Battle for Specialist of the Year remains tight
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A Twin Valley kicker likely won’t win the Berks Specialist of the Year award but the combination of Sam Frey and Jack Hafer has given the Raiders a real kick.
Frey leads Berks kickers with 45 PATs and with 48 points scored. Hafer leads with 25 touchbacks and a 37.2 punting average.
Together the seniors give the Raiders best kicking game in Berks; separately, they trail Fleetwood’s William Maurek in the race for the award, as do all of Berks’ other specialists.
Mauer remains on top in the standings with a 70.5% score. He leads the competition with five field goals, in six attempts, has the season’s longest field goal, at 42 yards, and has converted 19-of-20 PATs.
Wilson’s Ben Rada is second heading into the final week of the regular season with a 60.7% score. Rada is perfect on 32 PAT attempts and has made a pair of field goals.
Frey is third at 48.1 percent. He’s been good on 45-of-46 PATs and has a 38-yard field goal.
Schuylkill Valley freshman Reese Wamsher is fourth at 43.1 percent. He’s 40-for-40 on PATs, including a pair of clutch kicks in the rain last week in a 14-13 win at Annville-Cleona.
The Specialist of the Year standings are based on rankings of extra-point and field goal accuracy, field goal length, touchbacks, and punting average.
John Zima, founder of Kick-It and special teams coach at Wyomissing, collects the data and computes the standings. He awards the top finishers at the end of each season. This is the sixth season of the award.
Conrad Weiser’s Adam Noll was the Specialist of the Year in 2022. He kicked six field goals and had the second-longest of the season, at 46 yards. He was second overall in punting average at 39.1.
Berks Catholic’s Andrew Kurtas was the runner-up last year; Schuylkill Valley’s Noah Wamsher finished third.