Getting a kick out of practice

The sun was beating down Friday on the players practicing at the University of California, Irvine. Each unit had its own drills, guided by an assistant coach. Away from the main practice stood three players with a bunch of footballs and no coaches. The three kickers on the University of Southern California football team would kick a ball, watch it sail toward the uprights, and then kick another one. A large crowd was gathered to watch practice, one of the last ones open to the public before the team's opening game against Purdue on Sunday. The only people watching the kickers, however, were about six or seven school-age children who would fight each other for the balls after every kick. After the kicker's ball supply was used up, one of them would go chase the youngsters around to collect all the balls. Then he would trudge back to the field, distribute the balls accordingly, and everyone would start kicking again. This was how two hours of practice went for the kickers, and how the better part of two weeks of two practices a day have gone. The three kickers know their role on the team, and it isn't to block or tackle or run. It's to kick the bail as far as they can high enough for a return team to get under it for the punters, between the uprights for the placekickers. David Bell has to know how to do everything. The sophomore kicker from Western High School in Anaheim will be the back-up placekicker and punter, as well as handling kick-"I' m just trying to do whatever I can to help the team," Bell said. "Whatever they want me to do, I'll do." People who have followed Western High football tell stories about Bell.