CHAPEL HILL, N.C. _ About the only things Tom Sheldon knew about North Carolina were that Michael Jordan played basketball there and that in football the Tar Heels, in his words, "had a good season last year." that was it.
"I couldn't have told you whereabouts in America it was or anything," Sheldon, an Australian native who has been in America for a little more than one month, said this week. "I had to jump on Google and learn a bit about it pretty quickly."
Sheldon had just finished another UNC football practice. He was days removed from his first college football game, his debut as the Tar Heels' 27-year-old freshman starting punter.
It had been, Sheldon said, "a crazy" time. The crowd, 75,000 strong. The energy and the noise, the people screaming and the bands blaring. Back home he'd never experienced anything like what he encountered at the Georgia Dome on Saturday during UNC's 33-24 loss to Georgia.
"It was crazy," Sheldon said again, his Australian accent thick. "It's funny how, like, even the simple things _ like just catching a snap, when you're in front of 75,000 (people), that becomes a challenge. Because all of a sudden it doesn't seem as easy as what it does when you're just at practice."
At UNC, at least, Sheldon is unique. There isn't another 27-year-old Australian freshman punter roaming the campus. In college football, though, he is another in a long line of Australians who have come to the United States to become punters.
Many of them began their journey where Sheldon started his: at Prokick Australia, which, according to its website "was established in 2006 to facilitate in the transition of aspiring kickers and punters to the grand stage of American football."
The "American football" part is important, given Australia has its own version of the sport. Sheldon grew up playing Australian rules football, which resembles the American version, in some respects, but includes significantly more kicking _ or punting, as it translates to the American game.
That's why Australian punters have become coveted commodities among American college football coaches _ because so many grow up punting while playing Australian rules football. It's different in America, where punting, as it relates to football, is more of a specialty.
"He's been punting the ball 27 years," Nick Weiler, the UNC placekicker, said of the 6-3, 200-pound Sheldon. The two have become close friends. "I hope he can punt it well."
In Australian rules football, players punt on the run, often while trying to dodge the opposition. That was one of the immediate differences Sheldon noticed during his training and after he arrived at UNC.
"You can really only do your job or not do your job here," Sheldon said. "Back home, the game was a lot of running around and some guys would sort of run 10 miles in a game. And now I'm probably running 100 yards in a game."
