Irwin-Hill's punting skills earn place with US college's gridiron line-up

By Tanya Paolucci
Updated November 7 2012 - 5:29am, first published July 19 2011 - 11:08am
kicking on: Sam Irwin-Hill near the centre of Bendigo at Alexandra Fountain.   Picture: PETER WEAVING
kicking on: Sam Irwin-Hill near the centre of Bendigo at Alexandra Fountain. Picture: PETER WEAVING

Former Bendigo Pioneer Sam Irwin-Hill has been offered the opportunity of a lifetime, earning a place as a punter with the San Francisco Rams gridiron team.Irwin-Hill, who also played for Eaglehawk Football Club, will spend two seasons at the Rams and will study at City College San Francisco over the next 16 months.The 20-year-old, who leaves for the United States this weekend, was assisted by fellow Bendigo football star and former AFL player Nathan Chapman in his gridiron journey.“I got involved through Nathan Chapman through an academy called ProKick Australia,” Irwin-Hill said.“I called him up one day because I was interested in the course he taught at the academy and he told me to come down and have a kick and it went on from there.”Irwin-Hill was then identified by an NFL scout to have the ability to gain a position as a punter at an American college.“We had Greg Montgomery come across, who is an ex-NFL player, and he basically told me that I had the potential to play college football over there,” he said.“It’s a fairly different sport to AFL. “It’s a different technique and it took a while to get used to it, but once I started training I adjusted to it pretty well.”Irwin-Hill played the 2007 and ’08 seasons with the Bendigo Pioneers in the AFL Victoria TAC Cup under-18 competition.His punting skills were helped along by Brisbane-based Chapman during sessions in Melbourne, and by the Academy’s assistant coach John Smith.Despite completing year 12 at Catholic College Bendigo, Irwin-Hill said his academic performance was not yet acceptable for him to play division one football, so he will start in the lower division.“I won’t be able to play division one straight away because of my academic situation, but that is something I can improve on.“The only reason I missed out is because I didn’t complete two core subjects during year 12, because they base it on your results from year nine to year 12 and I didn’t have the necessary core subjects.“I’ve got to do a certain amount of core units to be eligible to go to division one after that, so that will be my focus.“It means that if I want to get on the track I have to perform in my studies as well,” Irwin-Hill said of pursuing a gridiron career.In his preparation for the US, Irwin-Hill has been training at Bendigo’s Lifestyle Fitness, where manger Ricky Daniels assisted the athlete in his fitness regime.“When I came back to Bendigo my mum (Susanne) introduced me to Ricky Daniels at Lifestlye Fitness,” he said of workouts at the Bath Lane fitness centre.“Because Ricky is from America, he understood what my goal was and what I wanted to get out of it,” he said of training with the Bendigo Braves and Ballarat Miners basketball star.“We started doing plyometric training, which is basically speeding up from a short start and building up your exclusivity and acceleration.“It involves a lot of jumping and a lot of squat jumps, and things I haven’t really had to do before.“I know that if I want to get the best out of myself before I go this is the right sort of thing to do.”Irwin-Hill starts college orientation next Monday at City College.

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