By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Cody Ausherman was a very good soccer player who, thanks to his mom, became a football scholarship winner.

Ausherman recently signed with Methodist University of Fayetteville, N.C., a NCAA Division III program that competes in the USA South Conference under Coach Dave Eavenson.

Ausherman played youth soccer since age 6 and seemed destined for a soccer career at Osceola High before his mother, OHS faculty member Anjel Ausherman, happened to mention to former Kowboys football coach Jeff Rolson that her son had a pretty good leg.

The next thing Cody Ausherman knew, he was auditioning for the Kowboys coach.

“I had never kicked before my freshman year here. I had never played football,” Ausherman said.

That changed in a hurry.

He became Osceola’s primary kicker during his junior season, helping the Kowboys reach the regional quarterfinals against Lakeland by kicking 27 PATs and one field goal.

As a senior, he scored 33 points, including three field goals, when Osceola again advanced to the regional playoffs.

As important as his scoring punch was to the Osceola offense, Ausherman played a key role for the team’s defense by putting 81 percent of his kickoffs into the end zone.

“I guess it was a matter of better technique and getting stronger,” the 6-1 senior said.

Ausherman was a goalie for the OHS soccer team through his junior year before concentrating on football. Since his father, Mark Ausherman, is the OHS girls soccer coach (Cody’s sister, Courtney, a three-sport athlete, is on the soccer team.), that may seem surprising.

“No, I knew my future was going to be in football,” Cody Ausherman said.

Ausherman worked with former San Francisco 49ers kicker Gene Muriaty of National Kicking Service to improve his skills.

Muriaty travels around the nation to train young kickers, and Ausherman developed into a good pupil.

“After they worked out one day, (Muriaty) said to me, ‘He’s got it,’” Mark Ausherman said. “I don’t know for sure what ‘it’ is, but I’ll take his word for it.”

Ausherman will become the first OHS graduate to kick at the college level.

“That was my goal,” he said.

Ausherman said Osceola Coach Doug Nichols helped him land the opportunity at Methodist University at a high school combine in Lake Wales.

He went to the campus with his dad and came away satisfied that Methodist was a good fit.

“Because of my grades (he’s an honor student who is a member of the Kowboys robotics team), I’ll have an option to stay in the dorms with the juniors and seniors,” he said.

“They’ve raised a lot of money there, and the coaches told me that there is a good possibility that they will build a new stadium.”

Ausherman said he probably will kick off next season, and he has a chance to win the PAT and field goal duties at Methodist.

“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it, or going through rituals,” before a kick, he said. “I just go out and do it.”