Fred smoot
Getting their kicks
They came to the area knowing how to kick; they just had to learn how to kick a different shape.Indian Valley’s Max Shulte-Beckhausen and Claymont’s Rafael Augustinho are transforming soccer knowledge to a boost for their respective new schools — and hometowns.Shulte-Beckhausen is an exchange student from Germany, while Augustinho is attending Claymont on an exchange program from Brazil.“Soccer ability doesn’t always carry over to football, but in this case it does,” said Indian Valley coach Matt Lancaster.Shulte-Beckhausen is being hosted by Kevin and Amy Barton, while Augustinho stays with Scott and Connie Beckley in Uhrichsville.Shulte-Beckhausen handles punting and kicking chores for the Braves, while Augustinho has been strictly the placekicker for Claymont. The Indian Valley kicker is from Bonn, Germany. He has never played American football.“I really like it because there’s a lot of emotion,” said Shulte-Beckhausen, who was a goalie on his soccer team at home. “It’s a fun sport.“I wanted to come here for the experience and I like it here. The high school is very nice and my family and the people here are very open-minded.”Shulte-Beckhausen got his introduction to football before he unpacked his suitcase.“We picked him up from the airport and took him to the school,” Amy Barton said. “They said in the office that practice was about to end, so we went around and let him meet the coach.”He came to the second half of the last two-a-day practice and wowed the team by kicking 50-yarders. The coaches gave him a book on special teams that paid dividends.During the opener against Newcomerstown, Shulte-Beckhausen was lined up to punt and the snap sailed over his head to the goal line. He raced back, picked up the ball and boomed a punt that got the Braves out of trouble.“He came to the sideline and said ‘I read that in the book,’” Lancaster said.Agustinho came to Claymont from Birique, Brazil, and he struggles a little more with English.“I just tell him to go kick,” laughed Claymont coach Ed Henry.He is also a lifetime soccer player who is picking up football — and the language — on the fly.“When I first got here, people would say ‘How are you,’ and I would say ‘I’m 17,’” Agustinho said.“I like football. When I played soccer, we only had two or three coaches and here we have a lot of coaches.”The Claymont kicker admitted that his only prior exposure to football came through ESPN.“My dream, since I was young, was to come here,” he said when discussing his stay in the United States. “I had cousins come here and they liked it.“My friends, my new family, the school, the food … it’s all nice. I like it so much here.”Shulte-Beckhausen is on a semester program and will leave in January, while Agustinho will be a Claymont throughout the school year.“It’s been a great experience for us and I hope it has been for him,” said Scott Beckley, an assistant football coach at Claymont. “My kids love him to death and he’s really come a long way with his English.“He’s also a very good soccer player. In Brazil, kids don’t get on television, but his team was playing in a big tournament that was televised and he scored five goals and was the MVP.”Both kickers have found success on the football field.Shulte-Beckhausen has put a couple kickoffs into the end zone. He has a field goal and a PAT to his credit through two games.Agustinho had three PATs last week and four on the season.
Western hemisphere travel initiative
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