BLUEFIELD — What can Brown do for Bluefield College?

He can kick and he can punt, all in the same game. He will do just that tonight when the Rams host Pikeville in the season opener at Mitchell Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 6 p.m. Admission is $5. 

"I am ecstatic," said Ben Brown, a three-sport standout at Richlands, who attended Liberty University and Southwest Virginia Community College last school year. "It has been two full years since I played in a game and suited up. I am excited to get back in it."

Brown was originally slated to be the place-kicker, while Twin Valley product Drake Presley was going to punt. Those plans changed for tonight's game when Presley was injured in a recent practice. 

"He is going to kick and punt," Bluefield head coach Ordell Walker said. "Drake was little banged up. He was probably going to be the punter, but Ben will do double duty this game."

Brown was originally planning to stick with baseball at Bluefield, but a quick look at the schedule and football seemed like a real possibility. He notified Walker and was there when practice began on Aug. 5. 

"When I showed up I was a little bit nervous, but it wasn't too bad," Brown said. "Just walking in with 120 people that I have never met before...They didn't know my story or who I was. Meeting new people is good. It was kind of funny at the beginning, before they knew I was a kicker they were asking me what position I play."

There was little doubt once Brown started kicking footballs. Walker even had Brown proved his athleticism to skeptical teammates by having him dunk footballs over the crossbar of a goal post. 

"He has just been tremendous, he has been a huge asset, a very strong leg," Walker said. "As practice has gone on he had gotten sharper and sharper. From a field goal standpoint he has definitely expanded our range with his ability to kick field goals. He has done a great job in being a directional punter, keeping the ball away from good punt returners which we have to have.

"He is a good athlete. We toss the ball around and he can catch the ball...He is definitely multi-talented."

 Brown proved that in three sports at Richlands. He will keep it to two at Bluefield, along with working on a challenging academic schedule involving mathematics and education. 

"It is difficult. There is not as much time in the day to study and relax...," Brown said. "With football you have a responsibility to be here and you have to put your off time into studying so there is not a whole lot of time just to sit around and relax...It is going to be a challenge, but I am looking forward to it. Thankfully my sister is a math teacher, probably the smartest math person I know so she is going to help me get through this."

 "He is going to play baseball here too," added Walker. "We are confident he can get that done. Transferring in he has already taken college classes so he knows that what is like."

Brown had originally hoped to kick at Liberty, but tore the ACL in his left knee during his senior baseball season at Richlands.

 That followed a similar surgery on his right knee the year before. Getting that right leg in kicking shape has taken time, but the balls have been flying off his foot in practice.

"We have been kicking a lot throughout camp. We have been going for three weeks now and it has just been getting in shape a lot," said Brown, who competed for kicking duties with Presley and Adam Casto. 

"I am starting to get used to it a little bit. After the first week I was pretty fatigued because I hadn't done it in so long and then coming in and doing so much of it.

"It is pretty good now, getting in an every day rhythm. Just like throwing a baseball it takes a little while to get into, but I have gotten into it pretty well and just kicking helps too. In high school I was playing the whole game and trying to kick so I was pretty fatigued, but I will just be kicking so hopefully I will be able to stay loose and stretch out quite a bit."

" They have been helping me and we have been helping each other out. It is nice to come out here and just get a spot like that. I am very fortunate."

There were a couple of adjustments that Brown has had to make. 

"The main difference in high school you get to kick off a block, you can set it up a little bit higher, in college it is just straight off the ground so you have got to focus more on your contact point," Brown said. "In high school you can just kind of swing your leg through and it is pretty easy to make good contact. In college you have got to have more technique and you have got to be consistent every time rather than taking plays off...

"Another difference is the goal posts are a lot skinnier, I think they are six feet skinnier so you have got to be more precise there too. I have been getting better.

"I was 7 for 8 or something and the one was like behind 50 yards so I was consistent where I need to be and that is a good sign getting to this point in the season."

Brown is part of a new team now. He was a key cog for the Blue Tornado, and wants to do his part to bring similar success to the Rams. 

"As far as we are concerned right now we haven't lost a game," Brown said. 

"Richlands starts 0-0 every year, we start 0-0 every year. We may not be blowing out teams 50-0 and a half every week, but we are going to do to the best we can starting this week and hopefully get a win this week and move on from there.

"It might be different, but I can only control so much of the game. In baseball season at Richlands this past year we had the saying 'control what you can control' so I am going to try to control what I can control, make every kick and do what I can do to help out."