After thousands of two-lane miles, dozens of lost clipboards, hundreds of exploded and frozen tri-colored pens and too many years covering high school football, it’s refreshing to look around and see how everything about the game has improved.

Start with more teams. Our communities have added 20 of them in 20 years, or just enough to effectively force the hand of the Maine Principals’ Association and revive a fourth class.

The passing game has evolved, making the game more fun to watch and play. Coaches spend the offseason watching videos and reading books to school themselves, then teach the fine art of the spread or run-and-shoot offense in summer seven-on-seven leagues.

That hints at the enhanced commitment from everyone. There is no football offseason. Soon-to-be senior captains coax their teammates into the weight room the Monday after playoff elimination in November. Players of all ages attend camps at the University of Maine, Boston College, Bates College and all points between.

Let’s see, what else? Oh, why, there’s the kicking game.

Ummmm, yeah.

I suppose it’s good to remind ourselves that we can’t have it all. Some reminders are more gruesome to watch than others, though.

This is where I’d love to tell you that kicking and punting have stood pat and not gotten glaringly worse. But through four weeks, half a season for teams not bound for the playoffs, 2010 has been Boot Hill.

Never have I seen more extra point attempts shanked, hooked or line-driven into the left tackle’s backside. Never have I watched more unintentional squib kicks when the situation calls for something, anything but.

Never have I witnessed so many snaps sail over a punter’s head or kill so many ants on the way to his feet.

Rarely if ever have I watched so many coaches throw two fingers in the air the nanosecond his runner or receiver crosses the plane.

At least two pivotal early-season games have been settled by an ill-fated two-point conversion try. Brunswick beat Edward Little, 21-20, on the first Friday night of the season. Last Saturday, Dirigo survived Jay, 7-6.

In both cases, the eventual losing team wielded all the fourth-quarter momentum, culminating in a would-be tying touchdown.

Each time, the coach went for two. Both attempts failed, and time ran out on the respective comebacks.

You can’t fault Dave Sterling of Edward Little or Mark Bonnevie of Jay for pulling a page from Tom Osborne’s 1984 Orange Bowl playbook and trying for the win.

Everything was going their teams’ way. The Red Eddies and Tigers both moved the ball almost at will on a short field. Passing or punching it in from three yards away was roughly a 50-50 proposition.

Kicking it and playing for overtime? Based on what Sterling and Bonnevie (and Whitehouse and Oakes) have seen every weekend of their coaching/writing careers, probably 40-60. Factor in the frayed nerves of snapper, holder and kicker in that make-it-or-else environment and it drops to 25-75.

We wonder why, and rightfully s0. All NFL kickers not named Garrett Hartley or Sebastian Janikowski make extra points and field goal attempts from the 20-to-39-yard range appear automatic. So do most Division I college kickers.

Perhaps I just answered the question. Those guys all collect either a check with five or six zeroes or free tuition, books, room and board and meals to do their jobs.

Your high school’s kicker/punter is usually either the quarterback, tight end or lineman with the strongest leg, with no other obvious qualifications.

He is by no means a specialist. But a quick look at the history books makes you wonder why more schools don’t at least try to go that route.

Dirigo borrowed Eric Bolduc from its soccer team in 2008 and ’09, and he was a big reason the Cougars won a state championship last fall. In its heyday of winning the Class A state title every eight seconds in the early 1990s, Biddeford took the same approach.

I cannot possibly overestimate what an advantage it is for a good team to make all its extra points and make its opponent start almost every drive from the 20-yard line. It’s worth two touchdowns per game, minimum.

Other than Dirigo and Livermore Falls, though, I haven’t seen many other local football coaches recently go the soccer route. It’s not always easy to agree on who gets priority. And there’s the matter of the accurate snap and hold, neither of which are a given when we’re talking about high school kids.

What I do see — other than atrocious kicking as an almost universal rule — is a lot of down time almost every occasion I’m privy to a practice. You’d think that setting aside three players for five, 10, maybe 15 minutes on Monday or Tuesday afternoon would pay dividends in the form of split uprights on Friday night.

Or least, in this era of the game evolving in every other area, get the success rate up to 60-40, for crying out loud.

Kalle Oakes is a staff columnist. He’s kicked a few tires and golf balls in his day, but that’s about it.