Mason Gann, the Tift County Blue Devils’ 5’10,” 155-pound punter, has played football all his life. In fact, he says he can’t remember a time when he didn’t play. It’s something that has been with him his whole life and one of his true passions. Every time he steps on the field, he enjoys the moment maybe more than anyone else out there. It’s something he doesn’t take for granted and he wants to do whatever he can to help his team win.
Mason Gann isn’t supposed to be playing football. He’s lucky to be walking, much less running and, of all things, kicking. Gann was born with a right clubfoot. The outside of his foot was facing downward and the bottom was turned in, almost like the face of a golf club. Clubfoot is one of the most common birth defects and is usually treated fairly successfully. But playing sports? Kicking?
Mason Gann was born just after 11 a.m. He was met with all the fanfare that comes with being the first born. It didn’t take long, however, for everyone in the room to notice that something was dreadfully wrong with his right foot. Everyone, that is, except for his mother, Amelia. Gann’s foot was turned 90 degrees to his leg. There was obviously something wrong with it, but Amelia didn’t notice it until about 4 p.m. “There was the initial shock of ‘there’s something wrong with my baby and nobody told me’. But we weren’t going to let it be a deterrent to anything he wanted to do,” she said.
Almost immediately, doctors went to work. Dr. Robert Tuten was Gann’s primary physician and to this day, though he now lives in Virginia, he still sees Gann on a regular basis. At four months old, doctors stretched Gann’s foot and placed him in a foot to hip cast for five months. “It was tough watching him suffer when they did that,” says Amelia Gann. “That wasn’t easy.” After six months in the cast, doctors gave Gann a one-month respite. Then he underwent an operation to further correct the abnormality. Gann was back in a cast until he was two years old. “My mom kept him when he was a baby and she carried him as much as she could. But he learned to crawl, dragging that cast behind him,” Amelia said.
The Ganns were told not to place any restrictions on their son and to let him do whatever he wanted to. Dr. Tuten told them to let him try whatever he wanted to try. If it became uncomfortable, he would stop. If he enjoyed it, he would keep pursuing whatever activity it was. Gann grew up playing just about everything he could. Though he was under constant doctor’s care, the foot never kept him from playing any sport.
Gann eventually settled upon soccer. That was his sport of choice for many years. In middle school, when he went out for the 
football team, he wasn’t the biggest or most physical kid on the field. He knew he would have to find a niche to make the team. As luck would have it, the team needed a punter. “Because of soccer, I always gravitated toward the kicking game. I really wanted to be a placekicker but I found out I was better at punting,” he said.
But just because Gann seemingly overcame his abnormality early in life doesn’t mean that everything went off without a hitch. He still had obstacles to overcome. For instance, punters kick with their kicking foot extended. Gann, however, can’t extend his right foot – the one with which he punts. He is a very flexible young man, but his right foot is extremely inflexible. Gann had to make several adjustments in his technique to be able to punt. A number of coaches and instructors have helped him over the years, most notably Andy Gibbs, a former punter at Valdosta State University and owner of Top Recruit Kicking. Kohl’s Kicking Camp has also been instrumental in helping develop Gann’s unique style.
“My coaches have worked with me on my grip and how I drop the ball. I have to hold the ball flat when I let it go,” he said. “It’s taken a lot of work over the years and a lot of tweaking to find a technique that works.”
And does it ever work. Gann has earned the respect of his coaches and his teammates because, quite simply, he can punt. Last year, he averaged 40 yards per punt with a 3.8 to 4.1 second hang time. And in the last game of the 2013 season against Brunswick, he boomed a 59-yarder late in the game. This year, he’s averaging over 43 yards per punt for the Blue Devils and, at the time of this writing, has one 50-yarder to his credit.
Mason Gann has done everything any “normal” teenager would do. Looking at him, you would never know the problems he has had with his foot. But when he trots on the field, if you listen closely to the student section, you might figure out something about him is different. Gann’s friends call him Gimp, and when he runs out on the field to kick, he is greeted with shouts of “Gimp! Gimp! Gimp!” from the student section. “Yeah, that’s what they call me,” he laughs. “It doesn’t bother me. I embrace it.”
In addition, Gann is an excellent student. He holds a 3.89 grade point average and is ranked 17th in his graduating class. Gann is a Georgia Certificate of Merit recipient and plans to become a civil engineer. That is, after he plays a few years of college football. “I’d love to play in college. If I don’t get to, I’ll go to ABAC and then transfer after two years. But I’ve visited Mercer and I’ve talked to Kennesaw State. Maybe it will happen,” he said.
No matter what happens, he won’t let his foot get in the way of his future plans. Sure, it hurts some days after practice. But he’s never made any excuses and he won’t make any going forward.
“My parents didn’t know what to expect they saw it. But it’s never been in the way and I’ve never thought I was different at all,” he said.
Mason Gann has done everything any “normal” teenager would do. Looking at him, you would never know the problems he has had with his foot. But when he trots on the field, if you listen closely to the student section, you might figure out something about him is different. Gann’s friends call him Gimp, and when he runs out on the field to kick, he is greeted with shouts of “Gimp! Gimp! Gimp!” from the student section. “Yeah, that’s what they call me,” he laughs. “It doesn’t bother me. I embrace it.”
Special Feature/South Georgia/October 2014
Tift County punter overcomes the odds to earn a starting spot
Robert Preston Jr.
