This is not the Mullen football team Coloradans ordinarily know.
Sure, safety Nolan Brewster, bound for Texas, and tackle Bryce Givens (Nebraska) are rated as big- time players. But the Mustangs’ usual returning skill corps, the backs and receivers who starred the previous year as underclassmen and are hyped as out of this world for this year, didn’t return for 2007.
Don’t forget, this is a program that consistently has had returning ballhandlers with big names for decades.
So it’s funny in multiple ways — the teenager on Mullen’s roster who should be the most recognizable is lost in the Mustangs’ current rotation.
He has set multiple records and more may come — yet never played an offensive or defensive down from scrimmage.
He wouldn’t be easily identified without his jersey most places outside of Brother Bernard Kinneavy de La Salle Stadium.
He is Caleb Pavy.
Still don’t know him?
He is the senior who has 274 career points as a kicker, 109 in 2006, both Colorado records, and will appear in his 15th career playoff game Friday night when Mullen hosts Douglas County in the Class 5A semifinals.
There’s a chance for more — should Mullen win and advance to a fourth consecutive state championship game Dec. 1 at Invesco Field at Mile High, Pavy may have the distinction of scoring in four 5A finales.
As a middle-schooler, Pavy dreamed of becoming a wide receiver for the Mustangs, but he became their kicker and has always been practical about it.
“It was the best way for me to get out on the field,” he said. “It has given me the chance to live the experience of playing high school football.”
In 2004, the longtime soccer player was named his team’s kicker as a 148-pounder in the second game of the season.
“He was the best kicker and we’ve always said as a staff that the best player plays no matter the class,” Mullen coach Dave Logan said.
Recalled Pavy: “They were desperate. I tried it and loved it.”
It has loved him back for a long time. It began in Hastings, Minn., when he “couldn’t breathe” for his first conversion attempt. All told, Mullen is set for its 55th game in nearly four full seasons and Pavy will have gotten his kicks in 52. Only illness has sidelined him. He participated in the past two championship games while his father, Dave Pavy, who had been divorced from Caleb’s mother since Caleb was a toddler, was in intensive care each time before succumbing to cancer.
“It was difficult,” Pavy said. “But it was motivation. I just wanted to do good.”
For his career, Pavy has converted 25-of-34 field goals — seven-of-10 in 2007, including a 44-yarder to open the scoring last week against Legacy. His next PAT will be his 200th.
Yes, Mullen has scored a lot of touchdowns since 2004.
Pavy, who also punts and revels in the kickers’ pride of reaching the end zone and forcing a touchback, has 16 points in three titles games, 11 in 2004, when Mullen won its last title.
Most important, he has kicked some dirt over the football line of actual player versus kicker.
“I’ve made a lot of friends and met more people and coaches,” he said. “I just got hooked on it.
“It’s the rush of being out there and the team got to be on TV, something I had never been exposed to.”
Virtually all of Pavy’s training has come from the outside, notably from his stepfather, Tim Rickerd, who was a standout kicker as a schoolboy in Louisville, Ky., in the early 1970s, then at Indiana Central, now the University of Indianapolis.
In fact, Rickerd, a straight-on kicker rarely seen today, ended up with the most kicking points in Kentucky high school history. It’s a mark he wasn’t informed of until years later. Such is the life of a kicker.
Rickerd said, “Caleb tried it and he liked it. His mentality and everything was perfect. He could do all the repetitions.”
Said Logan: “Caleb has been solid.”
America has been strong with kicking prospects, notably in Colorado, for years and Pavy has sent out his recruiting DVD to colleges. He eagerly awaits the mad rush the next two months.
“It would be the ultimate,” he said.
But first, he will kick against Douglas County and further his vital commitment to teammates.
“I like big games like this. It’s really exciting,” Pavy said. “And I know (his father) will be watching over me.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
