The extra point is the most taken-for-granted point in all of sports. But it wasn’t for Nick Immekus on Sept. 19, 2008. In front of the home crowd on a Friday night, Immekus watched his Wheaton Warrenville South High School teammates drive the length of the field for a touchdown to cut Glenbard North’s lead to 14-13 with less than five minutes remaining. Immekus, a junior, trotted onto the field to attempt the point after.

His kick was blocked.

Immekus walked back to the sideline amid a hushed crowd. Glenbard North and quarterback Evan Watkins, a future Northwestern Wildcat, retained possession with the lead. Immekus watched from the bench along with Tigers backup quarterback Reilly O’Toole as the Wheaton Warrenville South defense came up with a stop, forcing Glenbard North to punt. 

The Tigers took over with just under a minute left and drove 48 yards to pull within field goal range with 1.9 seconds on the clock. Immekus had a second chance. Only this time it was more than 45 yards from the goal post. Immekus promptly walked onto the field and knocked the ball through the uprights, giving his undefeated Tigers a 16-14 victory.

“That was the turning point of my kicking career,” Immekus said. “I put it through, and I was like, ‘All right, maybe I can do something with this.’”

And Immekus has done something with his abilities. He’s now a third-year sophomore kicker for the Illinois football team, sharing duties with redshirt freshman Taylor Zalewski. O’Toole, who now backs up Nathan Scheelhaase as quarterback for the Illini, remembers Immekus’ game-winning kick.

“That was crazy,” O’Toole said. “I was a spectator the whole time, played on the JV team. That was a fun game. It was a big game, and it was pretty much a miraculous win.”

It wasn’t Immekus’ only big kick during high school. One year later, with O’Toole at the helm of the offense, the Tigers won the state championship over Glenbard West in double overtime, with Immekus hitting a 7A championship game-record 47-yard field goal.

In their first years at Illinois, Immekus and Zalewski did little except spectate. But there was no one better to watch and learn from than Derek Dimke, the most accurate kicker in Illinois history. Dimke, a finalist for the Lou Groza Award for the best kicker in the nation his junior year, finished his career at Illinois 39-for-46 on field goal attempts and a perfect 89-for-89 on extra point attempts.

“He was a great role model, great mentor,” Immekus said. “He helped me out with a lot of things. I feel like the biggest thing is the mental aspect of the game because to be a kicker, you only have one shot to be out there. The mental part of it has to be top-notch.”

In April, Dimke was signed by the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agent. His stay with the Lions was short. The team cut him before the regular season, but it didn’t come as much of a surprise because the Lions have one of the most experienced NFL kickers in Jason Hanson.

In the absence of Dimke, Immekus and Zalewski have finally been given a chance to prove themselves. Immekus won placekicking duties coming out of Camp Rantoul, but a leg injury against Charleston Southern sidelined him for five games. With the Illinois offense as stagnant as it has been in 2012, neither kicker has had many opportunities. In a 45-0 loss to Michigan on Oct. 13, Zalewski was needed for just one kickoff.

“It is what it is,” Zalewski said. “You have to be ready to get on the field. You’ve got to stay into the game. It’s still great being out there.”

Since returning from Lions training camp, Dimke, who is from Rockford, Ill., has been staying in the Champaign area. When Illinois had its bye week following the loss to Michigan, Immekus and Zalewski had a chance to work out with Dimke.

For the kickers, football practice consists of exactly what one would guess: kicking. Zalewski said the kickers will spend as much as an hour and a half each day just working on their kicking. The Monday after the Michigan game, Immekus and Zalewski spent two full hours working with Dimke.

“We worked on our form,” Zalewski said. “A lot of it is swing-trough’s without the ball and shorter kicks from the sidelines, doing sharp angles and stuff. A lot of it’s the technical stuff.” 

Immekus and Zalewski got their start, like most kickers, in soccer. At 6-feet, 220 pounds, Immekus certainly looks like he was built for football.

“I was a bigger guy in soccer, bigger than a lot of the other kids,” he said. “So it was hard for me to keep up. All my best friends from middle school played football, so I wanted to go out and play with them.”

The recruiting process is not the same for kickers as for other positions. Kickers have fewer chances to show off their talents than other position players. Kicking camps play a large role in getting a kicker noticed by recruiters. Camps usually consist of anywhere from 100 to 200 high school attendees. They do field goal kicking and other types of kicking competitions, but everything is charted and every kicker is rated. The best kickers names are given to college scouts.

“I went to a few camps and was ranked pretty high coming out of them,” Zalewski said. “That’s when you start getting some phone calls and then you start thinking, ‘Maybe this will work.’”

Zalewski doesn’t have any game-winners on his resume like Immekus. During his freshman year at Carl Sandburg High School he did hit a go-ahead field goal with 10 seconds left against Bolingbrook. But the ensuing kickoff was returned for a touchdown.

Immekus said he has made field goals from as far as 59 yards in practice, while Zalewski claimed to have hit one from 65 or 66 yards. Immekus, who rooms with long snapper Zak Pedersen, said they all have a pretty good relationship. But he’s quick to clarify that they also hang out with guys on the team who “actually play.” And although they like to joke around, they know when it’s time to get down to business.

“There’s a lot of competition,” Immekus said. “We’re all trying to push each other to become the best that we can be.”

And at a perfect 6-for-6 on the season, the Illini kickers know how important the extra point can be.

Sean can be reached at sphammo2@ dailyillini.com and @sean_hammond.