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King Punter Gets Full Ride At Stanford

National Signing Day At King High School

BILL WARD/The Tampa Tribune photo

King High senior Daniel Zychlinski signs with Stanford University as his coach, Earl Garcia III, left, and Daniel’s father, Lech Zychlinski, look on.

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By Bill Ward of The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

Temple Terrace - There are football scholarships, and then there are football scholarships.

We are referring to the one just signed by King punter Daniel Zychlinski. He put pen to paper for Stanford University on Wednesday morning and if you looked closely at that paper, you will notice two very important lines: the percentage of the scholarhship the school is giving Zychlinski and how much one year at that school costs.

For Zychlinski, those numbers are 100 percent, and an eye-popping $48,800 per year. If he plays five years for the Cardinal, that's—gulp—nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

Take that Florida State, Florida and Miami signees!

Of course, it's not the money he's going to save that attracted Zychlinski to Stanford. It's the elite education this International Baccalaureate King student will receive there. He scored 1,910 on the SAT, 28 on the ACT and carries a 5.9 weighted GPA, so he could have gone to just about any Ivy League school on this side of the country. But after the 6-3, 215-pound Zychlinski attended a national kicking combine last January in Las Vegas, his athletic stock went through the roof. His hang time was consistently more than 5 seconds and he had what he called "the performance of my life."

And that's when Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh came calling with an offer Zychlinski couldn't refuse.

"It's the perfect blend of academics and athletics," said Zychlinski, who averaged 40.5 yards per punt last season and set King's record for longest punt with an 81-yarder. "It felt perfect when I went out there on my visit."

Zychlinski says he hopes to play right away for the Cardinal. And he knows he will have to start studying soon, too. The one thing he and his father, Lech, won't have to worry about is that $48,800 a year in tuition.

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