McGrory's Record-Breaking Kicks Come the Hard Way

When Santa Margarita Catholic steps onto the football field against San Clemente, John McGrory will do his part one point at a time. McGrory kicks the extra points for the high-scoring Eagles. He mixes in the occasional field goal, but on extra points he almost never misses. Not in two years.

He has set a Southern Section record, and came within nine kicks of matching the state record. The only reason he’s not perfect—and closer to the national record—is because he pulled his first kick to the left in a first-round playoff game. It ended a streak of 106 consecutive kicks splitting the uprights.

What makes McGrory's accomplishment even more special is that he never kicked a football until he was a sophomore, and almost all the fields in which he kicks have college goalposts, which are nearly 5 feet narrower than high school posts. 

“If you put the ball down the middle,” McGrory said, “it doesn’t matter how wide the goalposts are.”

One other thing: McGrory learned this new craft while being a bit distracted. His mother had just died, and he was busy helping care for his younger siblings—doing things a mom might otherwise be doing—while maintaining a 4.02 grade-point average.

He's not on special teams for nothing.

“A year and a half ago, he had never kicked a football in his life,” said his coach, Harry Welch. “It’s truly amazing how he went from a soccer player to one of the best kickers in Southern California. And he’s become a pretty good punter. He’s a straight-A student. It’s a beautiful, tragic story.”

Janice McGrory died from a rare form of adrenal cancer during soccer season, in the January of John's sophomore year. Per his mother's wishes, he didn't miss a practice, a game or a minute of class. None of the McGrory kids did: Megan (now 20), Cameron (13) or Shannon (12).

The Rancho Santa Margarita family had spent four years preparing itself for the inevitable. Janice died not knowing the big change that would take place in her oldest son's life. Just a few months later, McGrory was at soccer practice when a football coach asked for volunteers interested in kicking for the football team, which had just hired Welch—who won State Bowl Championships at Canyon Country Canyon and St. Margaret’s. 

McGrory wanted to answer the call. But his dad was skeptical.

Are you out of your mind? said his dad, the fifth in a line of six John McGrorys. Nevertheless, John Anthony grabbed a football from the garage and took his son, John Patrick, to the football field to see if he could kick an extra point. Kicking off the ground—he is allowed a 2-inch tee in high school—John Patrick was straight and true. They backed up, eventually to the 35-yard line. Attempting a 45-yard kick, McGrory was wide left but had the distance.

"OK," Dad said, thinking maybe his son wasn’t crazy after all. "I think you can do this.”

Recalling the experiment now, he says, “I knew he had a good foot, but I wasn't prepared for him to kick a football that well."

It turned out McGrory was about as close to a sure thing as there is in football. He was good on all 58 kicks as a junior, and hit his first 48 this season. At 106—with 72 going through the narrower goalposts that are 18 feet 6 inches wide—he is tied for third all-time.

The national record is 134, set by Kim Braswell of Avondale Estates, Ga., from 1965-68. The state record, held by Roman Ferreira of San Diego Cathedral from 2007-08, is 115. Both marks were set with the majority of kicks going through high school goalposts 23 feet, 4 inches wide. 

McGrory is 120 of 121 in his career, with 84 kicks through college uprights. Because of football, he’s talking to such Ivy League schools as Yale and Harvard, which wouldn’t be a bad choice for his desired degree in sports medicine. He is also being recruited for soccer, but because he is 6-foot-3, most colleges want him to play defense; he wants to play his natural position, forward.

Welch, who has coached more than 40 years, marvels at McGrory's kicking success, noting how hard it is to do anything 100 times in a row, whether it’s shooting free throws—NBA players don’t make 100 in a row—or kicking with 200-pound linemen charging at you.

“It truly does throw everything into a panic when a PAT gets missed,” Welch said. “There is a continent of difference between scoring 7 points and 6 points. It’s humongous. The streak has been wonderful, comforting and classy.”

Every point figures to be valuable when Santa Margarita plays San Clemente for the Southern Section Pac-5 championship at Angel Stadium on Saturday. Calpreps.com, which has correctly projected 11 of the 14 games played in the division, is projecting a 28-27 victory by San Clemente. That score implies McGrory would kick two field goals or miss a PAT.

The latter seems unlikely.

McGrory credits his teammates: holder River Cracraft, snapper Sean McGuire and an offensive line that keeps the defense “out of my hair—I get more time than I should.”

He has been emotionally grounded throughout, keeping a good attitude about the whole thing. When he was approaching the Orange County record, 81, classmates kept telling him he was “only nine away, only seven away,” from the record.

“I’m also one away from missing it,” McGrory said. “That’s what people don’t realize. I’m even closer to not getting there. You’re seven away from beating it, but you’re one kick away from not even coming close to it. That’s why every kick, I need to stay focused.”

When he missed against Bishop Amat, he knew immediately that the streak was over. He pulled the ball a few feet to the left. On a high school goalpost, maybe the ball squeezes inside the upright or deflects in, but not on the unforgiving college goalpost.

He leaned over with his hands on his knees for a moment and took a deep breath. On the ensuing kickoff, he sent the ball through the end zone, as if to punish it.

And he hasn’t missed since.