By Garrett Mitchell, Staff Writer
garrett@thewoodrufftimes.com
Hang around the Woodruff football team long enough, and you will hear the name “Mr. Automatic.”
Watch Diego Tranquilino kick a football on Friday nights, and you will know exactly who that nickname belongs to.
From Soccer to Woodruff Football
Diego started kicking four years ago, in eighth grade, adding football to his athletic repertoire that previously consisted of just soccer. In less than four years, he has cemented himself as the Wolverines’ starting placekicker, and in doing so, Tranquilino is beginning to rewrite the Wolverines’ record book.
At first, Diego was unsure if he wanted to play football but decided to give the sport a try just for fun at the insistence of the coaching staff. It turned out to be a fateful decision.
“I got into football when I was in middle school, in eighth grade, and a coach told me to go out and kick,” explained Diego. “I didn’t want to, to be honest. But I tried it out and thought, this is fun. I was decent at it. I think I like football. Ever since that day, I have played football.”
Tranquilino quickly developed a natural affinity for place-kicking. While he did not possess the most powerful leg as a middle schooler, it was an acutely accurate one. He rarely missed on point-after attempts, and by his freshman season, he was named the starting kicker for the Wolverines’ junior varsity team, where he continued to excel.
Becoming “Mr. Automatic”
As a sophomore in 2025, during the season’s first game, Diego was called on for the first time to kick in a varsity contest. Against rival Clinton, Tranquilino kicked his first point-after-touchdown try on Woodruff’s second possession. The job has been his ever since.
He finished the 2025 season making 55 of his 56 point-after kicks. His only miss was blocked.
“I was happy when the coaches told me to go out and kick,” Tranquilino stated. “I wanted to show them what I could do, and ever since I got the spot. I just stay calm and focused and aim the ball where I want to kick it.”
Woodruff kicking coach Taylor Green, himself one of the most legendary placekickers in program history, knew from the start that he had a potential star in the making. As time went by, he came up with Diego’s dubious moniker, too.
“I call him ‘Mr. Automatic,’” he said. “Every time he goes into the game, I feel like we’re guaranteed points. I have a lot of confidence in him, and with his creativity on kickoffs, he gives us a lot of different options that really help us as a team.”
Tranquilino has added even more versatility to his game as a junior, as alluded to by Coach Green. So far, through two games, he has already made all seven of his PAT attempts.
If you attend a Woodruff game, you often see Diego boot the ball short on kickoffs. The reason is that Tranquilino can effortlessly drive the ball off his foot at nearly any angle, with lethal accuracy. It has already paid off, with the Wolverines recovering multiple onside kicks thanks to the custom-made bounces he is able to create.
A Record-Setting 48-Yard Field Goal
Diego set the single-season record for PAT percentage as a sophomore. He is on pace to shatter the marks for career point-after makes and percentage, too. However, it was one attempt in Woodruff’s second game against Fountain Inn that cemented his status as an all-time great Wolverine kicker.
With Woodruff stalled at Fountain Inn’s 31-yard line, trailing 13-12 late in the second quarter, head coach Brett Sloan asked Tranquilino to kick a 48-yard field goal. His career long, to that point, had been 35 yards.
Diego got off a booming kick that split the uprights with plenty to spare, setting a new school record that eclipsed the old mark of 46 yards held by three former players, his own kicking coach being one of them.
“I tell him the same thing every time he goes out there to kick: ‘Go out there and have fun. I believe in you no matter what,’” Coach Green said. “He’s worked hard to get to this point, and I just want him to trust himself, his preparation, and enjoy the moment.”
Coach Sloan sees the effort and work ethic that Diego possesses and shares the same confidence that no kick is too big for the young man who decided one day he would just give football a try for the heck of it.
“Diego is a great kid,” said Sloan. “He has been incredibly consistent since his freshman season. He is almost automatic from 30 yards and in, and he is starting to develop the leg strength to be dangerous from even further out.”
After his record-setting field goal, that part goes without saying.
Letting His Leg Do the Talking
As for Tranquilino, he admits he knew the kick was good when it came off his right foot, but the feeling was a special one for the soft-spoken young man who usually lets his leg do the talking for him.
“I was like, I have to make it and do my job,” Diego said. “The offense does its job, the defense does its job, and I know in a game I might only get one kick. I had to show them what I can do. It was special. When it came off my foot, I felt the contact, and I knew it was going through.”
Ultimately, Tranquilino’s coaches and teammates have the utmost confidence that anytime he comes onto the field, the Wolverines will score points. That knowledge, said Diego, gives him the confidence in turn to keep making kicks.
“It means a lot knowing the team depends on me.”
