Bishop Diego’s Jack Luckhurst is a kicker off the old block

As a 14-year-old freshman, Jack Luckhurst remembers “literally shaking.” He wasn’t cold from the weather, wasn’t in the middle of an earthquake and wasn’t riding a roller coaster.

It was his reaction to being sent onto the football field to try his first kick in a high school game.

Only one week earlier at Santa Barbara Bishop Diego High, he agreed to try kicking after assistant coach John Hazelton approached him.

“As soon as I saw the name, I asked, ‘Is that the son of the Atlanta Falcons kicker?’” Hazelton recalled.

Yes, Luckhurst’s father, Mick, was the Falcons’ kicker from 1981-87 and once held the University of California’s record for longest field goal at 54 yards.

But Jack was a soccer player who had done little football kicking. His father never pressured him to become a kicker, but after Hazelton asked, Jack told his father he wanted to give it a try and Mick joined the program as the kicking coach.

So, in the first game of the 2015 season, out went Jack to try an extra point.

“He was so excited, so nervous, so pumped,” Mick said.

Jack made the kick and added a 33-yard field goal the following week. So began his football days, which could lead to bigger things to come. He averaged 48.3 yards punting last season as a sophomore and was four of six on field-goal attempts. He has sprouted from 5 feet 11 and 150 pounds to 6-1, 165.

“It was second nature,” Hazelton said of Luckhurst’s kicking

There are going to be Luckhurst brothers kicking for Bishop Diego through 2021. Brother Adam is a sophomore kicker for the junior varsity and brother Michael is an eighth-grader who also can kick. The family just put in a 40-yard synthetic turf field in its backyard to practice kicking.

“It means no one at Bishop is worried about kickers,” Hazelton said.

Jack is just happy he got through that first kick.

“It was really nerve-racking standing on the sideline with a bunch of seniors,” he said. “You’re 14. That’s scary enough. I was literally shaking. You hear your name. Things go through your head. You think, ‘What if I miss?’ You have to get around it, remember all the fundamentals, trust everything you’ve learned.”

Having a father who went through the ups and downs associated with kicking helps the boys. He moved them to Santa Barbara from Atlanta when they were young. They’ve all pursued multiple sports and Mick is a humorous, low-key father-coach with a British accent and humble, quick-witted personality.

“It’s fantastic to watch Jack evolve,” Mick said. “The pressure of the world was on him. He’s 16. He could suddenly turn to girls, books or anything.”

Jack probably wouldn’t have tried kicking if Hazelton hadn’t asked.

‘“I played soccer my whole life and they knew my dad kicked at a high level,” he said. “It is in my blood. I didn’t like the idea of getting hit. I was like, ‘Yeah, kicking might be fun.’”

He has learned to block out crowd noise and distractions when he lines up to kick.

“Block out the sound,” he said.

He still does some shaking, but that’s more about excitement than fear. And with his younger brothers ready to challenge him, the Luckhursts are sure to become well known among the surfers, beachgoers and football fans who live in the Santa Barbara area.

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Follow Eric Sondheimer on Twitter @latsondheimer