LSU has the moniker of “DBU,” and St. Louis Catholic could be called “PKU,” punter/kicker university.

Through the years the Saints have produced multiple all-state kicking specialists and many have reached the college ranks.

It seems the next one, senior Zachry Sugandi-Truitt, has arrived.

He was the Saints’ kickoff specialist last year, while current McNeese State Cowboy Landon Daughdril handled the rest of the kicking duties. This season he took over all the kicking roles and quickly became a trusted weapon.

In Week 1, he kicked a 42-yard field goal, and he followed that with a near state record last week, a 59-yarder against Class 3A No. 6 Bunkie. Also in that game, he averaged 50.1 yards on seven punts.

He says he doesn’t remember much about the kick. He does remember lining up for the kick, then his teammates congratulating him.

“I don’t really think about it,” Sugandi-Truitt said. “They ask me to go kick, I go kick. 

 “It is really just getting contact through the ball, stay smooth. That’s it. I knew after everyone started celebrating and came up to me and said good job and started slapping my helmet. I didn’t even know if it went in or not.”

The kick was a yard shy of tying the state record of 60 yards set by Ascension Episcopal’s Peyton Woodring, in 2022. Woodring was a 247Sports.com True Freshman All-American last year at the University of Georgia.

The 59-yarder set a school record, putting him at the top of an elite group that includes Joel Thibodeaux (McNeese), who owned the former record of 57 yards in 2000, Thomas O’Dowd (Memphis), Harrison Flynt (Arkansas walk-on), Daughdril, Alex Kjellsten (McNeese), James Bice (McNeese) and Jonathan Keith. Other standout kickers from St. Louis include Ross Thevenot, who was a four-year starter at Tulane, Adam Ieyoub, who walked on at Louisiana-Lafayette and is a special teams intern at Florida, Michael Mack (McNeese) and Kris Albarado (Southern California).

“If you look at our record board of all-state players, it’s mostly punters and kickers,” St. Louis head coach Dustin Nothnagel said. “And it’s Pat Neck,” he said of the onetime McNeese punter. “He has a great way of developing those guys, all from different backgrounds. So I was always looking forward to working with Coach Neck.”

When Nothnagel took over the team before this season, he was instantly impressed with Sugandi-Truitt.

“He gets a lot of one-on-one time with Coach Pat,” Nothnagel said. “It’s in his kicking technique and even in the weight room and how he eats, he’s very detailed. 

“He’s a very technical player so that obviously helps him with his kicks because it’s a very technical position.”

Sugandi-Truitt said he hasn’t received college interest because he was limited to punting last season, but said he is hoping college recruiters will take notice as he keeps pushing the limits. He said he has a walk-on offer from McNeese and an offer from Arkansas-Monticello, a Division II school. He averages 48.4 yards per punt, dropping three inside the 20-yard line, and 57.6 yards per kickoff with 2 of 5 going for touchbacks.

Former teammate Nathan Gray (2024) encouraged Sugandi-Truitt to join the team as a kicker. The first time he suited up in practice, he was pushing 40 yards on field goals with minimal lessons.

“I was working out with this guy, Nathan Gray. He was on the football team at the time during the summer,” Sugandi-Truitt said. “And I was talking to him, I told him I might want to be a kicker or a punter. 

“And he was like, ‘Yeah, St. Louis needs a kicker and a punter.’ He told me to talk to Coach Neck, and the next day that’s what I did. They got my gear and everything, and I just went out to practice.”

Neck, the Saints’ athletic director, said Sugandi-Truitt was quite raw when he showed up as a freshman in 2021. He had never played football before that.

“He wasn’t very refined, but he may be the hardest worker we’ve ever coached,” Neck said.

But his attention to every detail allowed him to quickly take in all the instructions from Neck, who even had to hide the ball bag sometimes to force him to give his leg a rest.

“He’ll kick 365 days a year if you let him,” Neck said. “And then there are certain times a year where we don’t want to kick that much, not that many reps in a day or in a week or whatever. 

“He’s really worked his butt off to get to this point where he is right now.”