Aug 19, 2018 4 min read

Football camp last season was a lot different for Ryan Coe and Cameron Guess.

Coe, in his first season at South Fayette after transferring from Red Land High School, was chopping his feet through chutes and driving the sled at practice. At 6-3 and 220 pounds, Coe didn’t have a problem with rotating between guard and tackle on the Lions’ offensive line.

Guess, meanwhile, was balancing the busy schedule of playing two fall sports at Belle Vernon: soccer and football.

When football camp opened for Belle Vernon and South Fayette last Monday, the two shared several things: a trainer, a friendship and being one of the best kicking and punting duos in not only the WPIAL but the state.

“Everyone says I’m not your average kicker,” Coe joked. “I am six feet and three inches. I am 220 pounds. I just started to put all my focus into (kicking). I knew I had the potential to do something at the Division I level. I felt that I could make it a career, so I devoted all my time and energy.”

It’s caught the attention of several colleges, earning offers from Delaware, Temple and Division II Notre Dame College in Cleveland. He also has received interest from Central Florida, Mississippi, Akron and Duquesne since converting 50 of 55 extra-point attempts and making 6 of 10 field goals as a junior. Coe also averaged 41.5 yards on 22 punts and was voted first-team all-conference as a kicker and punter.

Coe began kicking in sixth grade but never started at Red Land – a high school in York County – because standout Chad Stout, who plays soccer at Pitt, was the kicker for the Patriots.

“I really got into kicking because of my cousin,” Coe said of Adam Keller, a former All-American kicker at North Dakota State. Keller made a school-record 56 field goals in the three years at the Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse.

“I was excited coming into South Fayette prior to my junior year. I connected with the guys immediately and it felt like a family from the start.”

Coe extended that family in the relationship he built with Guess while training under Adam Tanalski, the founder of Hammer Kicking Academy. The two have attended Kohl’s kicking camps together across the country.

“I see Ryan at least every other week in the summer,” Guess said. “Whether it’s in training, at a camp or just getting together to kick at either of our fields. To have someone to train where you both get better is pretty special.”

Guess, a junior, began playing football as a freshman after Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert noticed him at a soccer game. Last season, he averaged 42 yards per punt, converted on 31 extra points and recorded 26 touchbacks.

After receiving interest from Pitt, Syracuse and Ohio, Guess recently gave up his lifelong career in soccer to strictly focus on football.

“It’s a lot to take in,” Guess said. “I have played soccer since I was a little kid. But I’ll never forget the crowds at football games when I started playing as a freshman. I have always wanted to play college football in front of a huge crowd.”

Guess has added extra motivation to his junior season by creating an Alex’s Lemonade Stand website, where people can donate or pledge money for every point he scores this season. The funds help those fighting pediatric cancer.

And despite punting for only two years, Guess rose to the top spot in the Kohl’s Kicking Camp ratings for the Class of 2020.

“I remember hating to punt my freshman year,” Guess laughed. “Once I started going to the camps and training, and once I started getting it down, it’s all I wanted to do. I’ve fallen in love with it.”