In early August, before Central Holmes took the field against Clinton Christian, Ryan Lindsay of Kosciusko wrote on Facebook that “this is what dreams are made of.”
He was referring to his son, Dan, taking the field for the Central Holmes football team. Little did the Kosciusko dad know what was ahead.
Lindsay transferred to Central Holmes at Christmas last year where the older Lindsay said his son “made the very difficult decision to change schools for his senior year where he had to sacrifice several things, one of which was the only sport he loved… soccer.”
Not long after transferring to Central Holmes, head football coach Mitch Womack asked Lindsay if he had ever kicked a football. He told Womack that he had not but was willing to try. What happened next is the stuff that legends are made of.
Lindsay decided he liked football and soon hooked up with Curt Jones Kicking Academy in Hattiesburg, where he got private lessons. Then came the season.
As the season went on, Lindsay got better and better and helped transform the Central Holmes kicking game from a weakness to a strength.
“We struggled in the kicking game last year,” Womack said. “We had to go for two every time last year. There are only so many two-point plays out there. But with Dan, we felt like we could just send him out there in any situation and were very comfortable going for one. He ended up being like 95 percent on extra points and learned to really place the ball on kickoffs.”
Then came the biggest game of the season for Central Holmes against defending 3A champion Greenville Christian, a team that made national headlines the year before and beat the top teams in the state including, Madison-Ridgeland Academy, Jackson Prep and even public school juggernaut Oak Grove.
Lindsay missed two extra points against the Saints in regulation, and the game went to overtime. Greenville scored first but missed its two-point conversion. The Trojans then scored on their first play in overtime, and Womack wasted little time in sending out Lindsay, despite an extremely wet field. Lindsay did what he’s done most of the year and booted the PAT through to give the Trojans the win and send them to the Class 3A state championship game.
Then Lindsay learned that he had made the MAIS Class 1A-2A-3A All-star game, and the senior kicker got to play in the Class 3A state championship game, which ended with a loss to Canton.
“You really couldn’t ask for a better story,” Womack said. “He had never played football before he got here and was a former soccer kid. We went to him and asked him if he had ever thought about kicking a football. So we went down to the field, and he had a natural leg swing. He eventually signed up with a kicking coach out of Hattiesburg and went to a lot of camps this summer. It was a storybook kind of thing. He goes from never playing football to making the PAT that put us in the championship game and then making the all-star game. It’s just a great story. He’s a great kid who has worked really hard.”
With the all-star game this Friday at Jackson Prep, Lindsay will have the chance to kick in front of some college coaches. He already has some interest from Holmes Community College. Wherever he goes, Womack said they will be getting a diamond in the rough as well as an academic scholar. Lindsay already has a 28 on the ACT and a 3.8 GPA.
“I think he will end up going to Holmes and should have a chance to kick for them,” Womack said. “They watched him kick and really like him. He has a chance to get a lot better. He has a really high upside. He’s only going to get better when that’s all he does every day. And he has kicked off the ground before. And he’s already made a 28 on the ACT so he wouldn’t cost them any money. I think there is a chance for him. If it’s his goal to kick, I think he has an extremely high ceiling.”
The Class 1A-2A-3A all-star games will be Friday at 3 p.m. at Jackson Prep.
Also in the game:
Winona Christian also has two players in game in Jake Ware and Bryce Harville. Ware had a big year for the Stars with 1,349 yards rushing on 209 carries with 12 TDs. He also had 21 catches for 237 yards with three TDs. On defense, Ware had 53 tackles and one fumble recovery. Harville, a senior lineman, had 75 tackles with three tackles for loss and three fumble recoveries for the Stars.
