With his team buried deep in their own territory, facing a long fourth down, a bulky sophomore with a slight limp makes his way onto the field. He calls for the snap from the center, plants his size 12 black and white lacrosse cleat into the ground, drops the football, which collides with his size 8½ red soccer cleat with the force of a cannon – soaring 50 yards – over the returner's head and bouncing ten yards deeper into opposing territory.

Not bad for a kid with a clubfoot.

South Side punter Chandler Baylis was born with a right foot that is roughly half the size of his left. He has endured three surgeries and countless hours of physical therapy to try and rectify the malady.

Despite that, he has excelled in sports, playing goalie in lacrosse, as well as forward and goalie in soccer. But this year, he said he realized that football had a much larger upside for him,  so he made the switch.

"Everyone was telling me that I should play football, and that if I could learn how to kick a football I could go much further with it," he said. "I had the encouragement of everyone around me so I went with it."

The Cyclones are glad he made the transition. On a team that is struggling on offense, a punter is an essential piece to pinning the opposition deep in their territory. Baylis is averaging an astonishing 38 yards per punt, all while still mastering his craft.

Baylis' punting coach, Leroy Robert, is teaching his star to adjust to kicking the oddly-shaped ball, but said he knows that the sky is the limit for the sophomore.

"We're still teaching him to kick a spiral," Robert said. "Since he didn't have the surface area on his foot, we had him turn the ball on a different angle to keep it straight. One more year with me and he can go to any college and kick – some college kids don't average what he does."

For a 15-year old student who said he once wished for two normal sized feet – Baylis said he feels little pity for himself and makes no excuses. Despite his coach's reservations, he participates in all the agility drills without hesitation.

"I have a slight limp – it's a natural thing," Baylis said. "Coaches always think it's going to fall off – it's sometimes purple or blue depending on the day. They're always nervous."

"He doesn't shy away – we try to make him stop, and he'll just yell 'no coach!' without complaining or saying one word," Robert added.

Baylis has become a jack-of-all trades for South Side. On top of punting for the team, he also handles kick-off duty – he has four touchbacks – and completed one pass this season on a play that shocked everyone.

"We were down 19-0 to Great Neck North, and I saw Brian Williams to my left with no one on him, so I took the hike – screamed his name and threw to him for the first down," he said. "Coach probably would have killed me if that didn't work."

South Side will enjoy Bayliss' booming kicks for another two years, at which point he said he hopes to get a scholarship in football or lacrosse. If given the choice, he said will continue his burgeoning kicking career.

"Everyone always goes crazy when I kick the ball," he said. "On my kickoffs, whenever I get off the field everyone goes crazy. They want to get me spray paint and call it the golden foot."