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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Kicking His Goals As A Youth, He Didn’t Hold Special Promise In Football, But His Hard Work Won Mike Hollis A Job As Kicker In The Pros

When Central Valley High graduate Mike Hollis speaks at local schools about his success as a kicker in the National Football League, he stresses the importance of having dreams.

“I like to pass my story on and say anything’s possible,” said Hollis. “I wasn’t the greatest in high school or college. I just worked hard.”

Hollis completed his second year with the expansion Jacksonville Jaguars, who played in January for the AFC championship.

He spent the last month in Spokane, participating at card-signing shows and speaking to students at Valley schools.

It’s an amazing story, considering the Greater Spokane League record setter kicked almost as many field goals for CV in 1989, two of them of 50 yards, as he made in any one season of college.

In four years, two at Wenatchee Valley College and two more at Idaho, he had a total of only 49 attempts.

It took him nearly 10 tryouts with various NFL teams before he was signed by Jacksonville.

Last season, the strong-legged athlete made 30 of 36 field goal attempts. Included were a perfect 11 for 11 up to 29 yards, 12 of 14 up to 39 yards and 7 of 11 from 40 yards and beyond. He didn’t miss in 27 extra point tries and scored 117 points for the second-year team.

“It is a story of courage, tenacity, dedication and loyalty you don’t often see,” said his high school coach, Jerry Connors.

Hollis liked football, but, as an 80-pound lightweight football player at Evergreen Junior High, didn’t figure he’d even play in high school much less in the NFL.

“I didn’t play in the ninth grade,” he said. “My best friend at the time, Jason Gohl, was a big guy and I knew what he could do to me. I didn’t want anyone else to do it to me.”

Because of Hollis’ select soccer background, his stepbrother, Harvey Dickerson, encouraged him to turn out as a kicker at Central Valley.

“I don’t know where he got the idea,” Hollis said.

Connors doesn’t remember his first conversation with Hollis about kicking. Hollis says he was a walk-on who tried to show what he could do.

Connors does remember that Hollis weighed perhaps 120 pounds and was called “Wiener” by his teammates.

“He hated that nickname,” said the coach.

Hollis was athletic enough to play other positions, said Connors. He could run up a wall, a la Fred Astaire, flip and land on his feet.

“He was too valuable (as a kicker),” Connors said. “I knew if he goes down, we’re hurting.”

Hollis’s GSL records included 11 field goals his senior year and 19 during a three-year career. But low grades meant a two-year stint at a community college.

He was 10 for 12 his first year at Wenatchee but only took seven attempts during an injury-stunted sophomore year.

Only Idaho and Montana expressed interest following his sophomore season.

During Hollis’ junior year at Idaho he made 12 of 20 field goals, a career high. Someone mentioned to him that his strong leg could attract NFL interest.

“I decided hard work would get me there,” said Hollis.

The turning point came when he enlisted the help of another former Connors kicker and GSL record-setter, Lewis and Clark graduate Jim Gaetano.

“Jim coached me a bit in high school but we went our separate ways until my junior year,” said Hollis.

Gaetano kicked at UNLV and for 10 years unsuccessfully pursued an NFL career. He developed contacts, which would later benefit Hollis.

“One thing against him, he was a conventional style toe-punch kicker,” said Hollis. “At first when he was teaching me, it was tough. To be honest, it was just trust. He knew what he was talking about and I trusted what he told me was right.”

Besides helping improve Hollis’s accuracy, Gaetano did a better job than his first agent of finding tryouts. Hollis nearly beat out John Carney of San Diego.

“In talking with general manager Bobby Beathard, he said I was close to being their guy and if I ever needed another shot, he wanted to know before I made a decision,” said Hollis.

He was told by his agent and Beathard that he would be going to the World League of Football. It didn’t happen.

Other tryouts came with Atlanta, Seattle and the New York Giants.

“I thought I had the Seattle job and they signed Jud Davis from Florida,” said Hollis. “I had a very good workout. That upset me a bit.”

Not one to give up, Hollis would practice at Evergreen Junior High and the Fore Seasons Sports Dome while awaiting another chance.

It came from Jacksonville coach Tom Coughlin, who liked his film but said the 5-foot-7, 175-pound kicker was too short.

“That’s when my buddy Jim got on a pay phone and got me a tryout in the Tri-Cities,” said Hollis.

Meanwhile, San Diego expressed interest again and Jacksonville flew him to Florida for a workout. Coughlin had a change of mind and signed him.

“At the beginning I struggled, even in training camp,” said Hollis.

For some reason Jacksonville stuck with him, and when he launched a successful 59-yarder near halftime of a pre-season game his job was secured.

“Honestly, I knew I could make it,” said Hollis. “I was very confident.”

Hollis said that when he and his wife, CV graduate Debra Codd, bought a house in Jacksonville, everything went great thereafter.

He kicked a game winner against Baltimore. He had five field goals against Cincinnati and was 8-for-9 in the playoffs, including a 58-yarder. In the tenuous world of place kicking, Hollis is on top of the world.

“In some respects it has been a fairy tale,” he said. “I never thought I’d kick 30 field goals in a season. Seeing an expansion team get to the championship is very exciting. It makes you realize how lucky you are,” said Hollis.

Luck, the saying goes, is the residue of hard work. People have told him it was politics, that he was in the right place at the right time.

Maybe so, but he was there because of his persistence.

“He persevered during the good and bad moments,” said Connors. “Mike knows he got a break, but he was prepared.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 photos (2 color)