Small town, big dreams for Doerr
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Courtesy of Oregon Media Services
Oregon punter Kurtis Doerr’s accuracy and strength are reasons why the Ducks’ defense is ranked No. 1 in the conference.
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■ Kurtis Doerr keeps baseball in his heart but football in his life
during his senior season with the Ducks
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Don’t ask how it happens, just ac
cept it as fact — small towns breed
great football players.
Just ask Kurtis Doerr, punter for
the Oregon football team.
Here’s a guy who never set foot
on a football field to compete before
his freshman year of high school in
the little town of Waterford, Wis.,
and even then, he didn’t actually
play football. And now, here he is,
named Pacific-10 Conference Play
er of the Week for Oct. 2, following
one of his best performances ever
against Washington.
“It’s my job,” Doerr said, opting
not to pat himself on the back. “It’s
what I’m supposed to do.”
A program called “Punt, Pass
and Kick,” which measured skill in
those areas in terms of distance and
accuracy, was Doerr’s first experi
ence playing football as a high
school freshman. With help from
his father, some practice and a little
luck, Doerr punted, passed and
kicked his way to the Wisconsin
state tournament. Then, he won it.
Needless to say, he turned some
heads.
Doerr continued to command at
tention in his next three years at
Waterford Union High School, tak
ing after his father, Kurt, by shoul
dering quarterback, punter and
kicker duties for his prep football
team. After graduating, he enrolled
at Glendale Community College in
Glendale, Ariz., where he intended
to start a collegiate athletic career.
But not in tootball.
Not in football, even if sportsuni
versity.com called Doerr a punter
“who specializes in distance, accu
racy and hang-time”?
The multi-sport athlete has al
ways been a baseball player at
heart. He never considered his fu
ture as a punter when he was
young: “If a team’s going to punt,
it’s always a good time to run for
the fridge and grab a beer or soda,”
Doerr said.
Someday, he even hopes to be
back in the diamond, making a re
turn to competitive baseball.
However, Doerr put his baseball
plans on hold in his first fall sea
son. One of the football coaches
happened to see him kicking and
approached Doerr about joining the
team. He did, and again, it didn’t
take long for a couple of other
coaches to notice his powerful
punts.
Doerr made a verbal commit
ment to go to Arizona during his
sophomore season. That was before
he talked with Oregon head coach
Mike Bellotti, who persuaded the
punter to take a trip out to Eugene.
Doerr was blown away by Oregon’s
facilities and Bellotti’s profession
al-yet-relatable demeanor.
“The next thing I know, I got
home and called Arizona and told
them I wasn’t going there any
more,” Doerr said.
Fittingly, the Ducks hit the road
to play Michigan State last year on
Sept. 2. Making his Division I-A de
but in front of family and friends,
Doerr proceeded to break the
school single-game record with a
51.2-yard punt average against the
Spartans, including one 75-yard
blast.
I just wanted to make sure that I
caught the ball and kicked it,” Do
err recalls. “I was nervous, I’d never
seen that many people in the same
place at the same time.”
After ascending the ranks from
high school to junior college to Ore
gon, more people began to notice
the punter from small-town Water
ford. His stats — 59 punts, 2,460 to
tal yards and an average of 41.7
yards per kick — ranked him 38th
nationally and earned him a spot
on the Pac-10 coaches’ second con
ference team.
Then, the 2000 season arrived.
Picked in the preseason to finish
third in the Pac-10 race, the Ducks
packed their bags for Madison,
Wis., to face the No. 3 Badgers. For
Doerr, it would be his second
homecoming in as many years, and
he was eager to repeat his best-ever
performance.
Unfortunately, the second-time
around was not as sweet.
Doerr had probably his worst
game ever, having one punt
blocked in the end zone for a touch
down and averaging 28.3 yards in
his seven attempts.
“I tried doing too much and I
can’t do that,” Doerr said. “It’s like
baseball. If you try to smash it out
of the park every time, you’re going
to strike out.
“You’ve got to write it off. You
can’t ponder on it too much or
you’ll get what kickers call ‘the
mind screw.’”
The senior lived true to his
words, regaining form and posting
solid numbers against Idaho, UCLA
and Washington. If anyone got
“mind-screw” from Doerr’s kicking,
it was Husky coach Rick Neuheisel,
who blamed his team’s loss partly
on poor field position throughout
the game.
“He’s the best kicker we’ve seen
this season,” a befuddled Neuheisel
said after the game.
Doerr gets plenty of support from
fellow Duck kickers, as well as the
Oregon defense, ranked No. 1 in the
Pacific-10 Conference. Defensive
end Jason Nikolao said that Doerr
has something to do with the de
fense’s strong showings.
“It’s a lot easier when we have to
defend 90 yards, rather than 60 or
70,” Nikolao said. “Kurtis is doing
a great job, I think we’ve got the best
punter in the nation.
“I tell that guy he’s our best ally,
our best friend. As long as he keeps
them as far back pinned in their ter
ritory as possible, that helps us a
lot.”
Doerr also talks fondly about Bel
lotti, who he says is “not too big for
anybody,” and about his strong
minded girlfriend, Duck softball
player Missy Coe, who keeps him
focused, he said.
And no longer does Doerr have to
travel halfway across the country to
see his family. His mother, Betsy,
and 8-year old sister, Anna, moved
to Eugene at the start of this season.
His father flies to every game from
Waterford.
“I look up in the stands [at my
dad] and I can tell what he’s telling
me to do,” Doerr said.
Ironic that a baseball player from
Waterford turned down a collegiate
career in sunny Arizona to kick the
football in rainy Eugene.
Must be a small-town thing.