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CHS Student of the Month — Easton Atwood

Easton Atwood, a senior at Concordia High School (CHS), has one comment about COVID-19.
"We're all just trying to get through it," he said. "But it is kind of annoying to wear a mask all the time."
The son of Colby Atwood,  Amy and Nick Jackson, Atwood participates in football, basketball, baseball and band, and enjoys soccer, juggling, and playing board and video games with family and friends.
Juggling?
"I picked it up during the quarantine," he said. "I'm working on juggling four balls. I'm getting better."
Talk to Atwood about football - specifically the kicking game - and you quickly see where his passion is.
"I started playing soccer in grade school," he said. "In my sophomore year of high school I was watching the other kickers warm up and I thought: I can do that. Dylan Thoman told me to kick one, and I kicked as far as anybody else."
This season, against Marysville, Atwood kicked a 31-yard field goal.
"I've kicked a 52-yarder in practice, but it's a lot different during a game."
The key to being a good kicker? "It's really all in the fundamentals, putting everything together at the right moment. I basically taught myself, and then last summer I went to a camp and really learned how to kick."
We've all groaned or cheered when a kicker misses a clutch field goal that could have won the game. Or, for some bizarre reason, completely whiffs what should be a routine extra point.
"There's a lot of things that can go wrong with a kick," Atwood elaborates. "Everything from a bad snap to a bad hold; the wind, the distance, the angle. But a lot of times it's just the kicker. It's easy to overthink things."
Atwood intends to study computer programming at college, but he's not sure which college he'll attend because he's hoping to get an offer to be a place kicker.
"We'll see what happens. Five years from now I'd like to be kicking in the NFL, but you just never know."
Whatever college Atwood attends, or wherever he is five years from now, he is going to miss Concordia.
"That's what is sad about high school ending - all your friends split up. I'm going to miss knowing everybody, and miss how peaceful it is here. But I'm excited to see different things, and meet new people."
One thing Atwood is not going to miss is school lunch. "I'm always hungry, and athletes need calories," he said with a laugh. "There never seems to be enough food on the plate at school lunch."
Congratulations to the always-hungry placekicker Easton Atwood - CHS Student of the Month.

 

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