Lions Re-sign Prolific Kicker Camay
Published on December 22, 2013 under Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL)
Columbus Lions News Release
COLUMBUS, GA, December 21 -- The Columbus Lions today announced that Arena Football League and indoor football veteran placekicker Craig Camay signed a 2014 contract with the team, coming back to the city and franchise with whom he has felt most welcome and appreciated.
Camay, 27 and a native of Johannesburg, South Africa, has had two tours of duty with the AFL Tampa Bay Storm, one each with the Cleveland Gladiators and Iowa Barnstormers and brief camp appearances with the Utah Blaze and the Indoor Football League's Green Bay Blizzard. He first came to the Lions' attention as opposing kicker in the 2011 Southern Indoor Football League home playoff game against the Trenton Steel, where he made all-SIFL kicker that season and set a league record with a 61-yard field goal.
Coach Jason Gibson thinks he's found another piece of what may be the championship puzzle for the coming Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) season, having sixteen solid veterans under contract already with the Lions' home opener more than three months away (April 5).
"I grew up playing soccer and always wanted to be a pro football (soccer) player," said Camay, whose father was a consultant for multinational software manufacturer SAP, and relocated the family to the Atlanta area in 1997. Camay was in fifth grade at the time, and by eighth grade, the women's soccer coach persuaded him to try kicking an American football. In his very first practice, Camay connected on a 51-yarder. However, he says, football was still his third love, well behind soccer and cricket.
Ultimately, Camay played both sports at Walton High School in Marietta, where he made all-state kicker his senior year. Collegiately, he attended Tennessee-Chattanooga, where he made Division 1-AA kicker his senior year, graduating with a B.S. degree in Sport Management and a minor in Sport Law. Camay was at UTC five years, redshirting his sophomore year with a leg injury.
Camay's three years of pro football have exposed him to the mercurial nature of the lifespan of placekickers, as his consistent performance has not always led to job security with teams that tended to try out multiple kickers during the season. Oddly, the Lions were in that situation last season; a team used to great kickers like Trey Crum and Carlos Martinez struggled through three poor performers before signing Camay for the final few games. Camay's field-goal percentage was 43% and 100% on extra points; the other kickers combined were 20% and 68%, respectively.
The last stop for Camay was Cleveland, where he teamed briefly with Lions wide receiver and Phenix City native Cody Pearcy. However, he felt somewhat isolated and without friends, family and meaningful daytime work during the season. While with the Lions late last season, Camay met current girlfriend Maria Mendoza, who works gamedays for the Lions as a promotions assistant, and fulltime as a server at Lions postgame party headquarters Locos Grill and Pub.
After Camay, an outstanding, near-scratch handicap golfer, spent this past summer as assistant pro at an Atlanta-area country club, Gibson persuaded him to stabilize his on-field and off-field careers by moving to Columbus, working for the Lions as a sales representative and special events coordinator while solidifying the team's very important kicking department. As a bonus, he's reunited with Maria.
"I love being in Columbus, and it was a no-brainer to come back because the owners and coaching staff make me feel like family here," said Camay. "The best part of being here is the camaraderie with my teammates and the diversity of so many backgrounds and personalities." Speaking to the future, he noted "I would've signed a three-year contract, if offered one, that's how well-respected I feel the Lions organization is around the country. We must constantly strive to improve to get back to the winning tradition here -- for example, I've worked long and hard on making my onside kick more of a weapon. It took awhile to develop it, but I think it's ready to pay off at strategic times."
Camay feels he "could kick till I'm 40", and that's just one more reason why Gibson the Lions think he'll make them once again "Numero Uno" in league kick-scoring statistics this year. The "uno" is an indoor football point awarded for kickoffs nailed through the goalposts, and Camay's strong, accurate leg makes him one of the best in the business at it. Kickers who make an average of two or three per game will find them occasionally being the margin of victory in close games.
You likely won't know it unless you ask, but Camay's native Afrikaaner accent will be displayed on request; but having assimiliated into the U.S. for sixteen years, he speaks flawless, unaccented English.
Professional Indoor Football League Stories from December 22, 2013
- Lions Re-sign Prolific Kicker Camay - Columbus Lions
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