Justin Sorenson's unique training methods made him the best Kicker in the Country
Sorensen’s best official kick is 62 yards, and he will be wearing blue and white for another four years when he enrolls at BYU this fall.
America’s 345!
Justin Sorensen’s unique training methods have made him the best kicker in the country Ah, kickers… Nobody really knows what to make of them. They don’t block or tackle, or rather coaches don’t want them to – because the result is often embarrassing – and nobody cares how strong they are or how fast they can run the 40. In fact, the only thing a kicker needs to be good at, other than elementary geometry, is putting the pigskin through the uprights. Justin Sorensen is a young man who is breaking that mold. Without question, Sorensen is the most celebrated high school kicker in the country.
A recent graduate of Bingham High School in South Jordan, Utah, this year Sorensen converted 54 of 55 PATs and kicked a state record 62-yard field goal in a game – against the wind! It’s rare that any of his kickoffs are returnable.
For the past two seasons his kickoffs averaged 75.8 yards, with 94 percent sailing into the end zone; this year one kickoff traveled an estimated 104 yards. In fact, his leg is so powerful that in practice coaches often move Sorensen back to the 25-yard line so Bingham’s kick returners can catch the ball. As for punting, this year Sorensen averaged 41.5 yards per punt. JULY/AUGUST 2008 Making his accomplishments even more impressive is that even though high school kickers are allowed to use a higher tee for their kickoffs to enable them to kick farther, Sorensen elects not to use them. He reasons that kicking with the lower tee will better prepare him for college football.
And colleges have taken notice. Other unusual aspects of Sorensen are his size and strength. He is 6foot-2, wears a size 13½ shoe, weighs 220 pounds and is as strong as he looks. How strong? On May 17 at the National Power Clean Championships in Las Vegas, Sorensen won his bodyweight division and broke the national record by 20 pounds with a lift of 345 pounds, giving him his third straight national title. Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, Illinois and Washington were actively trying to recruit Sorenson, who finished high school with a 3.5 GPA, but he decided on BYU. Besides living only 45 minutes from BYU, the Sorensens have been season ticket holders for 25 years.
It would be an understatement to say that Sorensen will have a big following at home games. Justin Sorensen has one younger sibling and seven older ones! His mother’s name is Jill, and then there’s Jake, Shown here with several of his Bingham High friends mugging for the camera, Sorensen is hoping that his success and unique training methods can change the way the public looks at kickers.
Sorensen has cleaned 355 pounds in training and is an accomplished mountain unicyclist who has jumped as much as 18 feet!
Jared, Jeff, Jenni, Jesse, Jodi, Josh and Julie. The father’s name is Kent, but to keep with the “J” theme everybody in the family calls him Jose.
Kicker Training Weight training is a key part of Sorensen’s training. He squats over 500 pounds and has cleaned 355 pounds. Sorensen taught himself some of the finer points of weightlifting. For example, he learned how to use the “hook grip” for holding a barbell from watching the Iranian Olympic champion Hossein Rezazadeh on television. Sorensen says that when he goes to BYU, he would like to experiment more with the Olympic lifts. Although working to develop the strength of a college lineman is logical, Sorensen has another training method that definitely falls into the category of “unusual.” He rides unicycles.
Not only does he ride them, saying they help develop balance, but he also jumps them. He has reportedly jumped from heights as far as 18 feet. He has unicycles that range from as low as 18 inches to as high as 12 feet (the latter requires him to get on by climbing from the roof of his house). For special events he has an act in which he does tricks with several of his unicycles. Because Sorensen is such a valuable weapon, football coach Dave Peck decided not to allow the kicker to play other positions for fear of injury (and Peck admits that he’s not too fond of Sorensen’s unicycle jumping either).
But showing his versatility in the eighth grade, Sorensen played linebacker and fullback; he also played on the Bingham soccer team. Although you can’t give a kicker all the credit for the success of a football team, Sorensen’s abilities certainly have made a difference. In 2006 Bingham was undefeated and won the 5A state championships. This year the team had another great year, finishing 11-2. Justin Sorensen’s success will undoubtedly influence the training of younger kickers who wish to emulate his success. We look forward to seeing what this young man will do in college and the NFL.
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From BFS Magazine — July/August 2008. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
