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I agree with yankeesfan, iceman70, and Smiley. In NFHS, a kicker is defined solely by whether or not he made a legal kick. IE, if he intentially (and LEGALLY) kicks the ball, he is a kicker, and is afforded protection, regardless of what happens before then.
However, the rules DO allow for an exception if it was not "reasonably certain that a kick would be made". Thus, if the ball is dropped, snapped over his head, etc, the referee should consider whether the defense could have known a kick was going to be made, and rule accordingly.
I've actually had this happen to me a few times, and I've thrown the flag a few times, because in my judgment, the kicker started making his motion to kick reasonably before the defense "got there", the kick was made, and then after that, the kicker was clobbered. In my opinion, the defense DID have the opportunity to tell that he was going to kick, and should have played it as such. Usually, when I've flagged the defense, it's partly caused because the defensive player who nails him wasn't even watching - it's like they assume "oh, it's dropped, he's fair game now, so I'll just charge him."
It's often a judgment call as to whether the defense could reasonably know it was going to be kicked, but the kicker does not lose his protection just because of a bad snap or a short run first.
My only issue with this particular rule is that it's not called consistently; I think even among some officials, the realization that the kicker still gets protection isn't there, as when I do call it, I always get the obligatory comment from the coach "Well, in our last game, our kicker got nailed and it didn't get called". (How often this is TRUE is another story, though).
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