Tech’s Punter From Down Under

Tennessee Tech’s freshman Spencer Ashby is not your average punter.

The Australian native has had a unique journey to becoming a Golden Eagle. Ashby is from Geelong, Australia and grew up playing Australian rules football. There, he met Tom Hornsby, an Australian punter that played at the University of Memphis. Ashby said playing American football was not on his radar before meeting and talking with Hornsby.

“Not back home, I probably would not have played back home,” Ashby said. “We do have some leagues but they’re not really something that people go and watch and people aspire for. It’s not in anyone’s goals to go and play for the Geelong Buccaneers.”

Ashby trained under Hornsby at Pro Kicking Australia and last year visited America for the first time to attend punting camps at a few Texas universities. He said nothing came from the Texas trip, but eventually his punting reel made its way to Cookeville.

“Nathan Chapman, who works out of Melbourne as the head coach of Pro Kick Australia, had a message from him saying ‘are you interested in Tennessee Tech?’,” Ashby said. “So, I looked it up and I liked what I saw. I just said ‘yep, I’m interested for sure, let’s get it done’.”

Ashby moved to America last Spring and said he is enjoying Cookeville, but misses parts of his native Australia.

“It’s different, like I miss the beach obviously,” Ashby said. “I miss my friends and family but I’m really lucky to live the life that I live now. I play football to pay my bills and I get to go through my life playing football which is pretty cool.”

In his first collegiate game ever against MTSU, Ashby punted four times, averaging 38.8 yards and downed two inside the Blue Raiders 20-yard-line. This performance was good enough to earn Big South/OVC freshman of the week honors.

Ashby said the first two weeks were good, but has been underwhelmed with his performance in their two outings versus Tennessee State and Gardner-Webb.

“I think those two might’ve killed my stats a little bit,” Ashby said. “Just because I didn’t perform as well as I would’ve hoped. But this week I did okay, so I would have liked to play better those two games, but that’s alright. We’ll just have to build on the rest of the year.”