Punter adjusting to new life

IU punter Tyson Beattie has come a long way.\n11,720 miles to be exact.\nThe freshman redshirted last season after coming to IU from Attadale, Australia, a place where rugby is a bigger sport than football. Just five years ago, punting wasn't even on the mind of Beattie; now he's starting for a Big Ten school.\n"I was a rugby player and an Australian rules football player at that stage," Beattie said. "I took (part in) a kicking contest run by an NFL player, Darren Bennett, who's from my hometown and just thought I'd give it a shot. And I was pretty good at it, so I decided to join an actual team down in Australia, and I just progressed from there."\nInitially, Beattie played for small teams and garnered an understanding of the sport and an affinity for the punter position. It was just one of many sports he competed in, though. While at Christian Brothers High School, he played baseball, cricket, Australian rules football, basketball and swimming.\nThat all changed, however, when Beattie landed a spot on the Western Australian football team and helped the squad win a national championship. Beattie was named an All-Australian punter after setting tournament marks during the finals.\n"That was a real buzz," he said. "We weren't expected to do anything because we were a small state from the West. We came over and did really well and a lot of people were really impressed with the team and my punting."\nThe championship thrust Beattie into the recruiting limelight, and American schools soon came calling. Former IU coach Cam Cameron convinced him that IU was the best place to hone his punting skills. \nAlthough coach Gerry DiNardo's staff can't take credit for bringing Beattie in, staff members have been more than pleased with his punting prowess thus far. Beattie's first punt as a Hoosier was a booming 50-yarder in IU's opening day 34-10 loss at UConn that pinned the Huskies inside the 20-yard line. Since then, Beattie has punted 11 times for a 37.4-yard average. \nAssistant coach Curt Mallory said he has high expectations for Beattie's future with the team.\n"Tyson, he's been continuing to improve, and he's going to do so as he gets accustomed to what we're doing," he said. "He's got a strong leg. If he makes the strides, he's still young and he's still a little raw, but I think he's going to continue to improve."\nBeattie said he hopes to be among the top five in conference punting and ideally be named All-Big Ten. But, in addition to adjusting to a sport he's only competed in for a handful of years, Beattie has had to become accustomed to an entirely different culture. He credits the fellow kickers on the team -- senior Adam Braucher, junior Bryan Robertson and freshman Troy Grosfield -- with helping him while so far away from home.\n"The team is such a close unit," Beattie said. "My friends on the team, especially the kickers, I'm really close to them, so they make me feel like I'm part of a family here."\nAs for his post-IU future, Beattie, a student in the School of Education, will pursue a career in the NFL. Already, he studies it almost religiously to try and better his own punting technique. \nWhen Beattie first discovered American football, he'd stay up late nights (because of the time difference) to watch the different punters around the league. At one point, he made a video of 300 different clips of each punter in the league and would watch it every night.\nBeattie said he thinks he can make it one way or another.\n"It's a little different with a kicker than another position," he said. "It's kind of like an actor in Hollywood. You go to all these auditions around different teams. You might get drafted right away, you might not. If you do, you have a good chance to make it straight away. If you don't, you tend to bounce around awhile. I think I'm going to focus on this part of it right now. If I get to where I can, I believe I can make it in the NFL."\nHis teammates feel just the same way. \n"I think the kid has a ton of potential to be as good as he wants to be," Roberston said. "He had a 50-yarder his first punt. ... As far as leg strength, he's got as strong a leg as I've seen in a punter. Once he learns to maximize that and get all the things he needs to get together as far as critiquing himself, the sky's the limit."\n-- Contact staff writer Gavin Lesnick at glesnick@indiana.edu.