Sports

Lincoff gets a kick out of punting at Dean

By BILL KIPOURAS
STaff writer
Published: January 6, 2009

Matt Lincoff was originally ticketed for a future in track and field at the University of Rhode Island.

Instead, the 20-year-old from Salem wound up in football — punting in a bowl game for Dean College.

Lincoff, who attended Marblehead High School (via school choice) and played football for the Magicians, helped Dean to an unbeaten 10-0 regular season, the first in school history. The Bulldogs went on to play in the Graphic Edge Bowl at the Uni Dome in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where they lost to Iowa Central Community College, 20-10.

The Graphic Edge Bowl was one of six National Junior College Athletic Association bowl games being played this year. Dean had won their conference championship, the Northeast Football Conference, and was ranked 10th in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) poll.

Lincoff, who still holds the high jump record at Marblehead High (6 feet, 4 inches), says he left the University of Rhode Island because of its price tag: $42,000 a year for out-of-state students.

"I did play football at Marblehead, but gave up basketball to do track my senior year because I was under the impression I was headed for track at URI," he said. "I figured I needed to work on my (high jump) technique."

The next thing he needed to do was decide where he'd be going after URI didn't materialize.

"I wasn't even thinking about college football," Lincoff said. "My dad and I went through the Internet and looked at all the colleges, and my dad said 'Why not a junior college?' So that's how I ended up at Dean.

"It's one of the few two-year colleges which has football. I furthered my education and succeeded academically, which is what Dean is all about. Dean offers a second chance for a lot of kids who want to improve their grades."

While at the Franklin school (where Marblehead's Nate Ciaramella also plays football), Lincoff found a niche kicking the football. He ultimately lost the field goal job to Long Ding of China, but Lincoff had no complaints.

"Long's phenomenal. He's a kid who came here in a program sponsored by high schools in the U.S. and became highly recruited. He's a truly a great kicker," said Lincoff. "I knew I had to find another position and had a strong leg, so I had to work on my punting."

He succeeded, posting a 38-yard average punting the ball. Some horrible wind conditions in Iowa, however — similiar, Lincoff said, to what the Patriots faced in Buffalo in their regular season finale — prevented it from being even higher.

"The wind was just as tough at Iowa (as in Buffalo). One of my punts went just two yards," he said. "It was a wild game. If it weren't for the wind I would have finished with a 42.2 average."

Ding also took over the PAT job for the Bulldogs, but Lincoff was 10-for-10 on conversion kicks while Ding recovered from a preseason injury.

For the season, only eight of Lincoff's 25 punts were returned, and the average return was a miniscule 1.6 yards. His longest net punt was 71 yards against Division 1 Bryant College.

Looking to draw the attention of some Division 1 schools, Lincoff has written to the football stafffs at Clemson, Auburn, South Florida, UMass Amherst, Boston College and Virginia, and has applied to those schools.

"I wrote a couple of weeks ago. Now I'm sitting and waiting ... and hoping," Lincoff said.

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Endicott College's football program has a former Natick High MVP (2007) on the way in Mike Russo, a defensive back and two-way kicker.

Russo had made up his mind to play baseball in Florida at Rollins before realizing how much he missed football. So he called his high school coach, Tom Lamb, hoping to return to New England.

"Tom contacted me and said Mike is someone that any coach would want in his program. When Tom Lamb makes a suggestion you'd better listen," Endicott coach J.B. Wells said. "Mike's a mid-year transfer, so he'll have four years of football eligibility."

Wells said one of his outgoing captains, Robbie Brandt, was a Natick product. Brandt has two brothers in the Natick grid program, Tim and Tom, who have a great deal of promise. Wells said the Gulls will take all the Natick alums Lamb get recommend.

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Salem's Will O'Neill had a power play goal, but his Maine Black Bears fell victim to a four-goal final period by the University of New Hampshire in a 5-4 hockey loss over the weekend in Orono, Maine. O'Neill now leads Maine defensemen with two goals and nine total points.l

Maine has eight of its top 10 scorers who are either freshmen or sophomores.

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Bill Kipouras is a staff writer at The Salem News. He can be reached at 978-3385 or by e-mail: bkipouras@salemnews.com.