Kicking a real pain for UW’s Perkins

SEATTLE – They looked pretty easy to the casual observer. Ryan Perkins jogged onto the field five times against Arizona State on Saturday, and made all five kicks:

An extra point, and field goals of 34, 38, 21 and 20 yards.

Two medium-length kicks, a couple of chip shots and an extra point? Piece of cake, right?

Not exactly. There was nothing easy about what Perkins did Saturday when he made the most field goals by a UW kicker since the 2002 Apple Cup. The fact that Perkins was even on the field, let alone making kicks, is rather remarkable given what Perkins has gone through at Washington.

But after spending his last two seasons kicking through constant knee pain, Perkins will walk away from the game at the end of the season, likely with a noticeable limp. Though he has another year of eligibility left, Perkins’ kicking career will end after three more games, and he, along with 18 seniors, will play his final home game Saturday night against UCLA.

“I have to medically retire,” said Perkins, a life-long soccer player who started kicking footballs as an eighth-grader in Monroe, Wash. “We’ve done some X-rays, and I’ve pretty much destroyed my knee in the last two months. It’s an agreement between the doctors and me and the coaches. I did some serious damage to my knee.”

After coming to Washington in 2005 from North Thurston High School, Perkins redshirted as a freshman, then hoped to compete for the kicking job in 2006. While attempting a punt during the 2006 spring game, however, a player was blocked into Perkins just as he was landing on his kicking leg, causing him to tear every major ligament in his right knee.

He had full reconstructive surgery on his injured knee that spring, but when the recovery didn’t go as planned, doctors had to perform the same surgery the following October. Since then, Perkins has battled back to earn the kicking job, though he doesn’t have the leg strength for kickoffs and long field goals. But the last two years of kicking have only made his knee, which has also developed arthritis, deteriorate further.

“Ryan is one of those profiles in courage,” Washington coach Tyrone Willingham said. “A young man that had every reason to give up the game three years ago and hasn’t done it. He has fought his way through and competed and battled, and really his leg is not in the best of condition now. That was a terrible injury that he had, and he’s doing in my opinion, a remarkable job.”

The hours of warming up prior to practices and games has actually become easier, Perkins said, but the pain is worse, and he knows he can only take so many kicks a day before his leg is too stiff and in too much pain to kick.

In recent months, he and his doctors have finally decided that it’s time to call it quits.

“It’s something that we’ve talked about for the last year, but it’s something that slowly over time I had to accept as reality because of how much my knee hurt and how much damage I was doing to it,” he said. “After looking at the X-rays, I’ve definitely sent my knee in the wrong direction these last couple of months, so it was time.”

Yet despite the pain, despite the knowledge that he will suffer long-term ramifications from the damage done to his knee, Perkins said he has no regrets. Though he does seem to realize he might change that stance as he gets older.

“Right now, I anticipate that I won’t regret it,” said Perkins, who anticipates needing knee replacement surgery in the next 15 to 20 years.

“It’s been quite the ride, getting an education and kicking field goals and playing for the Huskies. I have no regrets. It’s just the price I had to pay to do the things I wanted to do.”

It’s a steep price to pay, but Perkins plans to keep fighting the pain for three more games. Perkins knows the end is near, but he’s not quite ready for it yet.

“I’m not going to hang it up, especially after (Saturday),” Perkins said. “I’m going to go strong until they tell me I can’t kick anymore.”

Unfortunately for Perkins, they’ve already told him.