FRUITPORT – Fruitport senior Riley King is definitely built like a football player, but for most of his life he stuck to soccer.

Last year King finally went out for football, and at his size – about 5-feet-11, 230 pounds – a spot on the offensive or defensive line might have made sense.

But King still prefers to work with his feet, just like in soccer, so he signed up to be a placekicker, with no other role on the team.

Why would such a big guy want to just be a kicker?

The original answer to that question, going back years, is kind of amusing.

“To be honest, when I was a little kid, I went to a lot of Mona Shores games, and I thought their kicker had the coolest cleats,” King said with a smile. “I wanted to be just like him.”

King’s soccer career goes all the way back to elementary school, and last year he played on the Fruitport varsity squad that advanced to the state quarterfinals.

But he had always been curious about placekicking, so he also joined the varsity football squad and played both sports last year.

He intended to do the same this year, but was cut from the soccer team, which really didn’t bother him too much because football had stolen his heart.

“I think they cut me because I missed a lot of stuff, because I was with the football team,” he said.

Only one way to get better

The only problem was that King lacked experience kicking a football and was not great at it. Another soccer kid was the first-string kicker last season and King only saw spot duty.

He made one extra point in 2022, on his second chance of the season, and was pretty excited, to say the least.

“I jumped up and gave Coach Hansen a high five,” he said. “It was really good!”

That little taste of success whetted King’s appetite to get better, so he rolled up his sleeves and attacked the art of placekicking in the offseason.

He attended a kicking camp at the University of Michigan and another at Oakridge High School. He also had a training session with a former NFL kicker, got some advice from a West Michigan Ironmen kicker, and spent a lot of time by himself on the field at Fruitport, just practicing those kicks, over and over.

He ended up gaining a lot of skill and confidence, and when the season started this year, he was the No. 1 kicker for the Fruitport varsity.

King has lived up to the role very well.

He is 12-for-15 on extra points this year, and was nearly perfect at 12-for-13 before a rough game last Friday.

His best game was in Week 4 at Muskegon Catholic, when he went 5-for-5.

He most exciting night came in the Week 3 victory at Comstock Park, when the Trojans broke their long 12-game losing streak that dated back to 2022.

King made three of four extra points in that game, but his biggest contribution came in the first quarter, when he booted a 30-yard field goal to give the Trojans their first points of the game.

Fruitport ended up winning in dramatic fashion, 30-27, and King’s early field goal provided the ultimate margin of victory.

“I just remember Coach Smith asking me if I was ready,” King said. “I stretched my leg a little bit and just went out there with the field goal unit. I was a little nervous, but when we were ready to do it, I closed my eyes for a second and calmed down. When it went through, my holder Brady Hanson gave me a big hug.

“I was a little emotional after the game. Our athletic director came up to me and reminded me that we won by three, and if I hadn’t made that we might have lost.”

Fruitport head coach Nate Smith has been amazed by King’s improvement. He has always liked King, but a year ago doubted that he would be good enough to be the No. 1 kicker this season.

“After last season he said he really wanted to focus on kicking, he went to some camps, and he kept sending me videos of him kicking, almost weekly,” Smith said. “When we started camp this year, I was shocked at how well he was kicking the ball. It was light years difference.

“I am super proud of how hard that kid has worked.”

All kickers miss a few…

King has had a few rough moments this season, as well, particularly last Friday in a conference game at Godwin Heights. He missed a pair of extra point attempts, although neither miss was entirely his fault.

There was a bad snap from center on one of the those plays, and the other attempt was longer than usual because the Trojans were backed up 15 yards by a penalty.

He thought the longer of the two kicks, following the penalty, actually went through the uprights, and the referees might have made a mistake.

“It went right over the left post and it was high enough, but I guess to the refs it didn’t look good,” King said. “Some of the coaches were telling me they thought it went in. Some of my teammates said that, too.”

The Trojans lost 15-12, so neither of the missed PAT kicks ended up costing the game. King might have gotten the chance to attempt a game-tying field goal late in the fourth quarter, but the Trojans chose to go for the touchdown on fourth down from the Godwin Heights 7-yard line.

A pass attempt fell incomplete and the Trojans fell short.

“I was thinking I might have a chance (to kick the field goal),” King said. “I was broken-hearted when I didn’t, but it made sense when we went for it. I hadn’t done so well earlier in the game.”

The bad Friday won’t affect King too much, because he’s down to the last three games of his short but fun football career and wants to go out on a successful note, starting Friday in the Homecoming game against Hopkins.

“I really hope I can do better and make up for those mistakes.” King said.

“I’m really excited for Senior Night (in the last game of the season). It’s going to be a great night, but I’m also sad. I don’t want to stop playing football right now. I want to keep going, and I won’t get to play with these guys anymore. It’s hard.”