Former Bowling Green High School place kicker Ethan Warner says his ambition someday is to be an entrepreneur, so he likes to think out of the box.

When Warner decided to continue his kicking duties and major in pre-accounting at Bowling Green State University, it did not surprise many, including himself.

“My whole family lives pretty much around here, either in the Findlay area, or right here in BG,” said the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Warner.

“Honestly, I’ve been coming out to these stadiums, to these fields all my life, you know, and to be here with all the team, practicing with them, is great.”

Warner, who was a second team All-Northern Lakes League kicker as a junior and third team All-NLL as a senior, earned nine letters at BGHS, including four in football. He also lettered in track and soccer.

“At BGHS, I was always the starting kicker, so every year I was able to kick and doing that, I felt pride doing that because that was my job,” Warner said.

“Everything I did there was for my brothers there — all those people, I still talk to them. It’s really a great opportunity that I had to be able to kick for them.”

Warner rarely missed point after conversions for coach Josh Wade and former coach Dirk Conner, now at Perrysburg, but his favorite high school gridiron memory was the two tackles he made in one game his freshman season.

“There was one game where I was kicking off and I had two tackles that game,” Warner said. “I remember way more than I probably should have, but when they don’t block the kicker, I can just run straight down and go right at them, and that was fun.”

His kicking abilities helped lead the Bobcats to the state playoffs in 2018 and 2020. After graduation in 2022, he was redshirted by BGSU last year, so he has no collegiate game experience yet. But he’s working on it.

“My plan is really to stay at BG, there are a lot of opportunities open,” Warner said. “There is a junior, sophomore, me, and then a new guy coming in, and nobody really has the job yet. I can do kickoffs and field goals, but my goal is for next year just to start at one position.”

His role models are also kickers, with his favorite athlete listed as Justin Tucker, who kicked a 66-yard game-winning field goal for the Baltimore Ravens, the longest in NFL history.

Even with competition coming from highly recruited placekickers from across the country at BGSU, he says the group is united toward one goal this fall — winning football games. Plus, they learn from each other with that goal in mind.

“The whole team — all the specialists are really supportive,” Warner said. “Every time I do something wrong, they are always pointing it out.

“The whole experience, from what I can tell, is a lot better than a lot of other places. You get treated better than at a lot of other colleges and being able to play for my hometown is great.”