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By: LARRY VAUGHT
Long before he ever joined the Boyle County football team, Addison Coffey knew one day that he wanted to be a kicker at the University of Kentucky.
“I always wanted a shot to try and walk on before I ever thought about playing football,” said Coffey. “Now I have my chance.”
He went for a tryout at Kentucky on June 6th and has been waiting since then to find out if the numbers of scholarship players and preferred walk-ons would work out to leave room for him to still join the team.
Coffey's booted six field goals, 58 extra points and scored 76 points last season. Boyle coach Chuck Smith, a former UK player and assistant coach, praised not only Coffey’s field goal range and accuracy, but also the way he put so many kickoffs into the end zone.
Coffey had visited Campbellsville University after his season and thought the coaches were nice, but he realized “that was not what he was looking for athletically or academically.” That’s when he told Smith since he wanted to be a student at UK whether he was doing anything athletics or not, could he help get him a tryout with the football team.
“I was not looking for a scholarship. I just wanted to be part of the team and help any way I can,” Coffey said.
He got a tryout and then the waiting game started.
“I kept working out and kicking all summer so if a spot did open up I would be prepared,” Coffey said. “I kept in touch with (assistant) coach (John) Schlarman to let him know I was interested and he would tell me how the numbers looked. Two weeks ago he told me to fill out the NCAA eligibility stuff. I relayed that information to coach Smith and he told me that was heading in the right direction.”
That became obvious when he got the email telling him he had a “spot” on the team. He’ll move in at UK Aug. 21 — walk-on players ccanot report until all freshmen report to school — and then “figure out what the next step is” with the Kentucky coaches.
He’s been going to UK games for as long as he can remember and always watched kickers from pregame until the final play. He’s a big fan of UK sophomore kicker Austin MacGinnis.
“Watching the great season he had last year motivated me even more to want to be part of the program,” Coffey said. “Playing behind him and learning for the next two or three years will be a great experience for me. Once he graduates, maybe I will get a shot to kick if they don’t scholarship anybody else before then and I show I can do the job.”
Coffey said UK has MacGinnis and punter Landon Foster on scholarship and now has two walk-on punters and two walk-on kickers on the roster.
Coffey is a talented athlete. He was a four-year starter on the baseball team and was the team’s top pitcher and catcher this year. He was on the bowling team two years. If that’s not enough, he was captain of the Ping Pong Club.
Ping Pong Club?
“I doubt anybody else on the (UK) team can match that,” Coffey laughed and said.
The club started his sophomore year when the Boyle administration agreed to “let kids get involved so they could have fun on club day.” The club had about 40 members and fully funded itself. The next two years, he became club president.
“I was in charge of collecting dues, keeping up with the equipment,” Coffey, who also had a 3.87 grade-point average, said. “The sad thing is I am not a very good ping pong player.”
But good enough to maybe beat UK teammates?
“No. I will just sit back and watch,” he said. “I am sure some of them are really good, so I’ll just sit back and wait.”
Just like he’ll do for a chance to eventually kick at UK now that he’s fulfilled his goal of getting on the team.
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