Kicking Down Anonymity Lakeside’s Ryan Chicoine Has Been A Secret Weapon, Until Now

Through one half of a Saturday football game, Colfax battered and bruised Lakeside in every way possible.

Colfax ground out yards when it had the ball, then stopped anything the Eagles tried on offense.

The Northeast A game should have belonged to the Bulldogs, except Lakeside had a secret weapon.

His name is Ryan Chicoine, and maybe he’s been a secret too long.

Against Colfax, Chicoine put five kickoffs into the end zone, averaged 45 yards per punt and kicked a 47-yard field goal.

Colfax piled up yards but always started with poor field position. In the end, Lakeside (4-0, 4-2) capitalized on turnovers and won the NEA game, 23-14, to set up Friday’s key matchup with fourth-ranked Chewelah (4-0, 6-0).

Chicoine has a rare chance Friday to appear in the spotlight. For three years he has been the best kicker in the NEA, but, for whatever reason, people don’t know him.

Colleges have been slow to respond to a guy who has made 16 of 18 PATs and has kicked 60-yard field goals and 70-yard punts in practice.

Sports writers named Riverside kicker Ryan Baker to the all-state team last year, although NEA coaches, who know better, selected Chicoine as an all-leaguer.

“You know he has some talent that somebody could use,” said Lakeside kicking coach Mary McAdam.

McAdam knows something about uncovering talent. Chicoine, more interested in soccer, didn’t turn out for football at the Nine Mile school during his freshman year. When Lakeside’s regular kicker, Travis Baldwin, entered his senior year, McAdam asked students if any undiscovered kickers might be ready to become an understudy.

“Mary yanked me out of class and said, ‘I need a kicker,”’ Chicoine said. “My original plan was to play college soccer.”

“For a while he said, ‘You have to be nice to me in class or I won’t kick,”’ McAdam said. “We talked him out of that one.”

In McAdam, Chicoine found the perfect teacher. When McAdam first approached Glen Payne about instructing kickers, the Lakeside coach was skeptical. But McAdam has relieved one of Payne’s worries, and in the process opened up a rarely-used dimension at the Class A level.

McAdam is surprised at the way many teams ignore the kicking game, or find the first guy who looks like he can kick an extra point.

“Just field position can get you a lot of things,” she said.

“Most of his kickoffs go into the end zone. In high school, that’s an automatic advantage.”

Chicoine has averaged 42 yards per punt, which includes squib kicks when Lakeland drives stall near midfield.

He kicked another 47-yard FG - against Kellogg - this year. That FG was 3 yards farther than the one he kicked in 2 inches of snow at Pullman last year.

Most telling to McAdam was the way Chicoine evenly matched a kicker from Reno, Nev., during a summer football camp. That kicker earned a full ride to the University of Hawaii.

Washington State has sent letters to Chicoine, but the Cougars are actively recruiting someone else. The University of Washington has requested a video of Chicoine in action.

Who knows? The mystery man may attract more attention if Lakeside continues on its path and makes the state playoffs.

“The way I see it, I have the easy job,” Chicoine said. “They (his teammates) do all the hard work while I’m standing on the sidelines.”

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