Trevor Henkle started playing soccer before football for a good reason.
Henkle lived in England for two years from age 7 to 9 because of his father’s job at Rolls-Royce. His family eventually moved back to Zionsville, where they had lived previously.
“That made it easy to transition to kicking footballs,” Henkle said of soccer. “I started kicking in fourth grade, and I started playing middle school football in seventh grade. I played soccer through freshman year, (when) I was on the JV team. Sophomore year, I decided to put all my energy into football. I’ve always known since fourth grade that football was my passion, but I wanted to keep up with soccer because it was fun.”
The Zionsville Community High School senior had two successful seasons as a kicker and punter for the Eagles.
Henkle led all Class 6A schools with a 43.5 yards per-punt average, nearly 3 yards more than the next 6A punter. He was third overall in average in Indiana. A total of 41 percent of his punts were inside the 20-yard line.
Henkle averaged 58.2 kickoff yards per game, with 74 percent of deep kickoffs being touchbacks. He was 27 for 27 on extra-point attempts as a senior and 21 of 22 on PATs as a junior. He made 18 of 25 field goals in the two seasons, including a long of 37 yards.
“In both phases, he had a great career and contributed a lot to the team,” Eagles coach Scott Turnquist said. “We asked that he do a lot, not just kicking as far as he can, but directional kicking. He is a guy that is constantly working. He is the equivalent to a gym rat on the football field. He’s always out kicking on his own. He’s constantly trying to get better in a lot of different ways. We had confidence in him whenever we put him out there.”
Several colleges are recruiting Henkle for kicking and punting.
“It helps that I can do both kicking and punting because with limited travel roster size, they value having a specialist who can be a starter for one skill and be a backup for another,” he said. “I really enjoy both kicking and punting, but there’s nothing better than putting points on the board with kicking.”
Henkle said his biggest improvement has been with his punting in the last year. He credits his private kicking coach, Mark Hagee, for helping with that aspect.
Henkle has taken several visits to Big Ten, Mid-American Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference and Ivy League schools.
Favorite athlete: Justin Tucker
Favorite movie: “The Sandlot”
Favorite subject: Math
College major plans: Finance
