Kicking his way to the next level

The score was tied and the final seconds were running off the clock in an intense battle between two Terrebonne Parish Recreation youth football teams.

Instead of opting for a last-second Hail Mary pass, coach Ricky Domangue sent in his son and the team’s kicker, 5th grader Ryan Domangue.

After all, little Ryan was groomed to be a kicker, picking up the trade in the 2nd grade, while watching his uncle, former Dallas Cowboys kicker Richie Cunningham, kick while also spending countless hours perfecting his technique with his father who himself was a punter.

The rest lives on in TPR history.

Ryan buried a 35-yard field goal to send his team to victory.

To this day, he remains one of the only kickers in TPR history to ever boot a field goal in a game.

“As long as the hold was there and the snap was there, we knew it was good,” the elder Domangue said. “I knew he could make the field goal. It was either take a chance with him or take a chance just throwing the ball, but we had no doubt Ryan could make the kick.”

Flash forward six and a half years and Domangue is still burying footballs through Tri-parish uprights, having just wrapped up his junior season at Terrebonne High School n a season that saw Domangue awarded First-Team All-District for District 8-5A recognition, while also being named a Second Team member of the All-Region team.

Domangue finished the season with 48 touchbacks on 72 kickoffs, while also hitting 95 percent of his extra points for the Tigers’ high-powered offense.

The kickoffs aren’t the only place where Domangue was able to display his booming leg. He said he has worked up enough strength to be able to make 60+-yard field goals, saying he once made a 65-yarder in practice.

“This year, I really developed,” the kicker said. “I did a lot of hard work over the offseason through January and through the summer and I just stayed with it and worked out a lot and did some exercises, so when we got to the season, I was ready.”

From that success has come collegiate ambition as Domangue hopes to receive scholarship offers from major college programs throughout his senior season.

If the kicker’s performance at the recent Kohl’s Kicking Camp in Dallas, or the subsequent Underclassman Challenge, which was an “invite-only” camp are any indication, Domangue’s dreams just might come true.

At the Kohl’s Kicking Camp, Domangue won a share of first place in the field goal competition, booming nine field goals. He also placed 25th in kickoffs at that camp.

“That was my first time kicking in front of coaches and stuff, so I was pleased,” he said. “The kickoffs weren’t what I wanted, but overall, it worked out for the best.”

Domangue followed up that impressive showing with another solid performance in Florida, placing No. 14 out of 46 elite campers in kickoffs in the Underclassman Challenge and No. 7 out of 46 participants in field goals.

Through that hard work, Kohl’s initially rated Domangue as the No. 44 junior kicker in the country.

But they have since revised their ranking to make Domangue the No. 17 junior kicker in the country after his stout performance in the two camps.

Domangue said the competition he’s seen at the camps has been a major source of encouragement to him because he said it reinforced to him that his preparation is correct.

“A lot of the guys there are doing all of the same things that I do,” Domangue said. “For a few of them to be able to kick it a little farther than me, I guess they were working a little bit harder than me at a certain time when I was younger. But I know to get where they are at and to past that, I have to go beyond what I’m doing now.”

Domangue’s next stop includes a pair of LSU kicking camps, before entering another Kohl’s Camp in New Orleans.

When college decisions come around, both father and son agree LSU would be the No. 1 choice if a scholarship were offered.

If not, they both have a Plan B, as well.

“We’re looking at the SEC,” Ryan’s father said. “LSU would be the first choice, but if not, we’re looking at a school from the SEC. That, we believe, is the highest level of college football, where the best of the best play.”

Maybe the next game winner he hits will come in a purple and gold uniform.

Either way, it won’t be the first, nor probably the last time he’d kick his team to a victory.

Kicking his way to the next level