Class of 2022: Special Teams Players to Watch in Central Texas

Special teams stats are often not counted let alone posted, but special teams are still just as important as offense and defense in football. That is why after some digging on MaxPreps, these five special teams players stood out as potential breakout players for next season. Check out two kickers, two punters and two returners that could turn some heads next season across Central Texas. 1. <strong>Charlie Barnett - Westlake High School (Austin, TX)</strong> Once of the most successful kickers in Texas last season was Barnett, who made 10 out of 12 field goals, which means he made 80% of his field goals, and the longest of those attempts was for 45 yards. He was also 90% on PATs, making 17 out of 19. His longest field goal came against Hays but he most commonly kicked from around 30 yards out. Given the success Westlake looks to continue to have as an elite program, Barnett will continue to get kicking opportunities both in the PAT and field goal stat categories. 2. <strong>Will Wallace - Boerne-Champion High School (Boerne, TX)</strong> He made 100% of his PAT kicks and 90% of his field goal kicks, Wallace was among the most accurate kickers last season. He made all 38 of his PAT kicks and just missed one of his seven field goal kicks. He scored a total of 56 points for his team and averaged seven kicking points per game. His longest field goal last season came against Tivy when he kicked for 37 yards. Considering how often Boerne-Champion scored and kicked field goals last season, Wallace will look to continue tuning his accuracy even more so next season. 3. <strong>Rashawn Galloway - Boerne High School (Boerne, TX)</strong> Although Galloway’s main job on Boerne is to be the quarterback, he also does double duty and punts, and he is pretty good at it. Last season, Galloway had nine punts inside the 20 and totaled 724 yards with an average of 40.2 yards per punt. His longest punt was for 52 yards against Burnet. Boerne does not punt often but when the Greyhounds do, Galloway makes sure to pin opposing teams deep, and especially in close games such as Fredericksburg, when he put that team inside the 20 four times in that game. Keep an eye out for Galloway to continue being a punting machine next season. 4. <strong>Josh Pell - Cedar Park High School (Cedar Park, TX)</strong> Another excellent punter last season was Pell, who averaged 30.3 yards per punt and pinned opposing teams inside the 20 12 times. He totaled 1,090 punting yards, and his longest punt was for 66 yards against Canyon. Considering how often Cedar Park was on offense, it increased the likelihood of punting especially when senior quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="60485" first="Ryder" last="Hernandez"] was pulled off the field in big leads. If that is the case once again for the elite Timberwolves, then Pell will get more punting opportunities to fine-tune his craft. 5. <strong>Kade Jenschke - Fredericksburg (Fredericksburg, TX)</strong> Kickoff returns and punt returns are some of the toughest plays to get big stats, but Jenschke shows promise to explode as a returner next season if he is once again put in that spot. In kickoffs, he averaged 19.3 yards per return, with his longest being 28 yards. He only had one punt return, but when he did, he gained 34 yards. Fredericksburg had some struggles last season which results in fewer punt returns and kick returns, not even accounting for the fact that the stat is not often counted and posted, Jenschke holds promise so keep an eye out if he breaks big next season. 6. <strong>Reece Beauchamp - Vandegrift High School (Austin, TX)</strong> On the opposite side, Beauchamp had 12 punt returns last season and averaged 13.5 yards per return. Although, his longest was for 26 yards against McNeil. He also had a couple of kickoff returns which he had a 34-yard return against San Antonio Roosevelt and had 31 yards off of two returns against Hays. If Beauchamp is made a returner next season as well, he could potentially have some breakout points, especially if Vandegrift continues to improve overall as a team.