Jaxon Bolster didn’t even know how to put on football pads a year ago at this time.
Now, the recent Ida High School graduate is coming off a stellar performance in the Michigan Football Coaches Association All-Star Game and is getting ready begin a college career in the sport.
It’s been a whirlwind journey to gridiron greatness for Bolster.
“It’s pretty surprising,” Bolster said. “It happened pretty quick.”
Bolster was a standout his first three seasons in high school in soccer and the pole vault for track and field.
His strong leg in soccer caught the eye of Ida football coach Jeff Potter.
“Coach Potter asked my dad (Mike) if I wanted to kick,” Bolster recalled. ”He gave me a couple of footballs and I started kicking on my own.”
Bolster practiced on his own four days a week in July.
“I would ride my bike over to Summerfield, put the ball on the grass and kick it,” he said.
He found he was walking a long way to retrieve the balls after his kicks.
His new football teammates were amazed when he showed up for the start of practice in August.
“It was definitely cool,” Bolster said. “They were pretty hyped.”
Bolster lived up to that hype with an early field goal in the season opener against Grosse Ile.
“It was a 42-yarder right through the middle,” Bolster said.
Later in the same game, he unleashed a school-record 49-yarder.
Adding to his incredible debut were six straight conversion kicks after touchdowns and 7-of-9 kickoffs boomed into the end zone.
Bolster connected on 4-of-6 field goals for the season and went 58-of 64 on PATs. He logged touchbacks on 67-of-84 kickoffs.
Strategic decisions tamped down his touchback total.
“We had a couple of onside kicks and a couple squibs on the ground,” he noted.
Bolster was selected for the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association All-Star Game at Lawrence Tech University on June 20 and keyed a comeback victory for the East team.
Bolster had a slow start to that game, missing an extra point and a 48-yard field goal early.
He was on the money the rest of the afternoon.
Five kickoffs sailed through the end zone.
He drilled a 44-yard field goal with 3:22 remaining, then delivered the game-winning PAT with 1:19 left.
“It would have been good from pretty far out,” he said of the field goal from the left hash.
The score was tied 21-21 when he lined up for the game-winning extra point.
“I actually felt pretty calm,” he said. “I had already missed one earlier, but after I hit the field goal I thought, “I can do this.’”
He was mobbed by his teammates after the winning kick.
“It meant a lot to me,” he said. “It was cool to be able to win the game for my team.”
Among Bolster’s teammates were Rocco Pillarelli of Whiteford, Bryce Randolph of Clinton and Grayson Bills of Hudson.
Bolster pounded the ensuing kickoff through the uprights for a touchback leading the announcer for the television broadcast to exclaim, “That’s only about a 77-yard field goal. My goodness!”
Bolster says his longest field goal in practice was a 68-yarder.
He will report to Ashland University in Ashland, Ohio, to begin his college career on Aug. 9.
“I like the coaching staff and they have really nice facilities for academics,” he said.
Bolster was the Division 3 state runner-up in the pole vault as a junior, but tore his hamstring early this spring and missed the rest of the track and field season. He holds the school record at 14-9.
The sports management major may try vaulting again in college.
“That’s up in the air, but they said I have a spot on the team if I want it,” he said.
His main emphasis will be football.
He already has done some research.
“Ashland’s school record (for field goals) is 59 yards,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Ida’s Bolster ready for college after starring role in All-Star Game
Reporting by Niles Kruger, The Monroe News / The Monroe News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Niles Kruger, The Monroe News | USA TODAY Network
