One-Man Stand

Just over a year ago, Cal State Northridge placekicker Mike Doan was looking for help.

He needed someone to hold for him at any time. What Doan couldn’t find on the sidelines, he did happen across in his family’s welding and pipe-fitting supply store.

Among the alloys and acetylene torches, Doan discovered a pile of discarded metal. From it he fashioned a mechanical replacement for the human finger.

Doan calls it a “weird” gadget that looks like a “big compass,” but in brochures mailed to high school coaches nationwide it is called a “Porta-Football-Holder.”

It props the football upright.

“I like to be alone when I kick,” says Doan, a junior who attended Mater Dei High in Santa Ana. “With the holder, I can practice whenever I want.”