Football: 'He's a very unique talent': Katy's Adam Carter stars as kicker, pass rusher
Record-setting 6-2, 270-pound senior is committed to Texas State for track and field but hopes football remains in future
In 42 years at Katy High School, Gary Joseph has never seen anyone like Adam Carter.
A 6-foot-2, 270-pound kid who can effortlessly boom punts of more than 50 yards and then line up at defensive end to haunt opposing quarterbacks was unheard of to the legendary coach.
“I haven’t seen one like him,” Joseph said. “We’ve had one (a kicker) that looked like a dang defensive end, but he didn’t play defense.
“He’s a very unique talent.”
Carter, a senior, is a force on defense and special teams.
This season, Carter has three sacks with 15 quarterback hits and three pass breakups. He is averaging 43.1 yards per punt, with nine of 18 punts inside the opposing 20-yard line and five punts of 50 or more yards.
He is averaging 57.1 yards per kickoff, with 37 touchbacks and five inside the 20.
Carter holds the single-game program record for longest punt, a glorious 78-yarder on Oct. 18 against Jordan at Rhodes Stadium that flipped the field late during the fourth quarter of a 10-point game.
He also launched a 60-yarder during last week’s 35-0 win over Tompkins.
Carter believes he could punt end zone to end zone if all went right.
“I bet I could, if I get a good roll and enough wind at the back and a good spiral,” he said.
Carter owns career and single-season program records for kicking and punting.
There is one more record he’d like to have, though.
“I was trying to convince Coach Joseph to let me go for the longest field goal so I could have every kicking record,” Carter said, grinning. “I want to go in and at least try one. In practice, I can get to about 62 (yards) and it’ll go through. Coach Joseph knows I have the leg. It’s just a matter of if I’ll go in.”
For now, Joseph is fine having Carter kick-off and punt, lauding the ambitious young man’s rhythm and timing.
“They’ve done a good job of coaching him, and he’s done a good job with that,” Joseph said. “He takes pride in that, and he’s taking pride in playing defense, too. That’s really impressed me. The difference in him from last year is phenomenal. He’s helped our football team and our program by being who he is.”
As a 12-year-old, Carter and his older brother Luke, a former Katy tight end who now plays at North Texas, would follow their father, Lance, to the district’s athletic offices at Legacy Stadium.
Lance, then an assistant athletic director and now in his second year as executive athletic director, would watch his youngest boy kick after school every day. It was then, as a middle-schooler, that Carter realized how well he could kick.
Luke, who was also Katy’s long snapper, would practice delivering snaps to his younger brother, who would kick. That’s how Carter honed his skills.
“It was kind of self-taught,” Carter said. “What my dad and brother couldn’t teach me, I’d just learn on my own. I’d search up videos on YouTube and watch the good NFL punters.”
Katy assistant coach Tim Ripperger credits Carter’s weight for his thunderous power. Carter is not only big, but he bench-presses 415 pounds and squats 565 pounds.
Carter attributes his ability to all the work he’s put in.
“It’s just the drive I have under the ball, constantly repping it and getting better every week and listening to my brother and what he says,” Carter said.
Three weeks ago, Carter committed to Texas State for track and field. Carter is one of the best throwers in the state, placing second in the shot put with a personal record of 60-feet, 6.75-inches at the Class 6A state track and field meet in May. He was a regional qualifier as a discus thrower, and has a personal record of 169-feet, 7.5 inches in the event.
But he hopes football is in his future.
Carter is prioritizing throwing in college, but only because that’s where he has received the most attention from colleges so far.
“If I got those looks in football, then it’d probably be different,” Carter said. “Playing this game with my brothers, who wear the same red and white uniform, I want to keep that going.”
Carter has the strength and power to play football in college. He’s also shown the commitment necessary to be great.
“It’s his effort, and him realizing this is his senior year and phenomenal effort is an expectation,” Joseph said. “He gives phenomenal effort.”
Carter is a leader of a young Katy defense that has not surrendered an offensive touchdown since Sept. 20 against Cinco Ranch.
With one game left in the regular season, Katy, which last week secured its 15th district championship in 16 seasons, is allowing 11.3 points on 210.7 yards per game.
Against the district’s three other playoff teams—Jordan, Paetow and Tompkins—the Tigers allowed a combined 10 points, and no offensive touchdowns.
A large part of that success is Carter, and the example he sets on the field and the leadership he exerts off it.
“Our goal every week is to not give them any points, not give them any easy runs,” Carter said. “We just want to show we are the best defense in this district, and I feel like we’ve proven it this year.”