September 18, 2001 12:31 AM
Reda gets a kick out of playing two sports
By Marc Nesseler Sports editor
Rock Island football kicker Jason Reda and volunteer assistant coach Cam Torres didn't
stick around for the team's huddle after Saturday afternoon's 42-7 victory over Moline at
Browning Field.
They couldn't. They had to scurry to Rock Island's Almquist Field to transform into
Rock Island soccer player Jason Reda and soccer head coach Cam Torres.
``It takes a very unique individual and a very unique situation to be able to do
both,'' Torres said of his standout in two sports in the same season.
``He's doing double duty,'' RI football coach Vic Boblett said of Reda, ``and doing it
happily.''
Reda says he hasn't missed a practice nor a game for either sport, with Saturday's
coming the closest because of the postponement of Friday night's football game to Saturday
because of stadium light difficulties. It makes for long days. Reda gets up at 6 for
before-school workouts. He has football practice after school until 4 and then soccer
practice until 6.
``There have been no conflicts so far,'' Reda said.
Boblett says he'd have it no other way. ``My concern is this: What if we're behind 7-6
in a big game and a kid that only shows up once a week doesn't make that kick that ties
the game?'' he said. ``I wouldn't want all of the kids saying that if that one kid had
practiced with them every day, they would have won.
``It takes great cooperation between the two coaches and it takes Jason's desire.''
Reda is the second Rocky athlete to play two sports in the same day. Carrie Carpenter,
then a freshman, played girls' softball and threw the shot put in track & field last
year.
He may be a RI football first. Pat Voss of Alleman, also a soccer star and football
kicker, turned the same two-sports trick in the mid-1990s. ``I've never had an athlete
play two sports in the same season, let alone the same day,'' said Boblett, a veteran of
26 years of coaching.
What may make Reda unique is that he could be a Division I college talent in either
sport.
``Let me put it this way,'' the Rocky football coach said. ``As a kicker, he is where
J.J. Tubbs (now the kicker for the University of Illinois) was -- as a senior.''
Reda is just a sophomore.
``He has successfully kicked a 50-yarder in practice,'' said Torres, who worked with
Reda on his kicking game both during football practices and games. Reda has only lined up
for one field-goal attempt in game action, a 31-yarder that was aborted by a bad snap.
His kickoffs have been stunning. Of his 12 kickoffs, six have been into the end zone as
touchbacks. Two others have landed inside the 5.
He did not kick the first two weeks of the season because of a school-rules-violation
suspension.
His addition to the Rocks makes their special teams quite special.
``That's such a great weapon,'' Boblett said, ``to know that in most cases, the other
team is going to have to drive 80 yards to score.''
Not back for a kid who had only played one year of football prior to this year -- as an
eighth-grader at Edison Junior High. He didn't try his hand at two sports as a freshman
because ``the opportunity just wasn't there.''
Reda has had two punts, one for 38 with the wind and one for 31 against.
Reda credits his strong leg to -- what else -- soccer.
``Years of soccer have built up my leg strength,'' he said. ``I've played soccer for as
far back as I can remember.''
Said Torres, ``He has a natural gift, a God-given gift. He has natural power, something
a coach can't teach. What we've been working on is accuracy, and that's the part where he
has gotten good. He's so coachable.
``He has the capability to play either sport, or both, at the college level. He has a
great future ahead of him.''
Torres and Reda are both anxious for that first field-goal try.
``However long it is, I'll give it my best shot,'' said Reda, who turned 16 years old
last month.
But then Torres, who also performs double duty by joining in on the football practices
that precede his own soccer workouts, adds, ``I'm anxious for anything from 40 on out.''
Copyright 2001, Moline Dispatch
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