The drive to compete, to participate, to engage … it’s something Pletz has always had. His assorted interests keep him busy, especially in the fall.
Pletz is a standout place-kicker for the Cougars football team that opens the season at home against Monroe on Friday night. He’s also a standout midfielder for the EHS boys soccer team and an excellent student who has a passion for art.
“And he works at Skyline,” Edgewood soccer coach Brad Specht said. “It’s remarkable to see the way he organizes his time. I couldn’t imagine doing all that. But when you spend five minutes with him, you see that anything he wants to do, he can do it.”
Pletz came to Edgewood intending to focus on soccer. He lives in Liberty Township, but his dad Eric is an art teacher at EHS.
SEASON PREVIEW: Edgewood Cougars
Cougars football coach Scott Clemmons heard Pletz had a strong leg and persuaded him to give football a try.
“I’ve played soccer my whole life,” Pletz said. “I always thought he was joking. He’d be like, ‘We need to get you out there kicking.’ Then my freshman year came around, and he gave me pads. We just worked it out from there. I started kicking about a week before Week 1.”
“Obviously, I wanted to see how he could do,” Clemmons said. “And once I talked to him, I could see that he’s got this even-tempered approach to him. He’s soft-spoken and doesn’t get excited very easily. I was like, ‘This is the kind of kid you want as a kicker.’ ”
Pletz has kicked his way to 129 points in three seasons (111-of-116 on extra points, 6-of-9 on field goals) and 63 points as a junior.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Pletz is a rarity, a left-footed kicker. He credits Curtis Suldovsky, who also kicked and played soccer, for helping him get started when he was a freshman.
Transitioning to kicking a football was a natural thing for Pletz. Dealing with football crowds was something different.
“Soccer has mostly family and friends in the crowd, so really, it’s like playing in the backyard,” he said. “Then I come to football and there’s all those people.”
He missed his first kick as a freshman against Franklin, banging an extra-point attempt off an upright.
“That was the worst part — everyone heard it,” Pletz said. “I think missing was a little bit of the crowd. Ever since then, I wouldn’t let the crowd bother me anymore. It’s really just focusing and letting yourself do what you can do. Don’t let the crowd or anyone tell you that you can’t.”
He’s been to numerous camps and works regularly with a kicking coach, Dick Seitz. Senior Nick Noble is his third holder in four seasons. The longest Pletz field goal in practice? Sixty yards.
Clemmons and Specht have worked together to allow Pletz to play both sports. Soccer practice is generally right after football practice, so Pletz can kick toward the end of football and then head to soccer.
The risk of injury is clearly greater for Pletz in soccer, so Clemmons likes to hear from him after soccer games.
“I hold my breath every Thursday,” Clemmons said. “It’s like I’m sitting there waiting until like 9:30 for him to text me and say, ‘Hey coach, our game’s done, we won or lost, what color are we wearing tomorrow?’ ”
COACHES POLL: Edgewood favored to repeat in SWOC
Pletz is a weapon on kickoffs, the point man for the hidden-yardage battle on special teams. He’s also backing up senior Seth Phipps as a punter.
The Cougars advanced to the Division II playoffs last year and had a first-round game at two-time defending state champion La Salle.
Edgewood trailed 23-21 down the stretch, driving to the La Salle 27-yard line and facing fourth-and-3. Pletz was ready to trot out and attempt a 44-yard field goal, but Clemmons chose to go for the first down. EHS was stopped with 4:22 left and the Lancers ran the clock out, ultimately winning another state title.
“We just kept pushing and pushing,” Pletz said. “I’m looking at that clock and thinking, ‘I’m ready to go. I’ve got this.’ ”
Clemmons said he didn’t lack faith in Pletz. He was focusing more on field position and the fact that La Salle had already blocked a punt for a touchdown.
Pletz didn’t second-guess his coach.
“It was a hard choice,” he said. “I wish we would’ve had a better outcome, but I knew that he was the coach, and he was making the right call.”
On the soccer field, Pletz has been a four-year varsity player. Specht is in his fourth season as head coach.
“We’ve kind of gone through a journey together,” Specht said. “When he came in as a freshman, he was very mature physically and mentally, and his skills were on another level than everybody else. He’s a returning captain, a two-year captain for us, and I’ve seen him grow more than ever in this past year.”
Specht has never had a problem with Pletz playing two sports in the same season.
“When you see his talent both ways, you can’t deny him that. You’ve got to let him do it,” Specht said. “My feeling is, if he can do the time management part, I’m willing to work with him.”
Pletz said if he had to choose, he’d probably take the kicking path for college, though Specht said he definitely has the skills to play soccer at the next level.
Yet sports don’t occupy all the space on his horizon. Indeed, Pletz picked up a love of art from his father and has immersed himself in it.
His artistic skills have evolved from drawing and painting to digital work known as 3D modeling.
“It’s basically like your movie special effects or like your Toy Story movies,” Pletz said. “Anything that’s a cartoon, but in 3D. It’s a lot of green-screen stuff. Something that looks real, but it’s not.
“You can do a lot of things career-wise with that. A lot of it is entertainment with TV and movies nowadays, but you can also go the engineering route. I’ve been looking at a lot of schools that have good programs for that and have good teams for both sports.”
Why the fascination with art?
“My dad kind of got me into it,” said Pletz, who will turn 18 in October. “I just feel like I always had a big imagination as a kid, and that was a good way to have my fantasies all in one spot.”
Clemmons is impressed with the way Pletz manages his multiple interests. The Edgewood coach is a champion of kids playing more than one sport, and Pletz is taking it to another level.
“He’s one of those kids where you wish you had a bunch of them,” Clemmons said. “Kids like that realize how to multitask and give a lot to the community and the school.”
Friday’s game
What: Monroe at Edgewood, 7 p.m.
Where: Kumler Field, 5005 Ohio 73, Trenton
Last year: Edgewood won 35-7
About the Author