MOCKSVILLE — It was probably his very first soccer goal that got David Wooldridge
hooked.Wooldridge, age 6,
was wearing his brother’s cleats.
“They were three sizes too
big,” Wooldridge remembers. “I was on a breakaway and kicked the ball. My shoe
flew off, the keeper ducked the shoe, the ball went by him and into the net.”
The rest is history.
Nine years after that memorable
goal, Wooldridge is a sophomore soccer and football player for the Davie County War
Eagles.
On the soccer team, he’s a
defender, so he gets few chances to score — with shoes or without.
But on the football team, his
scoring (56 points) has Davie (8-2) soaring.
Wooldridge, who started kicking
soccer balls at age 3, has drilled 12 field goals this season. That’s a bunch. The
state record for a season is 17. The career record is 31. That 31 is a number the
15-year-old Wooldridge, who kicked one field in an emergency as a freshman, should keep in
mind.
Many of Wooldridge’s boots
have been huge.
His two field goals made the
difference in a 13-7 win over Mooresville. He kicked two more when Davie beat West Forsyth
28-21 in a game that turned around the War Eagles’ season.
Then there was Ledford.
After Davie’s defense stopped
the Panthers in Overtime No. 3, War Eagle coach Doug Illing, called on Wooldridge for a
game-winner. He delivered.
“I was proud that Coach
Illing had faith in me,” says Wooldridge. But my leg was shaking.”
Partly from nervousness. Partly
from sheer fear.
“Coach (Chad) Groover
(Davie’s offensive line coach) told me, ‘You miss this one and it’s over.
You lose this one and you’re dead.’ ”
Wooldridge knew that Groover was
only kidding, but still ...
“Coach Groover, he’s a
big guy,” says Wooldridge.
Wooldridge, on the other hand, is
not.
The Davie roster lists him at 6-1,
180 pounds. The 6-1 is accurate. The 180 isn’t. They must have weighed Wooldridge
while he was toting a dozen soccer balls under his sweats. If Wooldridge weighs 180, so
does Cindy Crawford.
“I can’t help it,”
he says. “I eat everything in the house, but I can’t gain a pound.”
Wooldridge is thin, but tough.
He went out for the eighth-grade
football team at North Davie Middle School, hoping he could be the kickoff kid.
“But Coach (Ron) Kirk put me
at end and made me block people,” he says, with a groan.
It’s a good thing Kirk did.
Wooldridge had to get physical against South Rowan when Keith Garrett, who had already run
one Wooldridge kickoff back for a TD, hit a seam and was on his way to another.
The last guy was Wooldridge. He
threw his body at Garrett, slowing him down enough that his teammates caught up and made
the tackle.
The play was a hit with
Wooldridge’s father, Darrell, a sturdy former footballer.
“I’m thrilled to see
David on the football field,” says Darrell. “He’s fast and he’s a good
athlete. His mom worries more than me.”
n
Putting together the kind of
kicking season Wooldridge has requires many elements working in harmony.
Start with snappers Shawn Levan
and Patrick Lowery. Then there’s holder Nick Propst.
“You gotta give Nick
credit,” pleads Wooldridge. “He gets hit every time I kick an extra point. And
the line guys too.”
Then there’s soccer coach
Sean Garnett.
Garnett knows exactly what
Wooldridge is going through, playing for two teams at once. When he was at Davie, Garnett
performed the same double duty.
“David’s got the
strongest leg on the soccer team,” said Garnett. “All the guys are proud of what
he’s done for the football guys.”
Last but not least, there’s
Illing.
Coach Illing’s great,”
says Wooldridge. “I kick with the football team for 30 minutes a day, then go to
soccer practice. He doesn’t make me stay out there three hours kicking my leg
off.”
Probably because Illing was a
kicker himself. He understands the mental as well as physical demands of successful
kicking. Most important, he understands exactly what kind of lethal weapon he has in
Wooldridge.
“Knock on wood — David
keeps producing,’’ Illing said. “He’s a commodity. We know if we get
to the 30-yard line we’re going to score. We’d like to get 7, but we’ll
take the 3s.”
n
Illing once produced his fair
share of 3s himself.
He began as a 160-pound tight
end/defensive end at legendary Summerville (S.C.) High.
His defensive coordinator also
coached that strange international sport that had finally trickled down south by the late
‘70s and early ‘80s — soccer.
“Coach wanted us to come out
for soccer, just for conditioning. They played it in winter then — after football
season,” says Illing.”
Trying his hand at soccer, Illing
quickly learned that he could kick the heck out of a ball. Not necessarily straight, but
long. He eventually won the kickoff job on the football team, but exchange students, who
had grown up with soccer, still handled field goals and extra points.
After Illing went to Lees-McRae
(then a junior college), it was his ability to boom kickoffs into the end zone that earned
him a role on the Bobcats football team as a walk-on.
Illing did it well enough that he
made all-conference. The next year, on partial scholarship, he kicked a few 52-yard field
goals and was a JUCO All-American.
That got him noticed by the big
boys. Tennessee wanted him just for kickoffs, but he accepted a full ride to Wake Forest
where he would have a chance to perform all the kicking duties.
He lettered for Al Groh’s
Deacons in 1984-85, and had his share of big field goals in ACC games.
“I’m not just another
flaky kicker, kicking got me an education,” says Illing.
That education led to
teaching/coaching jobs at R.J. Reynolds. After that, the road led to Davie.
And to Wooldridge.
“David’s just got a
natural instinct for kicking,” says Illing. “He’s got that great leg swing.
He’ll get better and better.”
Good enough to kick’em 52
yards like his coach?
“I’ve nailed one from 55
yards in practice,” says Wooldridge, grinning.
And just think, that one was with
his shoes on. |
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