson said. Orland Park native John Richardson kicks a game-winning field goal against Ohio with no time left on Oct. 12. LON HORWEDEL/NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY “It was really cool because it was the last play of the game, and my teammates picked me up and carried me. The second one, against Toledo, it was cold out. I just wanted to make it and get out of there. “But I just wanted to make the most of my opportunity and come through when needed.” As a redshirt freshman this season, Richardson did just that. He converted on 14-of-18 field goal attempts and was 30-for-30 on extra points to lead the team in scoring with 72 total points. That allowed him to garner 2019 All Mid-American Conference third team honors. If he stays healthy and remains the Huskies’ top kicker the next three years, he can make a huge impact on the leaderboard. He is KICKING IT The top 10 NIU kicking scorers. Redshirt freshman John Richardson has 72 points. NAME YEARS POINTS 1. Steve Azar 2000-03 370 2. Mathew Sims 2010-13 358 3. Chris Nendick 2004-07 332 4. Christian Hagan 2014-17 298 5. John Ivanic 1987-90 253 6. Vince Scott 1980-83 192 7. Mike Salerno 2008-09 184* 8. Brian Clark 1995-98 152 9. Rome Moga 1977-80 142 10. Brian Steger 1992-93 118 *-- Sandburg graduate and Orland Park native on pace for 288 points, which would put him fifth on NIU’s list among kickers. If he gets into the Top 10 next season, he would be the second Orland Park native to make the list. Mike Salerno, who booted for Sandburg, is seventh on the list with 184 points from 2008-2009. Richardson’s longest field goal this season was a 51-yarder in the Ohio game. He thinks in normal conditions he could kick in the mid-50 yard range. What is the key for Richardson when he is kicking? “You just have to go out and think that every kick is the same,” he said. “There’s a lot of repetition. It’s sort of the same thing as a golf swing, except you’re kicking it.” A 2018 Brother Rice graduate, Richardson had tons of success at the Chicago school. He was second in the state for most consecutive PATs made with 101 over his three seasons on the varsity team. He was named Special Teams Player of the Year following his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. He was first team All- Conference in the Catholic League Blue as a senior. Richardson made a careerlong field goal from 48 yards out during the 2017 season and hit six of his eight field goal attempts overall. As a sophomore, he connected on all nine of his field goal attempts and added seven field goals in 2016. Brother Rice coach Brian Badke is happy to see Richardson succeed. “We are so excited for Johnny and his success this past season,” Badke said. “He had a great year and having two walk-off gamewinning field goals is pretty special. We look forward to following John and NIU football for the years to come. “We have had a few players over the years attend and play NIU that graduated from Brother Rice such as Brenden Dolan, Steve Nye, Mike McShane, Dan Nicholson, Marcus Jones, and now Johnny Richardson.” When he was in high school, Richardson attended a Kohl’s Professional Football Kicking Camp in Aurora. There, he kicked a 63-yard field goal and advanced to another of those camps in Florida. Along the way, he got noticed by NIU and committed to the school. Richardson, who is majoring in business administration with a minor in accountancy, could not be happier at NIU. He is looking forward to the next three seasons of being a Huskie. While he said he “doesn’t look up to any NFL kickers” he can dream of playing in the NFL someday. “Sure, if the opportunity presented itself,” Richardson said of joining an NFL team. “It’s definitely something I’d look into.”
OPPrairiedaily.com sports the orland park prairie | January 23, 2020 | 47 fastbreak THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK Coyne gets King-sized kudos for video and scrimmage 1ST AND 3 PHOTO SUBMITTED A FEW FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT ORLAND PARK KICKER JOHN RICHARDSON (ABOVE) AND NIU’S FOOTBALL TEAM 1. A good PAT-tern Richardson had 101 straight pointafter-touchdown kicks for Brother Rice in high school and went 30-for-30 in 2019 for Northern Illinois University. 2. Strong leg Not only did Richardson kick gamewinning field goals in Ohio and Toledo, earlier in the Ohio game, he kicked a 51-yard field goal. 3. Also from Orland The seventh-leading kicking point scorer in NIU history is Mike Salerno, a Sandburg grad and OP native, who notched 184 points. Jeff Vorva Sports Editor There was a time when Billie Jean King was one of the biggest sports stars on the planet. The tennis great won countless tournaments, including 39 Grand Slam titles. In 1973, a goofy exhibition with 55-yearold Bobby Riggs was one of the hugest events of the decade, and they made a movie about it a few years ago. She has done so much for women’s sports over the years. King is still making appearances and trying to promote women’s sports as much as she can. The legend is a big fan of Kendall Coyne Schofield, a Sandburg graduate who may or not become as big of a name as Billie Jean King, but is extremely important to female athletes of this generation. King, who has more than 504,000 Twitter followers recently tweeted two cool things that are going on with our local hero. First, King was impressed with and hawked a video feature that was to debut on Blackhawks TV Wednesday, Jan. 22, and can be found on Black hawks.com. It is a profile of Coyne and her life, gold- and silver- medal Olympic career, and her trailblazing race around the rink as the first woman to compete in the NHL Skills competition in 2019 during its All-Star weekend. It is called “As Fast as Her” and the Blackhawks’ tagline for the feature is “Who knew one lap would inspire so many?” Billie Jean was not done. She also promoted another event that Coyne will be a part of: a 20-minute 3-on- 3 scrimmage between two women’s teams as a part of the NHL All-Star festivities at on Friday, Jan. 24, at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis. The scrimmage between United States and Canadian stars is dubbed the Elite Women’s 3 on 3 Game. “I was the individual who skated that lap,” Coyne told the Associated Press. “So to step alongside 19 other women just shows how we’ve earned this opportunity to have more women involved.” NHL Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer, who was also geeked up by Coyne’s performance last year told the AP, “It was Kendall Coyne is a subject of a Chicago Blackhawks video feature and will be a part of the NHL All-Star game festivities in a 3-on-3 women’s scrimmage. DAVE REGINEK/USA HOCKEY just this moment, having been there and experienced it, that you’ll never forget. And then we had to look immediately, how in the world are we going to top this?” We will see Friday. More good hockey news The day after Coyne and her friends skate around for the good of women’s sports, the Eagles Hockey Club will be skating around the Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park for the good of some athletes with special needs. The Eagles are to take on the Blackhawks Special Hockey team in a fundraising scrimmage at 3:40 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25. There will be raffles, a Chuck-A-Puck and skills competitions. Money raised will go to the Special Blackhawks team, which features Sandburg Special Olympian Colin Lewis. This is the second time Lewis and his Blackhawks pals play in Orland Park. On Jan. 11, the Blackhawks faced an Orland Park Vikings team that featured Colin’s brother, Brendan. That event raised $3,610. LISTEN UP “It was really cool because it was the last play of the game, and my teammates picked me up and carried me.” John Richardson — NIU kicker and Orland Park native, on his game-winning field goal against Ohio WHAT2WATCH WRESTLING Various times, Friday, Jan. 24 and Saturday, Jan. 25 • Sandburg is at the SouthWest Suburban Conference Blue meet at Stagg High School. Index 42 - Girls basketball 41 - Athlete of the Week Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva, J.vorva@22ndcm.com
Page 1 and 2: 2020 BALLOT INSIDE THIS ISSUE VOTE
Page 3 and 4: OPPrairiedaily.com news the orland
Page 5 and 6: OPPrairiedaily.com orland park the
Page 9 and 10: OPPrairiedaily.com news the orland
Page 15 and 16: OPPrairiedaily.com school the orlan
Page 17 and 18: OPPrairiedaily.com community the or
Page 19 and 20: OPPrairiedaily.com sound off the or
Page 21 and 22: Friday nights done right The Bridge
Page 23 and 24: OPPrairiedaily.com life & Arts the
Page 26 and 27: 26 | January 23, 2020 | the orland
Page 48: Orland Park’s Hometown Newspaper

OP_012320

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?