ISU's Van Der Kamp is Mr. Cool

AMES - Iowa State Coach Paul Rhoads made every attempt to get in the head of his soon-to-be recruit.

He threw things. He hollered.

Luckily - for the coach and the prospect - none of it worked.

“I could tell the focus was on us,” said decorated sophomore punter Kirby Van Der Kamp, who won his scholarship offer during that day in a 2009 summer camp over Southern Illinois' Austin Pucylowksi. “He was just messing around with us. I didn't think about it at the time. I was having fun competing.”

And winning.

Van Der Kamp, a sophomore, quickly became one of the nation's top-10 punters. He averaged 45.2 yards per attempt, including a 74-yarder against Saturday's 6 p.m. foe, Texas, and was named the Cyclones' elite newcomer.

“Pretty good choice,” Rhoads said.

Pretty important, too.

Van Der Kamp has continued to shine this season, dropping eight of his 15 punts inside the opponent's 20-yard line. He's thumped the ball 50-plus yards five times and boasts a 46.1-yard average.

Mostly importantly, the ball feels good coming off his foot.

“Throughout the season, I really don't look at numbers,” said Van Der Kamp, who ranks 11th nationally in average kick distance. “It's just something I don't really pay attention to and I go out there and do my best. My dad or one of the guys will tell me something here or there, but it's not something I go out of my way to look at.”

Rhoads saw an unflappable quality in Van Der Kamp - an assessment confirmed after his often anxiety-producing antics brought indifference instead.

“He was just cool,” Rhoads said. “We put him back there and I rushed guys at him. I threw my hat at him. I yelled and screamed at him and he never changed. He sort of looked at me like, ‘You're making a fool out of yourself,' and kept banging punts away.”

Cool and collected meets calculating in Van Der Kamp's mind.

“He is a very cerebral athlete,” Rhoads said. “What do you mean, he's a punter? Well, if he's going to pooch it from the 40 or 45 and the wind's in his face, he's going to do it this way. If the wind's at his back, he's going to do it this way ... He can present that to me with a way that I'm just - ‘OK' and know that he's got it covered. He's got such a great level headedness.”

Some of that comes with experience.

Van Der Kamp, a lifelong Cyclone fan, punted for the first time in the 2010 intrastate rivalry game at Iowa.

“That was a huge deal,” he said. “I remember how nervous I was and just how focused I tried to be on (the long snapper). I didn't hear anything or see anything around me. it was very nerve-racking.”

The kick went 47 yards, immediately establishing Van Der Kamp as a field position dictator.

Now most of his thinking is done pre-kick.

“Eventually you don't think at all,” he said. “You let your body just do it, subconsciously. Let it do what it does.”