Webster Groves, MO – The special teams players go unnoticed at practice, meetings, and weightlifting sessions, but once they make a mistake in a game, they become public enemy number one. Usually, these players have nowhere to practice except for ten minutes during practice. In St. Louis, former NFL punter David Brader set out to change that by creating Snap Kick Punt.

SKP looks to improve the kicking game for athletes from high school to the professional level. Brader teaches a technique that will take athletes way farther than raw talent alone. The teaching of fundamental kicking, punting, and long snapping has paid off for many, but the focus is the individual improvement of each athlete every session.

Andrew Lenzen was a former Quincy University kicker and SKP athlete who has retired from the sport but wanted to give back to the game in any way possible. With that, Lenzen has since become a volunteer high school football coach and stepped in to help Brader with the SKP to improve the future of kicking in the Midwest. Lenzen believes the way to success is to teach the youth regardless of the situation.

“One thing that me and David talked about yesterday when we do our group lessons on Sunday—he talked to me and said that we don’t do it for the money at all. It benefits the kids; I enjoy that it’s not a money grab. It’s to benefit the kids and see them succeed,” Lenzen said.

From the practice field in Webster Groves, these athletes move on to bigger and better things like college and professional levels of football. Some of these men are Luke Bauer, the punter for the Missouri Tigers, Treysen Neal, former Memphis Tigers long snapper, and former Rice University punter and current Detroit Lions punter Jack Fox. While these men achieved high levels of collegiate football, two other Brader’s athletes are two of the GLVC’s best. The first is Mason Gessert of the Truman State Bulldogs. The Troy Buchannan high school alumnus has been a part of SKP for six years, and he believes that the training is a cornerstone of who he is.

“You know, of course, going there, getting better, having that competitive edge with the other guys, and having the drive to improve. I mean, it’s fantastic to be around the atmosphere. Still, the other side of it is the atmosphere of just being friends with these dudes, having these relationships for the rest of my life, seeing him, and having a great time doing something we all love,” Gessert said.

While Gessert punts for the Bulldogs, his friend and competitor Logan Jacobson is the all-conference punter for the Missouri S&T Miners. Jacobson is a Northern Illinois University transfer who took over the conference with his ability to flip the field quickly. Still, he believes his success can be attributed to his hard work at SKP.

“I love how hard he can be on us when you know he means well, but he’ll talk about that whenever he gets mad at a guy. Like, I, these guys, they don’t pay attention to me. And if they would, they’d be great. He goes, you, Mason, Carter, and all of them; they pay attention. And look where you guys are and look where they’re at. And then I love hearing about that and seeing that as well,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson and Gessert have been friends ever since meeting at SKP, and these friendships will keep blooming and growing as the company expands to something more significant.