Will be kicking for Mississippi State this season

Nobody would have blamed Eric Richards if he would have dropped soccer.

After wrapping up a stellar kicking career for Warren Central last fall and earning a football scholarship to Mississippi State, Richards could have gotten a head start on training for his football career.

Instead, he suited up as a captain for an inexperienced Viking squad and led the team in goals as a defender. He also risked injury to his prized right leg.

Warren Central boys soccer coach Greg Head said he breathed a sigh of relief when the season was over.

&#8220I didn’t want to see Eric get hurt and mess up his career,” Head said. &#8220I know he took a big chance, and that says a lot about a young man who takes a chance like that of losing a scholarship to come out there and play and help his team. Without Eric, we really would have been in bad shape.”

As good as Richards was on the soccer field, he was even better on the gridiron. The all-state selection averaged 45.4 yards per punt, had touchbacks on 41 of 44 kickoffs, and converted 8 of 12 field goals during his senior season.

Richards’ powerful leg earned him a spot in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Classic on Saturday at Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile, an honor Warren Central football coach Curtis Brewer said is deserved.

&#8220A lot of the wins we got were attributed to defense, and without his kicking and punting we wouldn’t have had as many wins as we had,” Brewer said. &#8220He was a very important part of what we did last year.”

Besides football and soccer, Richards also played golf for the Vikings, which left little time to hit the weight room. In fact, he started lifting weights only a couple months ago.

Richards said he kept in shape before by playing sports year-round, but he already feels stronger since he started lifting.

&#8220I wanted to go up there with a little bit of size on me because there are some big boys in college football,” Richards said. &#8220I had never lifted weights in high school, so I decided I had better get in shape before I go up there and look like a stick.”

Because of the size and speed of the athletes he will see in Saturday’s all-star game, Richards said he is treating it almost like it’s his first college game.

Richards plans to report to Starkville on July 8 to take summer classes and start training for Mississippi State’s season, which opens on Aug. 30 at home against LSU.

The Bulldogs graduated their kickoff specialist from last year, and if all goes according to plan, Richards said he should start kicking off immediately for the team as a freshman. He’s also hoping to get a shot at the punting job.

If Richards continues to improve like he did at Warren Central, Brewer said, he wouldn’t be surprised to see the kicker have success early in his college career. Brewer recalls summer weekends when he would spot Richards on the practice field perfecting his technique.

&#8220He just got better and better and better as he went along, and he worked on it,” Brewer said. &#8220I’m sure a lot of it is God’s gift to him, but he was persistent; he worked on it; he went to camps.”

And now all that hard work seems to be paying off.

&#8220This kid’s only going to get bigger and stronger,” Head said. &#8220The world’s the limit for him. I can see him starting next year at State and setting all kinds of records before he leaves the school.”