FAYETTEVILLE — A conversation on the soccer fields last spring has led to an addition to the Fayetteville football staff this fall.
Joe Thoma, girls soccer coach at Fayetteville, will serve as a volunteer on the Bulldogs’ staff in 2012 and will coach placekickers. Thoma, who returned for a second stint at Fayetteville last year after previously coaching Bulldogs soccer in the early to mid-1990’s, said the opportunity to help with the football program came up in discussions with Fayetteville special teams coach and assistant soccer coach Tim Miller.
“Coach Miller just asked if I could come out and help out with the kickers,” Thoma said. “And we’re trying it out. Coach Miller handles all the special teams, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
Thoma has never coached football before this season, but Fayetteville head coach Daryl Patton still believes he brings great experience to the Bulldogs kicking game.
“Joe is a great guy with a great demeanor,” Patton said. “He’s very knowledgeable about the position. He just has this calm demeanor and he works so well with the kids, and it’s great for me because I haven’t had to spend as much time focused on coaching the kickers.”
Thoma believes many of the same principles taught on the soccer field carry over to football placekicking.
“It’s still about form and technique and following through,” Thoma said. “Obviously, you’re trying to kick it into a net in soccer and you’re trying to get it off the ground in football.
“And there’s some things like spacing and where they need to line up that I’m still working on. But coach Miller and coach Patton help out, and we’re talking all the time.”
Fayetteville must replace all-state kicker Max Coffin from last year’s Class 7A championship team and has four sophomores battling for the starting kicking job this summer.
“We’ve been very fortunate the last four or five years to have great kickers, and Max might have been the best one of them,” Patton said. “That well finally kind of ran dry. We’ve got talented guys, but they’re all sophomores so it could be interesting.”