No One Had Ever Heard of Him. He Made 1st Team All-State in his First Season

Red Bank Catholic head coach Mike Lange was in the midst of a preseason practice with the varsity team in the summer of 2025 when longtime Caseys freshman coach Tony Flego walked over to him from the other side of the field. 

“He’s like, ‘You gotta come see this,’” Lange recalled. “I thought they were kicking like extra points. This kid was just casually kicking 50-yard field goals. It’s a story I will never forget.” 

A few practices earlier, freshman Simon Picinich had shown up dressed in Umbro shorts and soccer cleats even though he hadn’t played soccer since sixth grade. Flego told the players that the freshman team was looking for a kicker, so about six of them decided to audition.

A succession of linemen and skill players took turns flubbing kicks all over Coach Lou Montanaro Field on White Road in Little Silver. 

“Coach (Flego) was like, ‘Who wants to kick?’” Picinich said. “I was so scared, I didn’t go first. There were a few kids that went before me, and I went last. I kicked it and it went over the fence at White Road.” 

A few practices later, Flego began moving the ball farther and farther back as Picinich boomed one field goal after another. 

“I heard (Flego) walk down, and he said, ‘I’m going to get Lange and show him,’” Picinich said. “When I saw (Lange) I was like, ‘I’ve got to really lock in.’ He saw me hit a couple 47-yarders.” 

“It was shocking to us,” RBC sophomore running back Gabe Kemp said. “And right after that day, they just moved him right up to varsity.” 

Lange already had two of the most high-profile freshmen in the state in Kemp and quarterback Rahmir Rivera. Little did he know he also had a third. 

“I had no idea who he was,” Lange said.

Just over a year later, the sophomore is one of the top kickers in New Jersey and could play a key role in Friday night’s Shore Conference game of the year. Top-ranked Donovan Catholic welcomes No. 2 RBC to Toms River at 6:30 p.m. in a matchup that happens to feature two of the Shore’s best kickers in Picinich and Griffins senior Sal Reynoso. 

A Love of Kicking – But Not For a Football or Soccer Team 

There’s a good reason Lange had never heard of Picinich before last year. He never played organized tackle football and he wasn’t a soccer convert, considering he quit the game in sixth grade because he said it was “boring.” 

Picinich played flag football in Howell from when he was in fourth grade through eighth grade, but he did not play a fall sport. He wanted to play wide receiver, but said his mother feared the head injuries that are an inherent risk of playing football – unless you’re a kicker and punter. 

Even while playing flag, which does not have kickoffs or field goals, he couldn’t shake the joy he found in booting a football. 

“There was this one day where me and my dad and my older brother just went out to the field near my house,” Picinich said. “I was like 7 years old. My dad said, ‘Why don’t you guys try field goals?’ We were just kicking for two hours, and I loved it. Every time we went back to the field, I was always kicking.” 

Friday night’s massive showdown marks a full-circle moment for Picinich because it was that same matchup that fueled his aspirations to be a high school kicker. He attended RBC’s 35-14 win over Donovan Catholic at Count Basie Field as an eighth-grader in 2024. 

“I saw how they were one of the top teams in the state, and I was like, ‘I would love to go there, the football there is great, and that would be awesome if I showed my talents to the coaches and they brought me up to varsity one day,’” Picinich said. 

A Whirlwind Year 

That timeline accelerated dramatically after Picinich’s performance in the 2025 preseason. 

“I was not expecting to get up to varsity,” he said. “When I got there, I was just thinking about freshman football. I was like, ‘This is crazy.’” 

RBC had a returning All-Shore kicker in senior Blake Caruso, but he transferred to Donovan Catholic in the preseason. Just weeks after Picinich turned heads at practice, he was handling kickoffs, extra points and punts in front of a packed house at Count Basie Field in the season opener against three-time defending Group 5 champion Toms River North. 

“I didn’t get on the field until the first punt,” Picinich remembered. “When I caught the snap, I was like, ‘I think I forgot how to kick a football.’ But once I did it, all the nerves went away, and I felt totally fine after that.” 

“He had never played football, never kicked in a game, and he’s starting against Toms River North, which was No. 1 in the Shore at the time,” Lange said. “Now it’s just the norm that he handles all three phases for us.” 

Five games later, he attempted a 59-yard field goal against St. John Vianney that came up just short. The New Jersey state record for a field goal is 58 yards, set by Shore Regional’s Kevin Mills in 1984. 

In an age where the scouting industrial complex knows every top player by the time he’s out of the womb, Picinich emerged from nowhere. He earned Shore Sports Insider first-team All-Shore honors as a kicker, and then was named first-team All-State as a punter by NJ Advance Media. 

He hit a Shore Conference-best 10 field goals on 14 attempts, and his misses were from 47, 59, 46 and 58 yards. He also recorded 45 touchbacks out of 67 kickoffs and averaged 37 yards per punt. 

The only person who wasn’t impressed? Picinich. 

“My parents thought I had a good year, but honestly I thought I could’ve done better,” he said. “But it already happened, so it’s in the past now.” 

New Heights

The journey from obscurity to stardom added another chapter in the spring when Picinich attended a spring practice at Rutgers and was invited to their camp in June. 

“I did pretty good at the camp, and they told me the head coach wants to see me after,” Picinich said. “When he told me he was going to give me an offer, it was like memories of all the hard work I put in. I just blacked out. It was insane.” 

Picinich then added another offer from Syracuse in late September. 

“Good thing he made that switch to football because he’s definitely going to have a great career with kicking,” Kemp said. “He’s going to have more offers than any of us. Kids come up to me and Rahmir in school, and I’m like, ‘You should be friends with Simon before us because he’s going to the (National Football) League!” 

As a sophomore, Picinich has hit seven field goals, with a long of 47 yards, and averaged 38 yards per punt. His 27-yard field goal with 1:48 left in the game was the difference in RBC’s 31-28 thriller over rival Rumson-Fair Haven last week. The underrated part of his game is that 92% of his kickoffs have been touchbacks, including two from the 25-yard line that were backed up because of penalties. 

“He’s a touchback machine,” Lange said. “I think in this day and age when you have that, you’re at such an advantage defensively because somebody’s got to go 80 yards every time.” 

He still has eyes on that state record. He said he has hit from 63 yards in practice. 

“I think because I thought I didn’t have a great season last year, I wanted to come back and show everyone I’m better than that,” he said. “But all the accomplishments from last year did give me some more confidence this season.” 

He also has fierce competition among Shore Conference kickers this year. Ocean junior Aidan Zacharczyk has two game-winning field goals of 40-plus yards, including a 51-yarder, and Reynoso has four field goals, including a 47-yarder. 

Now Picinich gets to play in the game he once watched as an eighth-grader. Donovan Catholic is searching for its first 8-0 start in school history, while RBC has won 11 straight games against Shore Conference competition. Something has to give.

Picinich will conduct his usual pregame ritual of watching highlights from Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little. He has the NFL record with a 68-yard field goal and just beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday with a 57-yard field goal as time expired in London. 

Then the sophomore will step out into a spotlight that might have never come if he didn’t take a chance his freshman year and come out for football. 

“I heard a lot of people are coming,” Picinich said. “I hope I see that because I love more pressure. Honestly, I think it makes me play better.”

Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com