L-P’s Seth Adams to play at Whitewater after starting football as a junior

When recent La Salle-Peru graduate Seth Adams was in eighth grade, he did a science fair project on the physics of kicking a football.

“It was about changing the angles of how the ball is held and if that affects the kick at all,” Adams said.

Despite that, Adams never played a down a football or kicked a football more than a couple times.

Now, he’s set to play in the Illinois Shrine Game this weekend and is committed to play football at Wisconsin-Whitewater, one of the top NCAA Division III programs in the country.

“Obviously, I had the soccer background, but it’s very different when you try to put it to football and try to kick with a tee.”

—  Seth Adams, L-P graduate

“It’s a very weird experience is how I describe it,” Adams said. “My junior year I went to [L-P football] camp. Then we went on vacation, and I thought about doing it. It was just one of those things. Now here we are. I’ve had a lot of fun playing football.”

Adams played soccer, basketball and baseball his first two years at L-P.

After attending football camp the summer before his junior year, Adams doubled as a soccer player and the kicker for the football team.

By senior year, Adams had dropped soccer to focus solely on football, adding wide receiver to his kicking duties.

Despite his soccer background, Adams said it wasn’t an easy transition to kicking a football.

“I had to work at it a lot,” Adams said. “Coach [Tim] Izer lives pretty close to the school, and he was able to help me and work with me. Obviously, I had the soccer background, but it’s very different when you try to put it to football and try to kick with a tee.”

As a junior, Adams made 18 of 22 extra points and connected on all four of his field goal attempts, including two 43-yarders.

During the summer after his junior year, Adams decided he wanted to pursue college football.

“I went to a couple of camps,” Adams said. “I went to a Notre Dame camp, and I went to an Iowa camp. I thought [college football] was something I wanted to do. That summer I worked on trying to kick off the ground, which was a big adjustment.”

Adams started emailing college coaches, posted on Twitter and got recruiting help from L-P coach Jose Medina and assistant Pat Carney.

Adams, who was perfect on extra points and went 5 of 6 on field goals with a long of 40 yards as a senior last fall, went on visits to Whitewater, Aurora University, Monmouth College and Loras College.

“Compared to the other schools I was looking at, I felt like it gave me a bigger opportunity to meet people,” Adams said. “It was a much larger school, and it’s known for its football. I really liked the environment with a bigger campus. I really liked the facilities.”

Adams will join a Warhawks program that has won six national championships and has finished as national runner-up five times.

“It’s really cool, honestly, because obviously the expectations are going to be a lot higher,” Adams said. “The coaching staff is a bunch of nice people, and they know what you need to get done, and they’re going to push me.”

Adams said he’ll be in a competition with a returning kicker, another freshman and a transfer from Ithaca College with one year of eligibility left. If he doesn’t win the kicking job, Adams said he could have a chance to be the holder.

This summer, Adams is working on kicking from the ground, which is how kickers kick in college as opposed to off a tee, while also playing baseball in hopes of possibly being a two-sport athlete at Whitewater.

“I’m going to Howard Fellows and working as much as I can,” Adams said. “I mean, you can always get better at something, but I feel like I’m definitely getting a lot better.”

Adams will kick for the Red team in the 50th Illinois High School Shrine Game at 11 a.m. Saturday at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Tucci Stadium in Bloomington.

“It’s a really cool opportunity to play there and represent L-P one more time and support the hospital,” Adams said.