Kingston Finally Gets His Kicks

You may not think Adam Kingston has made a lot of field goals this year, but he has already equaled the Crimson’s entire 2002 field goal output.

Kingston, a 6’ 1” senior from Omaha, Maine, is not your average Harvard kicker. In fact, he is not your average kicker period.

Kingston has held Harvard’s primary punting responsibilities for the past three years. As one of the few four-year varsity players on the team, he assumes a leadership role not common among kickers.

“I’ve always tried to be kind of a quiet leader,” Kingston said. “I’ve tried to avoid the role of the stereotypical kicker.”

Kingston has already had an impressive career as a punter—averaging over 36 yards per punt in each of his first three seasons. In his very first varsity game as a freshman, Kingston booted a 79 yard punt against Lafayette—the longest punt for a Harvard kicker in over 100 years.

But while Kingston was consistently booming punts, the Crimson’s place kicking was terrible. Despite the Harvard’s success over the past three seasons, the team has ranked at or near the bottom in the Ivy League in field goals made.

And now, after Harvard kickers combined for only two field goals last year and sophomore Jim Morocco missed both an extra point and a 29-yard field goal in the season opener against Holy Cross, Kingston is being called upon to take on double duty. He is now the Crimson’s primary place kicker as well as its punter.

For Kingston, this is a welcome challenge.

“We’ve been pretty poor the last few years in kicking,” Kingston said. “I’ve gotten tired of sitting on the sidelines and watching us miss kicks, so it’s nice to be able to do something about it.”

And so far, he’s been doing a lot about it—converting on two-of-three field goals and on eight-of-nine extra points through the first two games.

Kingston’s athletic ability should make the transition to full-time place kicker easier than it would be for most. Coming out of high school, Kingston was recruited to Harvard as both a receiver and punter. But after fracturing a vertebra in his back early freshman year, his role was reduced solely to punting.

However, he hasn’t lost the athleticism that allowed him to excel at both positions in high school. In this past summer’s testing, Kingston recorded the highest vertical jump on the team (36.5 inches) along with a 40-yard dash time of 4.53 seconds—a figure that also ranks in the top five on the team.

“I have always tried to be an athlete first and a kicker second,” Kingston said. “I guess it attests to my diverging from the norm of kickers.”

Kingston’s unique ability as a kicker hasn’t been lost on his coach either.

“[Adam] gives us leadership and ability,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “In my opinion, he’s the most athletic and valuable specialist in the Ivy League.”

Kingston is also blessed with one of the strongest legs around.

“I played a lot of soccer growing up,” he said. “So I’m sure that helped leg strength.”

While his longest field goal in a game is 44 yards—impressive in its own right—he claims to have kicked a 62 yard field goal in practice.

Personal glories aside, Kingston is all about winning.

“I just want to be a quiet leader and contribute to a winner,” he said.

If Kingston keeps up his current pace, he’d be the first Crimson kicker in a while to do just that.