Baxter’s big punt pays off

Shepparton’s Ethan Baxter is going to the University of California, Berkeley.

The former Notre-Dame school captain, ex-Central Park-St Brendan’s opening bowler and previous AFL draft hopeful is set to join the prestigious American college with his eyes firmly set on the punter’s jersey for the school’s football team.

“It’s obviously incredible, its pretty unbelievable,” Baxter said.

“For me growing up in Shepp you only see it in the movies so it doesn’t sink in at all, I think until I’m actually there, even then it probably won’t sink in, it’s totally unbelievable that because I can kick a football I can get this opportunity.”

While he is yet to play a college football game, Baxter’s sporting exploits will be well known by observers across the Goulburn Valley.

The 20-year-old was among the Murray Bushrangers and Victoria Country ranks throughout his junior football career, with the Shepparton Bears product throwing his hat in the ring at the 2020 AFL Draft.

“My draft year was 2020 so obviously that was a bit of a rough year for everyone,” Baxter said.

“At the start of the year (2020) I was in Melbourne with a host family right next to Richmond’s home ground at Punt Rd and training at their gym and everything, things were looking really positive.

”Once COVID-19 hit I came home and trained by myself I kind of had a lot of time to think about what I really wanted to do and kind of lost interest a little bit in the AFL side of things because I was by myself doing it all.“

Baxter explained that a recruiter from Richmond offered him a spot in the VFL team, however this would mean he would have to juggle study, work and football.

This is where he got in touch with Pro Kick Australia, a program that aims to transform Australian athletes into American football punters.

“Within about 10 minutes both of the coaches had called me and said ‘you seem like pretty much the perfect fit for it’ and then I haven’t looked back since then,” he said.

“It’s kind of like it’s meant to be, I’ve found the thing I really enjoy doing.”

It has not been an easy task transforming from AFL draft hopeful to college football punter, with 4am bike rides and multiple gym and football training sessions each week preparing the Shepparton export for the big time.

“Doing crazy things like that that didn’t seem crazy because I loved to do it,” he said.

“So what they do is they pretty much completely strip down our technique.

“They teach us how to punt in college football and although it’s just kicking and we’re naturally good at kicking drop punts and everything there is still a lot of work that goes into it.

“I just found what I really wanted to do and made the most of it I guess and now things are really working out.

“They kind of say to us you’re never going to be ready but they try and get us as ready as they can.”

Baxter’s new school has a well-known football program, with Berkeley’s team the ‘California Golden Bears’ competing in the Pac-12 Conference as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division One.

The Shepparton local won’t be the only Australian in the college system, with a raft of others from around Victoria and the nation playing the American game.

Cohuna’s Flynn Appleby recently joined Rutgers University, while Bendigo’s Jamieson Sheahan is the current California punter.

“I actually played cricket with his (Sheahan) younger brother at Northern Rivers so it’s crazy how everything links up, and he’s in his last year at California Berkeley so I’ll be his back-up this year,” Baxter said.

“So I’ll get a year to kind of work into it, get used to the system and everything, get my body ready for another year and then hopefully move into that position after he finishes up.

“That’ll help me work into it a bit more instead of being thrown straight into it all, but if that was to come up we’re as ready as we can be.”

Off the field Baxter will be studying a university degree, with the punter set to take after his parents and go down the business route.

“At the moment I’m just making the most of getting a degree and playing college football which looks incredible,” he said.

“It’s scary but exciting, more exciting than everything else.”

Baxter is on track to begin his summer course at Berkeley on July 5.