Tyler McGregor carries the responsibility of snapping the ball on the field for the varsity football team.

“The only time you hear a long snapper’s name is when they mess up,” senior Tyler McGregor said. “I do my best to keep my name out of peoples’ mouths.”

McGregor started playing football in fifth grade.  He wanted to be part of a team, and make more friends. McGregor said that if it wasn’t for football, he would be out of shape. He was introduced to the position of long snapping in high school.

Since then, he has been to more long snapping camps than he can remember.  He said that they first go through instruction and technique practice, and at the end of the week they do competitions between all the snappers to see who is the best.

“I went to a long snapping camp in Georgia one time that Chris Rubio was hosting. He is a well-known long snapping instructor who has a lot of connections with colleges, so it was in my best interest to go to his camp,” McGregor said.

During the competition at the end of the week, an incident with snapping the ball changed McGregor’s perspective on his position.

“It was 40 degrees outside, all I had was a jacket and a long sleeve shirt,” McGregor said. “Looking back, I think that it was the fact that my hands were numb. After I snapped the ball, I looked back and saw that the ball didn’t hit the target. It was a cross-road situation for me because I felt like a failure.  My choices were quitting or getting better. I used this camp as a reminder of what it felt like to fail. I will never do that again.”

McGregor’s biggest fan is his little brother Brett, who is six years old.  He goes to all of his games to cheer him on in the stands, and when McGregor is on the field if he doesn’t wave back to his brother, Brett gets angry.

McGregor is thankful his friends and family are so supportive of his busy football schedule, because between that and school, he does not have much time for socializing. However, he would never give up his position.