Rene Paredes during a game on July 22, 2017 (Photo by Angela Burger)
“It’s up.
“It’s good.”
More often than not, that’s been the call when Rene Paredes takes aim.
With a pair of field goals in Friday’s game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the seven-year veteran notched his 50th three-pointer of the season.
“It means I’m getting a lot of attempts,” joked Paredes.
“That’s the third time in my career I hit 50, so that’s a good accomplishment. It just means I’m doing my job well, so I just want to keep that up.”
In the franchise’s history, only two other kickers have reached that plateau — Mark McLoughlin and Sandro DeAngelis, who each accomplished the feat twice.
Paredes is currently in his seventh season with the Stamps (Photo by Angela Burger)
Since joining the team in 2011, Paredes has been a consistent kicker for the Stamps, knocking home big kick after big kick for his club.
“It’s kind of who he is,” said special-teams coordinator Mark Kilam. “He’s done that since he’s been here. In his first game ever, he hit a 50-yarder. He comes to work each week and he does a good job of preparing himself and that’s what you’re seeing.”
The 32-year old kicker out of Concordia University has put up at least 33 successful field goals in each of his seasons with the Red and White, with a high of 56, which he set in 2016.
On three occasions, he’s finished a season with a field-goal percentage above 90. His career rate of 86.8 per cent puts him at the top of the CFL record books, just ahead of Winnipeg Blue Bombers kicker Justin Medlock (85.7).
“It’s just working hard, practising and worrying about the next kick,” said Paredes. “I don’t worry about the other stuff; I just take it one kick at a time. All of those numbers take care of themselves as long as I do my job.”
Paredes set a CFL record with 39 consecutive regular-season field goals in 2013 (Photo by Angela Burger)
Consistency is key for kickers and having a solid relationship and system with your long snapper and holder is very important.
Paredes has seen that group change over the years, but he’s adjusted just fine with each group because of his mindset and work ethic.
“Different holders, different snappers, it does take some time to get used to different people,” Kilam said. “Both P.L. and Buck (long snapper Pierre-Luc Caron and holder Andrew Buckley) are doing a good job and those guys have a nice fluid operation together and that’s part of the results.”
“I take the same approach every kick,” said Paredes. “Whether it’s an extra point or a game-winning field goal. I do my routines before every kick and it’s been working. At the end of the day, I just want to keep working hard and scoring points for the team.”