MEAD, Wash. — High school football is just around the corner, and the most electric player in our region won't be tackling anyone this year.
He won't be throwing or catching a ball either.
He'll be kicking.
"I was jumping for joy," said Ethan Moczulski of when he committed to Texas A&M this summer. "It was a dream come true. Everything just kind of fell into place. It’s been a crazy ride."
Mt Spokane’s Mochowski isn’t just good at kicking. He’s excellent.
He’s ranked #8 in Class of 2022 by 247sports, #7 by Kohl's Kicking Camps, and #1 by kicking guru Chris Sailer.
This past season he hit two 55 yarders in back-to-back games and his recruiting skyrocketed.
"They really kind of blew up and a lot of kicking coaches retweeted it. That got a lot of attention and views to my name, which really helped," said Moczulski.
"One of the 55 yarders, we were about 62 out, and he was next to me poking me on the shoulder saying, ‘I’m ready to go. I’m ready to go.’ I said, ‘Hold on. Let’s see what we get on third down.’ We got a few yards and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s go for it,'" said Ethan's head coach Terry Cloer.
It doesn’t take a lot for Coach Cloer and Mt. Spokane to go for it with their star specialist.
"It affects the game tremendously. Almost every kickoff—27 of 29 kickoffs—went in the end zone last year, so our defense was starting with their offense on the 20. Punt, he’s flipping the field for us every time. Offensively, when we cross the 50, we’re going to get points out of it most of the time. It changes every facet of the game," said Cloer.
For Mt. Spokane offensive lineman Mitchell Campbell, seeing opponents squirm because of Ethan and his talents has become pretty fun.
"They have fear in their eyes. They just feel that something’s going to happen. Like, he’s going to do something, and that just scares them," said Campbell.
Mochowski becomes just the second Division I football player ever out of Mt. Spokane, but he may be making even more history than that in this region.
It's wildly believed that Bishop Sankey is the highest rated player at his position to come out of Spokane. He was ranked #17 running back in the country by 247sports back in 2011.
"It’s kind of hard to wrap my head around just thinking about that. Just in Spokane I might be the number one recruit to come out? It’s wild," said Moczulski.
