Ex-Cal kicker and Diablo FC Goalie Blogs from Alabama

Dec. 10, 2008

That is, it's cool. " 'Bama doesn't believe in the L sound, at least not at the end of a word."

Such are the musings of former Cal placekicker Tom Schneider on his wry blog Bama Tom, on which he described his recently concluded football season at the University of North Alabama. Schneider is a former goalkeeper for DVSC (and Las Lomas High School) who trained under the watchful eye of club goalkeeper coach Henry Foulk. He followed Foulk to UC Berkeley where he took up FOOTball rather than FUTbol.

On the team's trip to Carrollton, Ga., he decided that "Florida is maliciously hogging 'Bama's coast line. ... It got me a little fired up, so I ranted to some people on the bus and got them angry too."

If Schneider doesn't make it as a kicker in the NFL, it won't be for a lack of effort. On the other hand, if he doesn't make it, he's probably got a bright future as a lawyer, writer, photographer, rabble-rouser or maybe all of the above.

Schneider undoubtedly would be the leading scorer in Cal history, except for a torn leg muscle that wrecked his senior season. He fretted that NFL teams would consider him damaged goods, so when his career seemed to be heading south, he turned things around - by heading south.

Having used his redshirt season as a freshman at Cal, he applied unsuccessfully for a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA. He found out, however, that the rules permitted him one season of eligibility at non-scholarship Division II.

He searched on the Internet for a school that had national-title aspirations - thus offering greater visibility to the pros - and strong special teams. That's how Schneider reinvented himself at age 23 in a state that reveres football behind only God and kin.

As the leading scorer in the NCAA this season with 130 points for the high-scoring Lions, he made 19 of 26 field-goal tries, with three misses from more than 50 yards, and made a Division II-record 73 straight PATs. He missed the national title but otherwise accomplished his goal. UNA (12-2) got as far as the national semifinals before losing to Northwest Missouri 41-7 Saturday in a wind-chill of minus-5. That didn't dampen Schneider's spirits. His postgraduate work in Alabama put him back in the hunt for an NFL job.

"It would have been tough for me for missing a season so recently," he said this week. "I'm definitely on the (NFL) radar now. It would have been a lot worse psychologically for myself if I hadn't done it. It definitely helped me by coming here and putting in a season here."

He had finished his degree in legal studies at Cal last fall. Unable to play and add to his career total of 257 points (31 shy of Doug Brien's school record), he and injured backup quarterback Cory Smits kept busy by taking photos of Cal's practices, meetings and games.

Out of some 15,000 photos, they compiled a 100-page coffee table book, "Inside the Huddle: a Photographic Journal of Cal Football" ($25, www.calinsidethehuddle.com  ). A portion of the proceeds goes to a scholarship fund for walk-on players. That's what Schneider was coming from Las Lomas High-Walnut Creek, where he booted a game-winning 52-yard field goal in his first game.

Far from Walnut Creek, Schneider enjoyed, and wrote about, a different world in Alabama.

"We finished our game, and I sat on the bus next to a 300-pound hog-molly ("hog-molly" is a Southern term for a big guy who plays on the line). He passed out quickly, and with each REM cycle, he leaned closer and closer to me, till he was pretty much lying on me. I gotta admit, it wasn't as uncomfortable as it sounds. The air-conditioning was set to frigid, and he provided ample heating."

North Alabama is in Florence, a city of 36,000 two hours south of Nashville. "The campus is beautiful, one of the oldest in Alabama," Schneider said. He enjoyed the foliage in October but not the chilly days that followed. "I prepped myself for 95 and humid year round," he blogged. "Wrong!"

The man who played in three bowl games and kicked four field goals - one a 55-yarder, in Cal's 26-17 victory in the 2006 Big Game - played this year in front of home crowds of 10,000. By the way, they were "more knowledgeable than Cal fans" in knowing when and when not to cheer, he blogged.

"It's kinda nice not having as many (any) TV breaks," he wrote. "Games go faster." Another entry, after an early-season game: "After a close call that didn't go our way, I asked why we didn't challenge the play. Everyone looked at me like I was an idiot."

He'll play in a Division II all-star game in Texas and is hoping for an invitation to the East-West Shrine Game in Houston. He'll look for an agent who can help him get invited to an NFL training camp.

Having been in two different postseason formats, he prefers a playoff to the bowl system. "In a playoff, only one team gets to win the last game," he said. "I'm a competitive guy. In a playoff, you know where you stand. It's not decided by a panel of analysts or computers. There's no question, like:Where will they put us?"

Nevertheless, other questions popped up for the Bear who became a Lion. "Why did it take me 23 years to finally try boiled peanuts?" he blogged. "Boiled peanuts are wicked good."

Extra points

Here are some of former Cal kicker Tom Schneider's offerings on his blog, Bama Tom, about his season on the North Alabama football team:

On the food:

"In my short stay I have eaten fried pickles, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes, fried Twinkies. Ya, I said it, fried Twinkies. As if Twinkies alone were not enough, why not smother it in another 2,500 calories?"

On a conversation with a teammate from Florida:

"I'm pretty sure he was speaking English, but I honestly understood about 2 percent of what he said."

On Leo and Una, the team's mascots:

"I'm pretty sure they (tranquilize) the heck out of the lions because they are passed out the entire game ... probably for the better."

After a game at West Georgia:

"Note to self: Do not commit any felonies (and get caught) while I'm down here. Not only is the death penalty more prevalent, prisoners have cleanup duty after college football games. On the bright side they get three hots and a cot. I think cable as well. I don't have cable."

On staying at a hotel in Little Rock:

"There was a soccer tournament going on in the area and the hotel was swarming with kids (age 8-14 approx).The morning before the game I get on the elevator after breakfast with some random (Arkansan). He examines me in my UNA track suit. Ponders to himself for a minute. Then asks me what age group I'm in."

Reprinted from San Francisco Chronicle
Tom FitzGerald, Chronicle Staff Writer