Hales to sign with Duke

Patrick Laverty

A slow recruiting season for Newport-Mesa football players picked up

steam over the weekend when Corona del Mar High long snapper Casey

Hales accepted a scholarship to attend Duke University.

Hales, who visited Duke, a member of the Atlantic Coast

Conference, over the weekend and received the scholarship offer on

Sunday, is expected to sign a national letter of intent with the Blue

Devils today or Wednesday.

The scholarship is the result of a self-driven effort to catch the

attention of college coaches throughout the country. With the help of

long-snapping coach Chris Rubio, a former long snapper at UCLA and an

instructor at Chris Sailor’s kicking camp, Hales became the rare

special teams performer to get a full scholarship coming out of high

school.

“I’ve been talking to Chris Rubio and he’s really proud of me for

doing this,” Hales said. “He told me, ‘You’ve got to realize how

unique this is. Not very many [long snappers], out of high school are

offered full scholarships.’ I’m maybe one out of five out of 106

Division I universities.”

The scholarship came after Hales went to a regional tryout hosted

by Sailor, a former punter and kicker at UCLA, and was selected for

trips to camps in Las Vegas and Miami, the latter being where he

caught the eyes of Duke’s coaches.

“It’s a really good camp for exposure,” Hales said.

The Blue Devil coaches told Hales that he could start for the them

next year as the long snapper on punts. For point-after touchdowns

and field goals, the 6-foot, 200-pound Hales will need to bulk up.

“I’m definitely looking forward to being able to start on PATs and

field goals my sophomore year,” Hales said.

His goal is to gain 25 pounds by the time he reports to Duke in

the summer and weigh close to 240 pounds by the beginning of his

sophomore season. Corona del Mar Coach Dick Freeman saw firsthand, on

a recent trip to USC, the size that Hales will try to approach.

“Their long snapper was about Casey’s height, but he had about

22-inch biceps,” Freeman said. “The stuff sticking out of his uniform

was bigger than he was.”

But Hales’ other attributes are already college worthy. His speed

on his long snaps, measured on 15-yard snaps from the time it is

hiked to the time it reaches the punter’s hands, has been clocked at

0.72 seconds. The average time for a college snapper, according to

Hales, is around 0.75.

The other key components for a long snapper and the things on

which he was judged by college recruiters are accuracy and

consistency.

Hales credits much of his development in those departments to his

work with Rubio, but Freeman said the work Hales put in on a

day-to-day basis makes the scholarship a just reward.

“What he has put into it is just amazing,” Freeman said.

As a result, Hales will receive the opportunity to not only play

Division I college football, but also receive an education at one of

the top-ranked universities in the country.