In Searcy athletics, there are many talented individuals; even with all the competition, punter Chris Qualls stands out.

“The thing that makes Chris special is that he does a lot of work on his own. I don’t know if we have a coach here that’s really a punting specialist or anything, but Chris has worked extremely hard to make himself as good as he is now.I know he’s going to continue to get better,” said coach Tim Harper.

Sophomore Sam Willibey said what he has seen in the driven player.

“Chris works hard every single practice, and even after practice he will be out here kicking or bring his family out here,” he said. “He will bring his mom and his dad and they will be out here kicking. He just has a real good work ethic.”

Above and beyond Qualls’ actual skill, his team also thinks he is a great guy to be around.

“He is just a great friend and an even better teammate,” he said.

Kohl’s Professional camp ranks Qualls as the number one punter for the class of 2015 nationwide, a very welcome shock to him and his team.

“I had an idea that he might be in the top twenty five in the nation, but I had no idea he was number one. So it was huge finding out that someone from Searcy Arkansas was number one at something,” said Willibey.

Qualls has faced many challenges he had to overcome.

Qualls said that one of his problems was his height.

“I’m not very tall and I’m not the strongest dude so I really had to work on leg speed if i was going to be good, because usually professional punters are pretty tall, like six-six or six-five,” said Qualls.

Qualls has future plans with his punting.

“I want to go to college doing it and maybe go pro, but that’s a long way away, and only five percent of punters and kickers ever go pro each year; it is pretty hard,” mentioned Qualls.

It is safe to say that recruiters will definitely be looking out for this player.