{"id":234754,"date":"2026-04-16T21:10:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:10:17","slug":"atticus-bertrams-of-australia-is-ucf-knights-new-punter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/234754\/","title":{"rendered":"Atticus Bertrams of Australia is UCF Knights’ new punter"},"content":{"rendered":"

UCF<\/a> punter Atticus Bertrams has always found his greatest joy in sports.<\/p>\n

From the moment he first learned to walk, Bertram\u2019s passion for kicking a ball was evident. With a love of soccer, rugby or football, the left-footer has consistently embraced every opportunity to showcase his skills.<\/p>\n

It was something that just came naturally to Bertrams, particularly growing up in Sydney, Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe easiest way to explain it is that Americans grow up throwing a ball to each other while we grow up kicking one,\u201d Bertrams said with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019ve had a ball on my foot since I could walk. Ask my dad, he was sick of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just something that came really naturally to me. I then made that transition to punting. It\u2019s just a different shape, so I\u2019ve been able to work it out and it\u2019s going pretty well so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits his time at Prokick Australia, a longtime academy that helps develop individuals interested in becoming kickers and punters.<\/p>\n

The organization helps secure college scholarships for its participants, including Max Duffy (USFL), Michael Dickson (Seattle Seahawks) and Mitch Wishnowsky (Buffalo Bills), as well as college punters Tom Hackett (Utah), Tom Hornsey (Memphis) and Alex Mastromanno (FSU).<\/p>\n

Former UCF punter Mitch McCarthy (2022-24) also attended Prokick Australia.<\/p>\n

\"UCFUCF punter Atticus Bertrams participated in a coordination drill during a recent practice during spring camp. Bertrams joined the Knights’ roster after spending the past two seasons at Wisconsin. The Australian grew up with a passion for kicking a ball that followed him into sports such as soccer, rugby and Australian football. (Orlando Sentinel\/Matt Murschel)<\/p>\n

Bertrams ended up at Wisconsin in 2023, where he averaged 42.8 yards on 155 punts in 37 games for the Badgers. After three seasons and seeking more guidance, he decided to seek a new opportunity and entered the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old senior was not a fan of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terrible, but I\u2019m really, really happy with how it all ended up,\u201d said Bertams. \u201cIt was just hectic and it\u2019s uncertain. I like having a plan and when you can\u2019t see two feet in front of you, it can be a bit daunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bertrams recalled flying back to the U.S. in the offseason, arriving in Dallas after a 17-hour flight, looking to make a connecting flight to Wisconsin, only to get a call from his agent as he stepped off the plane.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not even off the jet bridge and my agent called and said, \u2018Don\u2019t get on the plane to Madison. You\u2019re going to Orlando. You\u2019re going to UCF for a visit,’\u201d Bertrams said. \u201cAfter the visit, I got back to Madison, signed everything and moved out of my apartment and moved my whole life down to Florida in three days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bertrams was sold on the Knights after meeting with special teams coordinator Pete Alamar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a real guru of the specialist world,\u201d said Bertrams. \u201cHe\u2019s been around it for so many years and that\u2019s quite rare. I know my time in Wisconsin, it was tough for them to find a coach to help specialists, which is the same in a lot of places, too. It\u2019s just uncommon that you get someone in Alamar\u2019s position that can actually coach a kicker and a punter and a long snapper.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a guy in his last year trying to make a run at, you know, doing this longer past college, I couldn\u2019t ask for a better spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAtticus brings experience. He\u2019s a Big 10 player who has been there, done that,\u201d said Alamar, who was looking to add another punter with the departure of Anthony Venneri, who averaged 40.7 yards on 48 punts last season for the Knights.<\/p>\n

The past two national champions, Indiana (2025-26) and Ohio State (2024-25), both featured Australian punters: Mitch McCarthy for the Hoosiers and Joey McGuire for the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth are friends of mine. So I\u2019ve had two friends win national championships,\u201d said Bertrams. \u201cI\u2019ve seen the rings and they\u2019re nice and big and shiny and cool. It\u2019s awesome. We were training together every day for the best part of three years during COVID, back in Australia. It\u2019s pretty surreal. One day, I\u2019ll step back and think about all these memories that I have from training in a shed to kicking in front of 100,000 people. It\u2019s pretty, pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com<\/a>. Sign up for the Sentinel\u2019s Knights Weekly<\/a> newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF punter Atticus Bertrams has always found his greatest joy in sports. From the moment he first learned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,114,1335,139,141,140,76046,110,3865],"class_list":["post-234754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports","tag-ucf-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}