Dustin Fletcher’s son Mason evolves into top punter for college football team Cincinnati Bearcats

It’s his underpants, but not just any undies. They are Aussie brand Tradie undies his mum Suzanne sends to the US where Fletcher has shattered records punting for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. He calls them his lucky charm and in a recent game, after breaking open a new pack, he shocked American sports fans when he booted his team out of trouble with a monster 84-yard bomb.

“I owe a little bit of my success to my Tradies,” Fletcher says in an interview with CODE Sports.

“I’ll have to thank mum for sending them.”

The 22-year-old is one of US college football’s top-ranked punters and appears destined to become the latest Aussie rules convert to play in the NFL. His 84-yard punt broke the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) record by five yards and shattered the Bearcats’ best mark, which stood for 46 years, by six yards.

For the second time this season, Fletcher was named National Punter of the Week and ACC Player of the Week. Not surprisingly, he has become one of the favourites to win this season’s Ray Guy Award, the prize handed to America’s top punter.

“I didn’t even really feel it off the boot,” Fletcher, recalling the massive punt against Southern Methodist University, says.

“It came together perfectly.

“There was a nice breeze behind me, nothing crazy, but it was the trajectory and how it hit the ground. If I’m trying to pin the opposition inside the 10-yard line I can get it to bounce back, but that one was kicked long and fast and it skipped forward.”

Fletcher and his brother Max, who punts for the University of Arkansas, were destined to grow up booting footballs incredible distances. Their dad is Dustin Fletcher, Essendon’s great defender who played his entire 23-year AFL career with the Bombers.

It appeared he would follow his dad to the AFL, with Fletcher playing for the NAB League’s Calder Cannons under 18s. Essendon were also keen to continue the Fletcher tradition at the club, but injury struck. Stress fractures on either side of his spine meant he only played a couple of games in the under 18s and when he returned to play the next year, he lost his desire for Australian football.

“I wasn’t really into it,” Fletcher says.

“I spoke to Essendon and told them I probably didn’t want to take footy any further and a week later I was at Prokick Australia figuring out how to kick American footballs. A couple of months after that I got a scholarship opportunity to the University of Cincinnati, and it all happened from there.”

Melbourne-based Prokick’s record in transforming Aussie rules players into elite American college and NFL punters is outstanding. Led by Nathan Chapman and John Smith, 190 Prokick alumni have received full scholarships to US colleges. Prokick punters have won six Ray Guy Awards and Mitch Wishnowsky, Michael Dickson, Arryn Siposs, Lachlan Edwards, Jordan Berry and Cameron Johnston are among the growing number of Prokick graduates to punt in the NFL.

It was another Aussie, Nik Constantinou, who also inspired Fletcher to make the switch. Fletcher went to high school with Constantinou.

“I remember in my draft year I was at Essendon training, and I looked up at a TV and Nik was punting in front of 110,000 people in Texas,” Fletcher recalls.

“I thought, ‘Geez, I used to hit what we’d call ‘torps’ with Nik after practice at school’ so, the idea of going to the US, playing in front of 110,000 people and getting a great education at the same time sounded pretty cool to me.”

Some Aussie rules converts find the switch from a Sherrin to an American football difficult, but Fletcher said the transition was seamless.

“At Calder we had a play for the first kick of the game from fullback,” he says.

“It was a big torp down the middle, so that kick came to me quite naturally and therefore I really enjoyed it. I remember the first time I went to Prokick, I just knew I wanted to do it again straight away and so I kept going back.”

Fletcher is loving US college life. His teammates gave him the nickname ‘Footy’ because that’s what he calls a football, and they thought it was hilarious. Bearcats head coach Luke Fickell treats him like a son, with the Aussie, so far from home, a regular at the Fickell home each Christmas. Fletcher has added about 19kg of muscle to his beanpole frame and said the Bearcats’ gym is bigger and more advanced than any AFL facility.

One of Fletcher’s best sources of advice is Johnston, who in college punted not too far away at powerhouse Ohio State. Johnson also recently signed a three-year, $US8 million contract to punt for the NFL’s Houston Texans.

“Cam actually reached out to me when I first committed to Cincinnati,” Fletcher says.

“He played Aussie rules back home professionally, so he knows the different skill sets and culture. He also talked to me about being calm and just being yourself because it hits you when you get here. You go from the locker room back home with 35, maybe 40 or 45 players on a big roster, to here where there’s 100 or 110 players and you’re obviously different to everyone in the sense that you are not from where everyone else is from.”

Fletcher is living off-campus in a house with four teammates and has become a celebrity in Cincinnati where his record-breaking punts, towering height, shock of red hair and Aussie accent makes it hard to go incognito.

It helps that his dad, who stands 198cm tall or so, also finds it hard to hide from AFL fans when he steps out in public in footy-crazed Melbourne, understands what he is going through.

“Dad gives little pieces of advice here and there,” he says.

“I actually just spoke to him about how to deal with people coming up to you in the street. He said to take it as a compliment.

“He‘s always been really good to me in the sense that he doesn’t stick his face in or try and make it all about him. He’s really low key and he never really pushed me or coached me. He just let me do what I wanted to do, and I think that has really helped me along the whole journey.”

Fletcher’s mum has also had a big influence, and not just in posting him a steady supply of his favourite Aussie undies. Fletcher, a communications major, made a promise to his mum that he would complete his degree at Cincinnati. It is a four-year degree, so the promise could delay Fletcher’s hopes of making the NFL.

“I‘m on track to graduate in 2024 and I did promise my mum I was going to do that, so that’s the plan,” he said.

But if Fletcher does get the feeling an NFL team would draft him, he might take the plunge and finish his degree later.

“Yeah, I’d think about it, but there would be a lot of people to talk to about it,” he says.

Whether he sticks to the University of Cincinnati or jumps to the NFL, there are two guarantees with Fletcher.

The first is opposition teams are going to be pinned near their end zones by his huge, accurate boot.

The second guarantee is he’ll be wearing his Tradies.