59 Yard Field Goal in Texas HS Football Game
Last night one of the longest field goals in Texas HS Football history was kicked, and it went viral. Jared Zirkel (Tivy HS), a Class of 2020 Kicker/Punter, and the longest-tenured Kicking World Hot Prospect not only kicked a 59 Yard field goal, but made it with 7+ yards to spare. (insert favorite ‘WOW’ emoji).
Just 3 days before last night’s big kick we ran a feature on our Top Performers with a recap of the 2018 Kicking World camp season, with Jared heading up our current list of Class of 2020 Kickers. Well, he proved he to live up to our assessment and expectations of him, kicking one of the longest field goals in Texas HS Football history. It’s not every day that your HS Football Coach elects to kick a field goal, no less trust a high school kid to kick one over 50 yards! Just 1-yard shy of 60 (sixty), very few NFL kickers have made, or even kicked field goals this long in their careers. Jared’s 59 yard field goal was made as time expired at the end of the 1st half of a routing where Tivy HS beat Fredericksburg HS 57-41. Did we mention that Jared was 9/9 on kickoffs for touchbacks, and also hit some excellent punts?
Jared Zirkel’s 59 yard field goal is one for the record books, and one he and his family will never forget. All of us at Kicking World are very proud of Jared and his hard work over the last 5 years in training with us to kick further, but more importantly, improve his consistency and poise under pressure. Last night was simply a culmination of years of practice and a proof of concept that Jared ‘has it’ – has what it takes to succeed at the highest level of College Football. We look forward to his college football recruiting dramatically accelerating after this milestone kick which will surely increase his national exposure. In fact, Coach Brent woke up to a couple dozen texts and direct messages from College Football coaches and news outlets seeking more info on Jared. So it begins…
Snippet from Top Performers featured article published 3 days prior to the big kick:
“Our longest tenured Hot Prospect, Jared Zirkel (Tivy HS, TX) has been on the tear this summer. He outright won Texas A&M University’s kickoff competition with a monster 74 yard / 4.2 second bomb. He’s a 3x National Showcase attendee, 5x Kicking World kickoff competition winner, and 3x Golden Boot champion. Jared can do all 3 – field goals, kickoffs, and punting. He has been hitting 55+ yard field goals since his freshman year and now as a junior he’s hit 65 multiple times, and I feel on a good day he could hit a 70-yard field goal. From what I’ve seen Jared has the strongest leg in Texas and perhaps even in the country as far as current high school kickers go. RIGHT NOW he could walk on to most FBS rosters and win the starting kickoff job.”
This 59-yard field goal would have been good from 65 😲
The name is Jared Zirkel and he is uncommitted.
(Via @kickingworld) pic.twitter.com/w7eok1B5sB
— MaxPreps (@MaxPreps) September 8, 2018
Special thanks to MaxPreps for sharing our original Twitter tweet and Instagram post of Jared’s big kick which helped his kicking video go viral and spread like wildfire. Less than 12 hours after we posted the above YouTube video, it has over 3,000 views on our Instagram post, 10,000 views on both our YouTube and Facebook pages, and a whopping 40,000 views, 250 retweets, and 1,000 likes (and growing) on MaxPrep’s Twitter and Instagram profiles!
*Update 9/10/18 – Jared’s video has been viewed over 400,000 times collectively across social media and news outlets!
For more in-game & practice video, game stats, camp and in-season accolades, and a detailed commentary/assessment by Coach Brent on Class of 2020 Kicker/Punter Jared Zirkel, and to see other Kicking World hot prospects, visit the Kicking World Hot Prospect List.
