None of the 89 players invited to the Washington Redskins' rookie minicamp had a more unlikely path to a uniform than David Lonie.
The Palm Beach, Australia, native starred in the pole vault and water polo, worked as a plumber and in construction and ran a surf shop before he came to the United States as a water ski instructor at a Wisconsin summer camp in 1999. Lonie had never played football, but one of his fellow instructors was a punter at Drake University and Lonie's kicking talent showed as he outpunted his buddy.
"I could boom the ball, but I didn't think much of it," said Lonie, who played semipro soccer in England the next two years before returning to the States in 2001 to give football a shot.
Lonie hooked up with former Cincinnati kicker Doug Pelfrey that summer. The video of Lonie that Pelfrey sent out garnered plenty of interest from colleges. He committed to Ohio State but complications with his transcript forced him to Ellsworth (Iowa) Junior College. From there, Lonie was recruited by many Division I schools and wound up at California where he punted and kicked off the past two seasons.
Lonie, who averaged more than 41 yards a punt at Cal, is a serious threat to incumbent Derrick Frost, who averaged 40.4 yards, thanks to plenty of roll after joining the Redskins in Week 3 last year.
"Derrick has to be more consistent and show more power," Redskins special teams coach Danny Smith said of the two-year NFL veteran. "We haven't had him for a whole year so he has some upside."
However, Smith was more upbeat about his newest project, whom the Redskins signed as a rookie free agent Monday.
This is my kind of feel good story... a soccer playing Aussie trying to catch on in the NFL...I lve underdogs....hope the kid makes it..
05-07-2006, 08:02 PM
Redskins get Australian punter? 
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