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Red-Nosed Pirate May Light Way

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By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 12, 2008

DADE CITY - On the morning before the school's biggest football game in nearly a generation, Pasco High's placekicker sports a nose to match his influence on the portion of the field inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

That is, it is a startling red. For football teams, which regard the "red zone" as territory in which they are likely to score, red is good. For the noses of 16-year-old kickers, not so much.

Add a sonorous gurgling reminiscent of someone flushing a swamp that attends the kicker's attempts to inhale, and it's easy to understand why Brennan Allen's preparations for tonight's Class 3A state semifinals have included getting his backside loaded with vitamin B12 injections - twice.

The recommendation came down from the highest available authority - Pasco High Principal Pat Reedy, who ascribes to the treatment, as Allen understands it, under FedEx guidelines: "When he's coming down with something but absolutely, positively has to be somewhere, or make some speech."

A similar rubric applies to Allen as the astonishing Pirates prepare to take on daunting and storied Tallahassee Godby in the showdown at W.E. Edwards Stadium to determine northern Florida's representative in next Friday's state championship game.

Considering that four of the team's 12 wins, a full third, came by two points or fewer, and given the kicker's instrumentality in surviving that most recent nail-biter, Pirates fans will breathe easier if, come 7:30 p.m., Allen is, well, breathing easier.

Determined To Find Sweet Spot

Not to worry. The tall young man with the prodigious leg and a head swimming in a sea of chestnut curls is determined to feel his best come kickoff time, and in Allen's world, determination counts for much. After all, whether in golf, tennis, baseball, placekicking or life, the elusive sweet spot doesn't just find itself.

Take, for example, what turned out to be the deciding field goal in Pasco's 13-12 regional final win last week. Despite manifesting a case of the yips brought on by stubborn North Marion's speedy outside kick-rushers, Allen thumped an inelegant 27-yard fourth-quarter knuckleball that, nonetheless, became a thing of beauty when it gathered just enough altitude to clear the crossbar.

So much for Murphy's Law. In the presence of preparation, confidence and will, whatever can go wrong doesn't necessarily have to go wrong.

This is among the reasons - besides the fact that Allen, prodigiously long and accurate, may yet become the Tiger Woods of high school placekickers - Coach Tom McHugh resists the kid's aspiration to become an every-down player, despite athletic gifts that suggest he could ably contribute, even at the final-four level, as a defensive back or wide receiver.

"I like to hit," Allen says. McHugh winces like the owner of a china shop in the presence of longhorns. The good news for the coach and the coach's cardiologist is that Allen's kickoffs routinely are too deep to return, and his standing order on punts is, "Get off the field."

Special Is As Special Does

"The kind of kid he is, that makes him special," McHugh says. "You think, 'What does he need to do to get to the next level,' and you find out he's already doing it."

A Church Avenue kid who grew up in Dade City youth leagues under the coaxing of his grandfather, the late Dennis "Poppy" Allen, his foundation allows him even grander ambitions, beginning with a big-college scholarship (he's fondest of the Florida Gators).

Twenty pounds of flexible muscle may stand between him and that goal, but academics don't. He's in Pasco High's honors studies, taking on physiology and anatomy, physics, psychology and English. The others he endures; with an ear for the written phrase his teachers have described as distinctive, English has become Allen's academic red zone.

Even texting his swelling circle of chums, Allen doesn't cheat: "I don't shorthand words; I use commas, apostrophes, even question marks." Bless him. Of course, it is the failed placekicker who doesn't understand the importance of follow-through.

Brennan Allen, the one-kid red-zone expander, does not include failure in his plans.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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