Hawaii football: Meet Harry Hill

Harry Hill, who graduated from Konawaena High this past Saturday, is set to join the Warriors as a walk-on kicker this summer.

> Hill will join Ryan Meskell and Michael Boyle as UH kickers. Alex Trifonovitch has graduated and Nino Alibegic has departed.

> Hill said he booted a field goal from 62 yards off a tee during a Chris Sailer Kicking camp. In a game, his longest traditional field goal was from 39 yards. Last year, he made a 58-yarder on a free kick.

> Hill said he was born in Florida, moved to California for a year, then relocated to Hawaii when he was 7.

> His first sport was futbol. “My dad’s English,” Hill said. “We’re really into soccer. I like it a lot.” He said Manchester United was his favorite team.

> It was in middle school when a friend asked him to join a youth football team. “Then I figured they had kicking in the game, I realized I could get good at that,” Hill said.

> By the end of the eighth grade, he was studying YouTube videos of kickers. “I tried to learn on my own,” he said. From there, he received helpful kicking tips from the Konawaena coaches.

> In seeking to hone his skills, he was led to Chris Sailer Kicking. “I was looking around for camps, and I thought they were the best, and they are the best,” said Hill, who has attended four of the camps in California and three in Las Vegas. Hill said he will attend a Sailer camp for college-bound kickers this summer, then join the Warriors for the start of training camp in July.

> Hill said he has several training routines. He will kick the football, chse it down, turn around and kick it in the other direction. He also has a stretching workout. To improve his leg strength, he often jumps up the stairs at Konawaena’s stadium.