Damon Maynard’s afternoons don’t lack for activity this time of year.
When school lets out, the Greenwood Community High School senior walks to football practice, where he works with the Woodmen as the team’s starting punter and placekicker.
At 5:30 p.m., he’s gloved up as the first-string goalkeeper for the boys soccer program.
Maynard is in his fourth consecutive season pulling double duty. At some point later this fall, he’ll be done going from booting field goals one minute to preventing goals the next.
“I’ve played them both all four years of high school,” Maynard said. “It’s convenient having soccer practices later in the day. I can go straight there after football practice.”
On the gridiron this season, Maynard averages 32.9 yards per punt and 55 yards each time he kicks off for the Woodmen. Nineteen of his kickoffs sailed into the end zone for touchbacks.
Maynard is 19 of 23 on conversion kicks and supplied his team a 33-yard field goal in a 44-7 victory over Indian Creek in Week 2.
In soccer, Maynard is required to extend his 5-foot-10, 170-pound frame in whichever directions are necessary in order to keep the opponent from scoring.
First-year Greenwood boys soccer coach Jack Hamilton feels he has the best goalkeeper in Johnson County as well as the Mid-State Conference.
“Athletes are a peculiar bunch of people,” Hamilton said. “Damon has a strong mental fortitude. A sort of moxie. Every save that he makes, it stimulates resiliency in your team.
“He’s a good kid and he’s a good student (3.0 grade-point average), but Damon finds his own mental zone when he’s playing.”
Hamilton is confident Maynard could play soccer at the Division II level for some college program next season if he so desired.
However, soccer isn’t Maynard’s best sport. Neither, for that matter, is football.
Earlier this month he verbally committed to play baseball at Quincy University, a Division II program located in western Illinois near the Mississippi River.
A catcher for the Woodmen who belted six doubles and drove in 16 runs last season, he is on course to graduate from Greenwood with 11 varsity letters.
“Being a catcher in baseball, that correlates with what I do in soccer,” Maynard said. “I feel more comfortable in baseball gear than anything else because I’ve been playing that sport the longest.”
Maynard has been playing baseball since he was 6 and he started soccer as a 9-year-old.
His introduction to football came prior to the start of the 2013 season, when Maynard had to audition for his new job.
“My freshman year we had just graduated Griffin Oakes,” said Maynard, referring to Indiana University’s current placekicker who was an All-Big Ten selection following the 2015 season.
“I heard about trying out to be the football kicker from a few of the other soccer players. We all kicked off a few times, and the coaches watched it.”
Wearing tennis shoes, Maynard on his first attempt slipped on the artificial surface and fell.
Despite that embarrassing first impression, he eventually became Greenwood’s starting kicker and has been ever since.
“The big thing is Damon’s leg strength, but he’s such a great athlete that he makes tackles for us on special teams,” Woodmen football coach Mike Campbell said. “He’s an aggressive soccer player, so that he’s making tackles doesn’t surprise me at all.”
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Name: Damon Maynard
Age: 17
Born: Indianapolis
Family: Great aunt, Carol Branble; great uncle, Lou Thacker; sister, Molly, 11
Favorite TV show: “SportsCenter”
Favorite food: Chicken wings
Favorite movie: “Moneyball”
Favorite athlete: Tucker Barnhart
Favorite team: University of Notre Dame football
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