Haynesville is known for championship-winning football and a long list of talented, hard-nosed players — often in the trenches and often going both ways — who have helped lead those charges.
Prolific specialists haven’t necessarily been the Golden Tornado’s first standouts pictured, but Eli Bray has been as good as any in the program’s proud history with a big, booming leg that earned LSWA all-state selections as both a punter and kicker and starred in his role on this season’s Division-IV Non-Select championship run.
For his performance, Bray has been voted as Louisiana vs. All Y’all’s first Drew Alleman Kicker/Punter of the Year to wrap up his decorated senior season as he heads to McNeese State for college.
“We’ve had a couple of good kickers in the past, but he’s probably the best one we’ve had, I’m sure,” Haynesville coach David Franklin said. “Our past kickers were our quarterback or a receiver or something else, but he’s a kicker-kicker … and he’s good at it because he spent a lot of time doing it and working at it. He’s gone to a lot of camps and been taught a lot. There’s a reason for it.”
Bray was an all-state candidate as both a punter and a kicker each of the past two years, earning selections as the Class 1A punter in 2024 and Class 1A kicker in 2025.
This season, he hit 11 of his 15 field-goal attempts, including a 50-yarder, and 72 of his 79 extra-point attempts and averaged 43.2 yards per punt, including a 38.1-yard net that was a testament to his both hang time and his team’s coverage.
And his coach said Bray’s control of field position in the often-overlooked kickoff game may have been his biggest impact of all in Haynesville’s undefeated season and first title since 2014.
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“Of course he could do all of it, and he was really good,” Franklin said. “He didn’t get a lot of punts, but when he did punt he was probably a better punter than he is a kicker. Just in warmups sometimes, he’s kicking the ball from the 50 and it’s going out of the stadium. So he’s a really good punter.
“But I think the asset he was to us, probably the biggest thing was just the kickoffs. We did have a couple of kickoffs returned on us this year, but the biggest thing for us was knowing that 90% of the time your opponent was going to start inside the 20 or at the 20, and that’s a big deal and played a big part in the final game too. When you’ve got a weapon like that, it makes a big difference when you’re always making the opposing team play offense on a long field.”
Other finalists for Louisiana vs. All Y’all’s inaugural Drew Alleman Kicker/Punter of the Year included St. Charles Catholic kicker Tyler Milioto, C.E. Byrd kicker Asher Murray, Ouachita Christian kicker/punter Gavin Polk and Westminster Christian-Opelousas kicker/punter Mac Proffitt.
The award is named for former Acadiana and LSU star Drew Alleman, who was a starting kicker for three straight Wreckin’ Rams title-game appearances and considered one of the nation’s best during his 2007-08 senior year.
Alleman sealed Acadiana’s 2006 state championship with a 32-yard field goal as time expired to lift his team past Sulphur, 13-10, in the Superdome.
He earned LSWA Class 5A all-state recognition as a senior in 2007 as he converted six of his nine field-goal attempts and 61 of his 63 extra-point opportunities, put 56 of his 61 kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks and averaged 42 yards on his 11 punts.
Alleman spent five years at LSU, the final two seasons as the Tigers’ starting placekicker, a role in which he climbed his way up the program record books in field goals made (37, No. 7) and attempted (47, No. 10), field-goal percentage (78.7%, No. 5) and consecutive extra-points made (106, No. 4).
He scored all nine LSU points, including the overtime game-winner, in the 9-6 “Game of the Century” at No. 2 Alabama in 2011 and became the first players in program history to score 100 points in back-to-back seasons in 2011 and 2012.
