Ooltewah's Laszlo Toser handled place-kicking and punting duties for the Owls this past season. He will be a preferred walk-on specialist at Tennessee in 2015.
photo by Dennis Norwood
Ooltewah place-kicker Laszlo Toser, selected as the Mr. Football Kicker of the Year by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, has decided to become a preferred walk-on kicker at the University of Tennessee.
Toser made his decision public on his Facebook account on Wednesday.
In a unique twist, former Signal Mountain basketball player Lannom Sowell, a 6-foot-7-inch, 250-pounder now in his freshman year in Knoxville, has decided to walk on at Tennessee despite not having played the sport in high school.
Toser, a senior, was a key cog in the Owls’ successful 2014 season. Ooltewah won its first 11 games, was ranked among the state’s top 10 Class 5A teams and reached the playoff second round before losing to Rhea County, 47-14.
Toser chose to walk-on at Tennessee rather than Alabama.
“First off, this is very exciting,” Toser said Monday night. “I just love how it feels up there. It’s a much better fit for me than Alabama. The coaches are nice and I think they’re going to be really good in football.”
The fact that the Vols have a solid place-kicker in sophomore-to-be Aaron Medley didn’t cause a problem in Toser’s decision to head for Knoxville.
“Not at all,” he said. “They’re looking for me to come up there and perform well. If I do that, hopefully I can earn a scholarship. They said I might earn a spot just kicking off. That’s OK with me.”
Toser was also contacted by East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Memphis, Tennessee-Martin and Tennessee-Chattanooga. Toser contacted the University of Florida – he grew up in Gainesville – but did not receive a reply to his outreach.
The 18-year-old Toser does feel his winning the Mr. Football award gave him added publicity and “looks” by Tennessee and Alabama coaches.
“I would think it helped a little bit,” he said of the prestigious TSSAA award.
Tennessee assistant Mark Elder visited the Toser home and spent about two hours there setting up is official visit to the Knoxville campus.
Elder’s visit also helped Toser make up his mind to become a Volunteer.
“I had a real good feel about Tennessee after he left,” Toser said.
A Kohl’s Kicking Camp honorable mention All-America field-goal specialist, Toser chose the Vols after taking official visits to both campuses.
Toser was superb throughout his senior season, setting a school record with a 52-yard field goal against Bradley Central. The Owls won their first 11 games before running into Rhea County’s Golden Eagles.
He was successful on 15-of-20 field-goal attempts this season. He made 50-of-50 extra point and put 70-of-77 kickoffs into or through the end zone.
Toser edged Franklin’s Corey Fatony and Columbia Academy’s Thomas Garrison for the Mr. Football honor.
As for Sowell, paying attention to the university web site paid off in his rare bid to join the Vols’ football team after having not played at Signal Mountain.
“I heard about the opportunity to walk on through the UT web site,” he said. “The tryouts were on Jan. 22 and I just decided to go out there and try for it.”
The plan worked out well.
Coaches asked Sowell if he played football in high school and he “straight out” told them he had not, but he had experience playing basketball.
“Their reaction was a lot better than you would expect,” the 18-year-old business marketing major said in a telephone interview from Knoxville. “I talked with Patrick Abernathy, who’s the head of the walk-on process and when I told him I did not play football, he said, ‘You know what? We can work with that. I can’t coach size, but we can coach football.’ ”
Sowell said he attended all of Tennessee’s home football games and has seen six basketball games so far. He has a solid academic standing with a “good routine” handling his study time.
With participation in football Sowell will receive a few perks – designated study hours and plenty of (academic) resources provided to the players.
“I intend to take full advantage of those,” Sowell said. “Being up here was a culture shock at first, one thing the work load is a lot different than in high school. But I’m enjoying a lot of success.”
The walk-on players are scheduled to meet with Vols coaches on Tuesday and get more information about workouts and their routines related to football.
Sowell originally thought he would try to play basketball at the Division I or Division II level, but admitted he had always had interest in pursuing football. After almost a year focusing on life as strictly a student, Sowell began yearning for a return to competitive sports.
“I just really missed it,” he said. “I know I have to do everything possible to prove I’m worthy of putting on that jersey and I’m planning to work very hard. This is extremely exciting and one of the best opportunities I’ve had in my life. I want to represent myself, my family and city and go out and so something new.”
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)