Chris Sailer (born January 9, 1977) is an American

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

trainer of kicking specialists. He works with high school

placekicker In gridiron football, the placekicker (PK), or simply kicker (K), is the player responsible for attempts at scoring Field goal (football), field goals and extra points. In most cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist ...

s and punters and evaluates them for

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

programs. Sailer was named an

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

as both a kicker and a punter while playing college football for the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

. He played professionally in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

(AFL).

Early life

Sailer was born to Elisabeth and Hans Sailer, who had emigrated in 1969 from West Germany to

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank had a Census-estimated population of 102,755 as of 2023. The city was ...

. His parents were

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

fans who knew nothing about football. They exposed him to soccer early, and he excelled as a youth soccer player. Sailer attended high school in

Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles Sherman Oaks (founded in 1927) is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles, California within the San Fernando Valley region. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density ...

, where he was both the kicker and punter at Notre Dame High. As a senior, he set a state single-season record with 22

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. Consequently, ...

s, making seven from 50 yards of more to help his team win a Division III title. He was named to the ''USA Today'' All-USA team, and finished his prep career with a state record 33 career field goals. He also played soccer as a defender.

College career

Sailer decided to attend the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA), because Bruins football coach

Terry Donahue Terrence Michael Donahue (June 24, 1944 – July 4, 2021) was an American football coach and executive. He served as the head coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from 1976 to 1995, compiling a record of 151–74–8. His 15 ...

and soccer coach

Sigi Schmid Siegfried "Sigi" Schmid (; March 20, 1953 – December 25, 2018) was a German soccer coach. Born in Tübingen, West Germany, he moved to the United States with his family when he was a child. He played college soccer from 1972 to 1975 at the U ...

allowed him to play both sports, even though the two teams'

seasons A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

overlap. His

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private school, private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on their ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the U ...

was rare for a kicker, a position which coaches often filled with

walk-on Walk On may refer to: Music Albums * ''Walk On'' (Boston album) or the title song, 1994 * ''Walk On'' (John Hiatt album) or the title song, 1995 * ''Walk On'' (Randy Johnston album) or the title song, 1992 *''Walk On'', by Kellie Coffey, 200 ...

s. He put soccer on hold as a freshman to get acclimated to school while playing football. Later, he decided he could not play both, and chose football. As a freshman in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, Sailer won the job as punter and ranked 15th in the country with a 42.2 yard average. After kicker

Bjorn Merten Bjorn Merten is an American former college football placekicker who played for the UCLA Bruins. He was a consensus All-American in 1993 as a freshman. Early life Merten attended Centreville High School in Clifton, Virginia. He played both kick ...

graduated, Sailer assumed the position in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, becoming the first Bruin since

Frank Corral Juan Francisco Corrales Rodríguez (born June 16, 1955), better known as Frank Corral, is a Mexican Americans, Mexican-American former professional American football, football player who was a placekicker and punter (gridiron football), punter ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

to handle both punts and kicks. That season, Sailer made four

s in a 39–31 win over

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, including a 56-yard kick that stood as a school record until

Kaʻimi Fairbairn John Christian Kaiminoeauloamekaikeokekumupaa Fairbairn (born January 29, 1994) is an American professional football placekicker for the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). Playing college football for the UCLA Bruins, he was a ...

's 60-yarder in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

. Sailer finished the season as the runner-up behind

Martín Gramática Martin Gramatica (; born 27 November 1975) is an Argentine-American former player of American football who was a kicker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and New Orleans Sain ...

for the

Lou Groza Award The Lou Groza Award is presented annually to the top college football placekicker in the United States by the Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County Sports Commission. The award is named after former Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns ...

, given annually to the nation's top college kicker. He was named a first-team

kicker by the

American Football Coaches Association The American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) is an association of over 11,000 American football coaches and staff on all levels. According to its constitution, some of the main goals of the American Football Coaches Association are to "mainta ...

and the

Walter Camp Football Foundation The Walter Camp Football Foundation (WCFF) is one of the organizations whose College Football All-America Team is recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit ...

. Additionally, the

Football Writers Association of America The Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) is an organization of college football media members in the United States founded in 1941. It is composed of approximately 1,200 professional sports writers from both print and Internet media out ...

named Sailer to their first team as a punter. He is the only player in UCLA history to have received first-team All-American honors at two positions in the same season. In his senior year in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, Sailer struggled with his field goals after being bothered for most of the season with a groin injury. He suffered the injury during practice when he did not warm up before participating in a kicking duel with a local sports anchorman.

Professional career

After leaving college, Sailer signed with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), and played for the

Los Angeles Dragons The Los Angeles Dragons are an Australian rules football team, based in Los Angeles, California. They were founded in 2010 and play in the United States Australian Football League. History The Los Angeles Dragons were founded in 2010 by a group o ...

of the

Spring Football League The Spring Football League (SFL) was a short lived professional American football minor league that existed for only one season in 2000. Spring football Founded by several ex-NFL players such as Eric Dickerson, Drew Pearson, Bo Jackson, and ...

and four years in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

. While still playing, he also ran organized

camps Camps may refer to: People *Ramón Camps (1927–1994), Argentine general *Gabriel Camps (1927–2002), French historian *Luís Espinal Camps (1932–1980), Spanish missionary to Bolivia *Victoria Camps (b. 1941), Spanish philosopher and professor ...

and provided private tutoring to high school kickers and punters. He started Chris Sailer Kicking in 1999, taking financial losses on his camps to build his client base in pursuit of his goal of forming the first national recruiting camp for kicking specialists at the high school level. He held the first national camp in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

in 2003, when 125 kickers and punters participated in the presence of 30

NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...

coaches. Sailer's kicking camp became the most prominent in the country. He is routinely contacted by college coaches to assist in identifying potential

college recruit In college athletics in the United States, recruiting is the process in which college coaches add prospective student athletes to their roster each off-season. This process typically culminates in a coach extending an athletic scholarship offer t ...

s for their

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their position. Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

. Players which he identifies as top recruits generally receive scholarships from major football programs. Sailer partnered with former UCLA teammate Chris Rubio, who provides services for

long snapper In gridiron football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a Center (gridiron football), center on American football positions#Special teams, special teams whose duty is to Snap (gridiron football), snap the football over a longer distance, ty ...

s as part of Rubio Long Snapping. Greg Biggins of Scout.com described Chris Sailer Kicking as "pretty much a monopoly". , Sailer's camps were drawing an estimate of 450 to 500 kickers, punter, and long snappers. By 2014, thirteen of the 32 starting kickers in the NFL had attended his camp. Sailer is on the selection committee for the Chris Sailer Award, presented annually to the top high school placekicker in the nation. The award began in 2011 as part of the Herbalife National High School Football Awards.

References

External links

Chris Sailer Kicking
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sailer, Chris 1977 births Living people American football placekickers Notre Dame High School (Sherman Oaks, California) alumni UCLA Bruins football players San Francisco 49ers players San Jose SaberCats players Players of American football from Burbank, California Oklahoma Wranglers players Arizona Rattlers players American people of German descent Soccer players from Los Angeles County, California UCLA Bruins men's soccer players Men's association football defenders American men's soccer players Spring Football League players