Gabriel

Ninth and final in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Gabriel Goroyan, Westlake kicker.

Gabriel Goroyan, a senior kicker at Westlake High with a 4.77 grade-point average, revealed stunning news during an interview.

“I’m OK with being normal,” he said.

That goes against everything previously known about kickers. They’re almost always surfer dudes with the fearless spirit of a pole vaulter and the willingness to experiment. If anyone were going to volunteer for a mission to Mars, it would be a kicker.

“I would like to think I’m not one of the weirder personalities,” Goroyan said.

He is like most kickers — a former soccer player. He began in eighth grade when he was still playing soccer but beginning to like kicking.

At a camp, when he made a 54-yard field goal in a competition, that’s the moment he realized, “I can do this.”

“I started taking it more serious,” he said. “I was hungry for that No. 1 spot.”

He enters his senior season as No. 1 at his position in the Southland and committed to Stanford. The 5-foot-11, 180-pounder makes booming kickoffs, was 50 of 51 on PATs last season and made seven field goals. He also averaged 40.3 yards on punts. He kicks balls with his left foot, which requires long snappers to make an adjustment and change blocking schemes because most kickers use their right foot.

He’s never received a grade other than A on his report card at Westlake. His father is Armenian and his mother Bulgarian. He has an 8 handicap in golf and can drive a ball 300 yards from the tee, so if you need a ringer for a charity tournament, Goroyan will play the role.

He has figured out the mental requirements needed to deal with the highs and lows of being a kicker.

“A lot of it is staying calm and not getting too hyped up and too energized,” he said. “l feel a good kicker is able to come back from a miss and a lot of it is being yourself. You have to know not to overthink things and be able to go back to your normal mental state and not get trapped in a cycle of you’re not good enough. A lot of it is trusting yourself.”

He stands on the sideline waiting for his moment. You’ll never see him asking coach Rick Clausen to put him in for a field goal.

“I let them tell me,” he said.

It’s all about preparation and routine. His soccer background has provided him the tools to succeed.

“Train like a sprinter,” he said. ”That’s where the leg speed comes from. It’s not about having to squat 500 pounds but more being able to run and have fast legs. That’s where the power comes.”

As for dealing with pressure, Goroyan said camp competitions such as “last man standing,” where you have to make a kick to stay in the competition, provides preparation for a game-winning field-goal attempt that he has yet to experience.

He’s already demonstrated that he’s different — otherwise known as normal. When he made that 54-yard field goal, the longest of his career, in eighth grade, he did not scream.

“I gave a quiet clap and ran to get my ball,” he said.

Kickers to watch

Noah Ahari, Chino Hills, 6-2, 155, Sr. Made nine of 10 field goals last season

Peter Batsaras, Cypress, 5-10, 170, Sr. A summer of success sets the stage for big senior season

Ayden Brannum, Fontana, 6-3, 190, Sr. Averaged 48 yards on punts and made 47-yard field goal

Colin Elia, Temecula Valley, 6-0, 160, Sr. Made 10 of 11 field goals as a junior

Gabriel Goroyan, Westlake, 5-11, 180, Sr. Stanford commit has worked relentlessly on mastering his technique

Jackson Hauducoeur, Upland, 5-6, 140, Sr. All-CIF kicker made eight of 10 field goals

Ethan Miller, San Clemente, 6-2, 175, Jr. Made nine fields, cool under pressure

Jerry Shifman, Mater Dei, 5-10, 165, Jr. Had nine field goals, with a long of 43 yards

Carter Sobel, Sierra Canyon, 5-9, 160, Sr. Strong on kickoffs and made nine field goals

Caleb Sylvia, Mission Viejo, 5-10, 190, Sr. Had 49-yard field goal last season

“A little bit sore and a little bit stiff but that is to be expected,” Langton said of his condition.

“I can’t really complain too much.”

The teenager did not receive his medal until he returned to the team hotel on Saturday evening, with the other members of the team gathering to applaud him.

Whitehouse said the team wanted to do that in order to replace videos of his fall, which were circulating widely on social media over the weekend, with something more positive.

“That was incredible,” Langton said of the moment.

“Seeing all of the team-mates, coaches and getting my medal. I saw my personal coach from Birmingham. It was so nice.”

These things are, of course, relative, but Whitehouse’s Sunday was a disappointing one. He came seventh in an all-round final won by Scotland’s Reuben Ward.

His response on Monday was almost immaculate.

Malaysia’s Muhammad Sharul Aimy, Australia’s James Hardy and Ward all made mistakes in the early rounds of the competition, giving Whitehouse – the fifth gymnast to enter – an opportunity.

He barely faltered, scoring 14.566 to take gold – a score that was not bettered by the remaining three competitors.

“The last few days have been about regrouping after everything that’s happened and then coming out and delivering a good performance,” he said.

There was a similar story later in the women’s vault when England’s Abigail Martin, who finished 11th in the women’s all-round final, took silver behind Canada’s Lia-Monica Fontaine.

“Yesterday didn’t really go to plan the way I wanted it to, but I’m really pleased that I managed to pick myself back up today,” Martin said.

“For me, I just had a little cry about it, but then I thought about all the things that had gone well.”

Whitehouse and Martin will be back on Tuesday in the vault and floor respectively. Langton will again be in the stands.

He plans to “take it easy for a couple of days and do the rehab” before returning to training in the near future.

“I trust in my gymnastics capability,” Langton said.

“It was really just a freak accident.”

A sickening injury to England’s Gabriel Langton overshadowed his team’s silver medal in the men’s team gymnastics final at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

The 19-year-old, from the City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club, needed lengthy treatment on the mat after a horrible fall in the final rotation of the evening at The Arena.

Langton fell head first to the floor after missing his catch on the horizontal metal bar, three metres in the air, leading to a lengthy delay to the action as he was tended to by up to a dozen medical staff.

He was eventually led away on a trolley after being moved on to a stretcher with his head and neck braced and left to huge applause from the packed crowd who had spent much of the previous 10 minutes in hushed silence.

Langton was seen to be conscious and moving his legs and arms before leaving the arena floor, while team officials later said he was moving and speaking to doctors.

In a statement, Team England said: “We are grateful to the medical teams who responded immediately to provide assistance.

“He has been taken to hospital and we will share more information when it is available.”

When competition resumed, his England team-mates were unable to overhaul their deficit to Canada who claimed their first gold medal in the event in 20 years, having finished second to England at the past two games.

Langton, a late call-up to Team England in the place of the injured six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock, was unable to join his teammates on the podium as England collected their silver medals.

Team-mate Luke Whitehouse, who was first on to the apparatus after the competition restarted and posted a relatively low score of 11.700, said: “When something like that happens, you’ve just got to forget about it and reset. I just had to focus on my routine one skill at a time.”

Whitehouse added: “From what we’ve heard, he’s doing OK. Gymnastics is such a dangerous sport and things like this remind us of that. It’s one of those things you have to put out of your mind.”

Felix Dolci, who helped Canada to gold and led qualifying for the all-around competition, said: “It’s terrible but it goes to show that gymnastics is a very, very difficult and complicated sport. It’s dangerous you know sometimes.

“All our thoughts go to Gabriel and the team. Pushing through this is definitely not easy, England stayed focussed, they stayed in the zone, a huge shout out to them because that’s not an easy one.

“For any gymnast that was on the field of play, seeing this not only is difficult, but something you never want to see. It goes to show how hard the sport is.”

Hamish Carter from Team Scotland – who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal to Australia in the final rotation – said: “I didn’t actually see what happened. I’m just so happy that he’s alright and, having experienced that, anything could have happened.

“We’ve walked away with no medal but I’m thinking of Gabe in this moment.”

One of the Premier League’s most gripping personal feuds goes global on Sunday when Brazil face Norway in the World Cup last 16.

Norway’s irresistible force of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland comes up against Brazil’s immovable object in the shape of Arsenal defender Gabriel in New York New Jersey Stadium.

Haaland and Gabriel have been central figures as their clubs battle for domestic supremacy, creating a rivalry that regularly boils over into animosity.

The outcome of their latest confrontation will go a long way to deciding whether it is Brazil or Norway who advance to the quarter-finals, where they will face either England or Mexico.

Former England striker Chris Sutton told BBC Sport: “For all the battling for the Golden Boot between the greats such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Haaland, there have not been any great personal duels. Now we have one.

“This is the standout personal duel of the World Cup so far and make no mistake, it will have a huge bearing on the outcome of the game.

“It is the standout because of the bad feeling we know exists between the pair. I am sure there is a level of respect great players have for each other, but everything we’ve seen between them suggests they don’t like each other too much.”

Former England captain Alan Shearer is also relishing the confrontation between the pair, saying: “That will be a great battle because there is definitely a bit of niggle there.

“They don’t like each other which is fine, you don’t have to like your opponent, and we have seen them have clashes before so that’s definitely one to look forward to.”

Adding further intrigue is the statistical quirk that five-time world champions Brazil have never beaten Norway in four attempts – drawing two and losing two.

This makes Norway the only side the Selecao have faced, but never won against.