Oberon farmer kicks big goal for Aussie football punters in US

His football season starts in September, where he plays in a packed 15,000 seat stadium with bands and cheergirls. That’s after his working  break in Australia, where he has been helping drench first cross ewes with his siblings and catching up with his parents Anthony and Deborah on “Bundella” at Porters Retreat near Oberon. 

The incredible adventure started when his talents were spotted by former Wallaby great Marty Roebuck, who did physio for the rugby teams at Owen’s old boarding school, St Stanislaus’ College, Bathurst.

 Now at 23, Owen is a fully-fledged member of the Panthers grid iron team at Prairie View A&M University, just outside of Houston, Texas, where he fits in his study of kinesiology during a rigorous training schedule.

Owen has learnt to muscle his way through some cultural differences. He had the honour last year of kicking the first points in the new $61 million stadium at Prairie View. Owen, who is  six feet, stands out, apart from being a leading kicker and punter - he’s one of the few caucasian students in a traditional black american college. "It was a real eye opener. I was the only white student in the football team in my first season, and no one could understand me at all because of the different accent, " he says. 

He plays in the NCAA Division 1, and was the conference choice as punter last year. The Panthers are so hot in American football, one of their  upcoming games will be broadcast on the ESPN network.

 Everything has to be at high speed when you’re kicking in American football. He only gets 1.3 seconds to kick the ball, held by another player. “It’s all to do with a lot of good timing,” he says. It took him a while to learn the ‘sweet spot’ of where to kick the grid-iron ball for maximum effect. He says the Americans are mad on statistics and “record every kick you ever do”. A grid-iron ball is rarely out of his hands even when he’s back at “Bundella”, where he’s set up makeshift goals to keep his eye in.

For grid iron afficionados this is his last season’s stats: “He averaged 37.8 yards per punt on 56 attempts with 19 downed inside the 20, 26 fair catches with a long of 54 and only two touchbacks …  made season-long tying 37-yard field goal with 12 seconds to play in fourth quarter to tie game and send to overtime in homecoming win over Alabama St. (10/8). ” That means (we think), he’s doing pretty good ! In fact on the Panthers website he’s lauded as one of the special players of the upcoming season. Aussies are renowned for being punters in US football, stretching back decades. Owen is keeping the tradition alive and well.

His mum Deborah is very proud of his achievements.  “There, right from Year 7, he was always the kicker for whatever rugby team he was playing for,” Deborah says. Marty Roebuck contacted  Anthony, Owen's father, and asked if he'd mind if he took Owen to watch some Aussie Rules kicking practice because Owen was "the best kicker he'd ever seen".  That’s when the ball started rolling for him.

After a number of clinics in Australia, he went to America  and was scouted by Prairie View and given a full athletic scholarship while studying and staying at Santa Barbara, one of Owen’s favourite US locations. “This college is HBCU (historically black college/university) so Owen has dealt with some huge differences in culture, beginning with his first day on campus when he walked into the crowded ref and was the only white student,” Deborah Hoolihan said. “ We went over last October and watched the State Fair Classic at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the spectacle was absolutely unbelievable.  Last season he played at Texas A&M in front of  100,000 spectators, was awarded the Special Teams Player of the Year for Prairie View, and was named the Conference Punter.  We think his initiative is something that might motivate other young bush kids.  He's certainly taken the opportunities.”

Owen says: “Playing against the likes of Myles Garrett, who was the number one draft pick in the recent draft, was pretty cool. Mum and Dad have hung that picture on the wall and tell everyone who he is.”

He’s 40 minutes from downtown Houston and sometimes heads off down there. A car is too expensive for him. “I just get lifts,” he says.

He trains four times a week and does weights or “lifts” twice a week. His classes at Prairie View are compulsory and his position in the Panthers is dependent on him passing all his subjects. He was astonished to find the Panthers had their very own marching band. “They pump a lot of money into it.”

When his parents came to the Cotton Bowl, his team were given police escorts to the game.

Games sometimes go on for three hours. There are about 130 teams in his division.

Back home at “Bundella”, Owen has been doing “a bit of crutching, bit of drenching, bit of fencing”, before he puts on his new hat - or helmet - and heads to the heady world of American football. His time may run out soon as he scholarship comes to an end, but he will never forget the amazing world he has entered and been part of  in the US just because  he was a young Aussie who could kick far - very far.