New mindset kicking in: Cadets' Merry leaves soccer behind to concentrate on football

Oct. 13—Hugo Merry defies just about every stereotype for football kickers there is.

For starters, he doesn't look like a kicker or do things that kickers are normally associated with doing.

The Frederick High senior is 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds. He bench presses more than 300 pounds, squats more than 400 pounds and dead lifts more than 500 pounds.

"I was trying to recruit him as an eighth grader when he came over and lifted [weights] with the football team," Cadets coach Kevin Pirri said.

Kickers also have a reputation for being the quirky outcasts on a team full of alpha males.

Except Merry is one of the alpha males on Frederick High's team. He's laid back but works hard. He's respectful of others and blends right in with his teammates in just about any setting.

"He is super mature," Pirri said. "So, it's like talking to an adult. You don't have to treat him like a baby where you have to explain to him every little nuance. You can talk to him like an adult, and he responds like an adult. He is fun to have around."

Kicking footballs wasn't really the future that Merry had mapped out for himself. He was a soccer player, and played on the team at Frederick High until this fall.

When Pirri tried to convince him to play football as an eighth-grade visitor in the weight room, Merry told him, "No, Coach, I am a soccer player."

Pirri looked at him and shot back, "One day."

Kicking footballs has opened doors for Merry that he would never have imagined.

In August, he was offered the chance to play Ivy League football for Columbia University in New York City. The opportunity stemmed from a football camp that he excelled at over the summer, when he got to meet some of the coaching staff at Columbia.

Merry and his weighted grade-point average of 4.50 will fit right in on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

"It's pretty much a dream school for me, being in New York and in the Ivy League," he said. "It's the perfect opportunity for me."

Frederick High is 6-0 this season with legitimate hopes of raising the school's first state-championship banner in school history for football.

Friday's 6:30 p.m. home game against Linganore (3-3) represents a significant milestone on that journey since it was the Lancers that handed the Cadets two of their three losses last season, including the decisive one in the Class 3A state semifinals.

In the waning seconds of a close playoff game this fall, it would not be surprising if Frederick's fate rested on Merry's right leg.

"I like that. I kind of get excited when I am in that position," he said. "When I am practicing, I try and imagine myself in those types of positions. It's a lot of stress. But I try not to think too much and just trust my training. It's just another kick."

All of this football stuff sort of happened by accident for Merry.

He was goofing on the stadium field at Frederick High a few years ago with close friends Adam MoeZaw and Zavian Johnson, who at the time played for the Cadets' football team but have since graduated.

Since Merry was the soccer player in the group, they teed one up for him on a cone from 50 yards away, and he put the ball through the uprights.

Cell-phone video of the kick was texted to Pirri, who promptly proceeded to launch a full-scale recruiting campaign.

"It was an impressive kick," Pirri said. "I thought, man he could be a better football player than a soccer player."

Merry decided to join the football team last fall, in addition to playing for the Frederick High soccer team.

During one week last season, Merry made seven extra points for the Cadets' football team in a blowout win and scored a goal for the soccer team. It was believed to be one of the first — if not the first — times in Frederick County high school sports that a player had registered a point in football and soccer in the same week.

The rule prohibiting students from participating in two sports during the same season had just been relaxed prior to the start of that season.

Merry maintained his soccer-first posture through the school year until the summer, when he started generating serious interest at football camps and the opportunity at Columbia came about.

He made the difficult decision to give up playing soccer and to concentrate strictly on playing football, in part because he was growing out of his soccer body.

"I like the fact that I can gain more weight [playing football]," he said. "In soccer, it's more about endurance. A lot of the players are skinnier, and you need that body type to run around all of the time."

Merry said his background in soccer made the transition to kicking field goals much easier for him.

"But definitely not where I am at now," he said. "That took many months of practice and coaching sessions."

Frederick's offense is so proficient that Merry doesn't get the chance to kick a lot of field goals or even punt. But he does hold the school record for extra points (120 and counting), and his ability to kick the ball out of the end zone consistently forces teams to drive 80 yards against the Cadets' defense on most possessions.

"When I was playing soccer, my friends would always joke with me, 'Wouldn't it be funny if you started playing football?'" Merry said. "And here I am now playing football. It was actually a pretty easy decision once I started playing."

Follow Greg Swatek on Twitter:

@greg_swatek