BANGOR – As Tyson Barron prepares to kick a field goal, he thinks about many things.

There’s the weather, and which way the wind is blowing and how hard, or whether it’s raining or snowing. There’s the field conditions, and whether the ground is solid where his plant foot is about to land, or how slick is the approach to the ball. There’s his kicking mechanics, and the need to do things the same way each time.

There’s just one thing he doesn’t want to know.

“My trick is I never want to know how far back the ball is, I never want to know if it’s 38 yards or 50,” said Barron, a Bangor High School senior. “It’s all mechanics, and I have to do it the same way every single time. So I don’t ask, I don’t even think about it, I just go out and try to kick with same mechanics every time.”

Barron earned All-Pine Tree Conference Class A first-team recognition as a first-time varsity kicker for the Rams last fall. He booted three field goals during the regular season, including a 37-yarder amid sloppy conditions that produced the only points in Bangor’s 3-0 victory over Mt. Blue of Farmington.

He also kicked field goals of 20 and 38 yards in Bangor’s 29-19 state championship game loss to Bonny Eagle of Standish, and missed a 44-yard attempt by just a yard.

“Coach [Mark Hackett] always tells me not to overkick it or the ball will go to the left because that’s the way my leg swings through,” said Barron. “I just did more of a chip looking more for accuracy than strength, and I guess I didn’t quite put enough on it.”

Barron also contributed to Bangor’s 10-2 season in 2004 with long and well-placed kickoffs, which routinely left opposing teams facing a long field as they attempted to score on the Bangor defense.

“One of the teams we played had a returner that ran it back a lot of times, and they told me to kick it to the other guys so I did,” said Barron. “Sometimes it’s placement where I just kick a chip shot past 10 yards and we try to go and get it, and sometimes it’s just kicking it long.”

Barron, who played freshman football at Bangor before switching to soccer as a sophomore, figures to be even more of a weapon for the Rams this fall, in part because of his own preparation.

“Last summer I didn’t do anything because I was new at it,” said Barron, who also plays flanker. “This summer I worked a lot on my legs, doing a lot of squats to build up my leg power. I’ve noticed a big difference. I hit a 45-yarder today, and it seems like nothing. I definitely notice the difference.”

His ability to hit middle- and long-distance field goals provides Hackett and the Bangor coaching staff a luxury not shared by many rivals. Take a situation in which the Rams have the ball at the 20-yard-line, and it’s fourth-and-8. They can either go for the first down, as many teams do, or send Barron out to kick a 37-yard field goal – which is well within his reach.

“The big thing for us as coaches is that he adds a dimension to the game a lot of teams don’t have,” Hackett said. “When you have someone like Tyson, you have to do more coaching, and the team playing against us has to do more coaching, too.”