Getting noticed playing football had always been tough for Josh Whiteside.

That was until a couple of friends noticed how strong his kicking leg was during pickup games and encouraged him to try out for kicker on the Upper St. Clair High School team.

Now entering his fourth season kicking for Allegheny College, Whiteside is finding it a lot easier to get noticed. He has been named to the D3football.com preseason All-American team and Lindy's Football Magazine Division III preseason first team.

Not bad for a kid who did not start playing football until his senior year of high school. After two years of soccer and track, then taking his junior year off from sports -- which he regrets -- Whiteside tried out for an Upper St. Clair team that had two kickers graduate.

He made the team, and his first varsity game was an adventure. In the 2003 opener against Erie McDowell, Whiteside did the last thing he expected to be doing: tackling the kick returner. Twice.

"My very first kickoff, I ended up tackling the guy," Whiteside said. "Then he did it again later in the game. My mom almost had a heart attack because I told her I wasn't going to be tackling,"

History repeated itself at Allegheny, where his first kickoff was fielded by "Touchdown" Tony Sutton of the College of Wooster. This time, Whiteside did not track him down. Sutton went the distance.

Upper St. Clair lost only once in Whiteside's single season, to Central Catholic in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game.

A number of games during that 12-0 start were romps, enabling Whiteside to focus on drilling extra point after extra point while avoiding pressure-packed field-goal tries.

All of that changed in the WPIAL playoffs, when Whiteside's extra points became critical in three playoff victories decided by a total of 13 points. His extra point and 24-yard field goal in the title game did not affect the final outcome, as Central Catholic won, 42-10. But he still had a chance to kick at Heinz Field.

"It was gorgeous out. It was a perfect night and it wasn't that hard kicking into the open end of Heinz Field," Whiteside said.

In his junior year at Allegheny, Whiteside was 6 of 7 kicking field goals (85.7 percent) to lead the North Coast Athletic Conference and was 37 of 40 kicking extra points.

The longest field goal of his career came in the worst playing conditions of his career. Against Ohio Wesleyan last season in late October, Whiteside made a field goal from 47 yards, the third-longest in school history.

"It was pretty horrendous weather," Whiteside said. "It was windy, there was rain and snow, and it was just awful. It was freezing too. You couldn't feel your feet and the holder couldn't feel his hands.

"I had missed an extra point earlier in that game, and for coach to send me back out there, it shows that he has some confidence in me. I'm glad he gave me the opportunity because playing Division III football, when you get that far back there, it's usually punting time."

This will be Whiteside's fourth year starting for the Gators. His freshman year, he just handled the kickoffs and current punter Jason Black did the place-kicking. After dealing with groin injuries his first two seasons, Whiteside was able to play the entire 10-game season last year injury-free.

Summer camp will open Saturday for the Gators and the season will begin Sept. 1 against Westminster College at home.

Whiteside has since moved to Murrysville and practices his kicking at the Franklin Regional High School field.

He is going to Allegheny on a leadership scholarship and majors in economics with a minor in biology.