A soccer player who had never kicked a football heading into his freshman year of high school at Ferris, Munoz received a proposition that he made the most of.
“Our varsity football team needed a kicker, and one of the coaches told me to give it a shot,” Munoz recalled. “I was scared at first. I had never kicked a football before. Then I beat out some older guys to make the team and fell in love with it.”
It turns out that Lady Luck was smiling on Mary Hardin-Baylor that day, as well.
Now in his senior season with the seventh-ranked Crusaders (7-1, 6-0 American Southwest Conference), Munoz is 5-for-5 on field goals and is averaging 41.3 yards per punt, ninth-best in NCAA Division III.
It has been a stellar performance in what will be his only season as UMHB’s full-time kicker and punter.
After spending his freshman year on the junior varsity squad and sophomore year in partial varsity duty, Munoz was the Crusaders’ kickoff specialist last season. He never punted and rarely attempted field goals or extra points because those duties were handled by All-Americans Hunter Hamrick and Zach Newcomb.
Munoz, however, was content to bide his time.
“I was fine with playing behind those guys,” he said. “I was comfortable with just playing a role on the team.”
And the time spent with Hamrick paid dividends for Munoz, whose only other season as a punter came as a senior in high school.
“The past few years, when Hunter was practicing, he would ask me to punt the balls back to him,” Munoz said. “We would just punt back and forth. I learned a lot and was able to work on my technique, because I knew the job would be open this year.”
Now Munoz is the elder statesman and dictates what the kickers do during practice, which in other years he said could have been termed as “boring” at times.
“We work the whole time,” said Munoz, who has five touchbacks despite this year’s rule change that moved kickoffs back 5 yards to the 30. “The past few years, we would do our stuff at the beginning of practice and then just watch or mess around.
“But I want to continue to get better and better, so I do punts, kickoffs and field goals throughout the whole practice.”
The work shows in Munoz’ poise, which has been unflappable thus far.
“I just try to stay as calm as possible, and it usually works,” he said of the times he’s called upon during games. “I just think about my technique. I’ve done it millions of times in practice, so I just do the same things during a game that I do during the week.”
Munoz has continued to improve at a rate that has him thinking about trying to continue his kicking days. But if it doesn’t pan out, the biology major has another plan to fall back on.
“If I could pursue a kicking career, that would be great,” he said. “If not, I plan on working to get into medical school.
“Just knowing it’s my senior year, I’ve tried to capture every moment. I love playing in the games.”
NOTES: UMHB can clinch its fifth ASC title in the last six years - and sixth playoff appearance in the last seven seasons - with a homecoming win against East Texas Baptist (5-4, 5-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Tiger Field.
