Wolfe balances life, school and sports

Casey Wolfe has a lot on his plate these days; maybe more than any of his Carson High teammates.

Besides school and athletics, he's also taking on more responsibility at home with his dad, Christopher, being in Afghanistan with his National Guard unit.

"It's been pretty tough," Wolfe said taking time out from his preparation for tonight's game (7:30 p.m.) at McQueen. "It's always been nice to look up in the stands and see him there. I look up now and I know he's not up there. I get to talk to him after the games and he'll know how it went.

"It's tough without him here. There is a lot more I have to do with him not being here. It makes you more of a man to take care of things (around the house)."

The elder Wolfe has missed his son putting on quite a show in the first two games of the season.

Wolfe is averaging 41.4 punting, including two inside the opponents' 20. He's 6-for-8 on PATs, kicked a 35-yard field goal and is averaging 59 yards per kickoff.

To put it simply, the Senators' kicking game is in good hands. And, the Carson senior said he didn't feel any pressure taking over for the graduated Austin Pacheco, who beat Douglas twice with field goals and then kicked a 64-yarder to beat Bishop Manogue.

"He had his good years," Wolfe said. "I want to come in and do what I can to leave my name on the field."

Much of Wolfe's success has come under the tutelage of Jim deArrieta, the Senators' veteran kicking coach and former punter at Notre Dame.

"I worked with coach D over the summer," Wolfe said. "We worked everyday unless something came up. We pretty much started working after summer baseball and a few times here and there before the season ended. We worked on individual parts of the kicking game. We spent more time working on field goals and PATs.

"I had a couple of weeks off. Usually I went camping."

DeArrieta said that Wolfe has been a dedicated pupil, willing to put in the work it will take to become one of the best kickers in Northern Nevada.

"He's made the most progress in extra points and field goals," deArrieta said. "He was already punting well at the end of last year. He picked up punting very quickly."

Wolfe admits that he wasn't a placekicker last year.

"I couldn't make a field goal to save my life," he said. "I'm getting more and more accurate."

And now, Wolfe has pretty decent range.

"I kicked one 60 yards in practice," Wolfe said.

Wolfe admits that was without a rush, but it certainly shows that he has the requisite leg strength. Both he and deArrieta agree that accuracy is paramount.

"You can have the strongest leg in the world, but if you can't put the ball through the uprights it's all for naught," deArrieta said.

Another thing deArrieta likes about Wolfe is his mental makeup.

"He seems to handle pressure well," deArrieta said. "He doesn't get rattled. He needs to be able to block everything out there for the one second on the field goal and the two seconds on the punt. When he can do that he will be successful."

Wolfe has been making an impact at wide receiver. He had five catches for 54 yards and the game-winning score last week against Reno. The game-winning grab came with 20 seconds left on the clock.

"I've played more than I thought," Wolfe said. "It was nice that I was able to make that touchdown catch to put us ahead."

And, no doubt the Senators will expect him to continue to shine on offense and special teams.