Q&A with Slade Larscheid

With Jim Martinho

October 23, 2003

Jim Martinho: How did you become a kicker?

Slade Larscheid: My sophomore year in high school the kicker for the JV team went down with an injury. The coaches knew I had soccer experience, so I started kicking and kind of had a knack for it.

JM: Do you ever feel like an outcast from the rest of the team’s position players?

SL: Somewhat, just because the position is so different than the physical part of the game.

JM: So does it bother you that you still have to go out and run, say, eight 100-yard sprints with the team?

SL: Not really, because if we didn’t run we wouldn’t get the team’s respect. I agree that we should have to do all the same stuff, because we’re on the team, too.

JM: Did you have an idol as a kicker growing up?

SL: Let me think … I guess I always followed Adam Vinatieri because he’s from South Dakota, too. I’ve met him a couple times and he’s a cool guy.

JM: How many field goals do you kick in a typical practice?

SL: Probably 40 to 50 balls a day, if that.

JM: Has a holder ever pulled a Charlie Brown on you and pulled the ball away at the last second?

SL: No. God, I hope that never happens.

JM: You ever accidentally kick the holder’s hand?

SL: A couple times if we can’t get the snap and the hold through, (holder) Eric (Batis) can’t get his hand out of the way. When it gets cold out it can sting him a little.

JM: When you were struggling earlier in the season you talked to your kicking guru.

SL: Yeah, his name is Ray Pelfrey, he’s out of Sparks, South Dakota. When I first started kicking I went to camps and he runs a lot of them. Even from a thousand miles away he knows if it’s hooking or if it’s slicing and how to get it corrected.

JM: It seems like you use a lot of golf analogies in kicking.

SL: A golf swing is a lot like the swing of a kicker’s leg, but the main difference is in golf it’s sitting still, and in kicking you have to trust three guys to be successful.

JM: What do you do for fun over in Spearfish, South Dakota?

SL: Ah, Spearfish. Well, I fish a lot.

JM: No way.

SL: Yeah, I fly-fish a lot in the Black Hills. But mostly we just hang out, there’s not much going on in a town of about 10,000 people.

JM: No fish stories — what’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught?

SL: I would say a 16-inch rainbow trout.

JM: So is that about the equivalent of kicking a 50-yard field goal?

SL: It’s a pretty big fish, but I’ve had buddies that caught bigger. But it’s about the same feeling — catching a fish and kicking a field goal.

JM: What’s the best dining hall on campus?

SL: I would say Elder. It’s homey, you don’t have to wait in line, you’re out by yourself, and you always get a smile from Al.

JM: If you were a character on The Simpsons, who would you be?

SL: People would probably say I’m most like Flanders. That’s what (Tim) McGarigle would say because he thinks I’m too nice sometimes.