Casey Skowron Finds His Way

by Adam Gonzales

Tucson, Ariz. – Redshirt junior kicker Casey Skowron has had a blazing start to the season. He has made seven straight field goals and is 9-for-9 on extra points. Also, more than half of his kickoffs have resulted in touchbacks.

Skowron didn’t have the traditional start to his college career, as he started off as a member of the club soccer team here at the University of Arizona. He then became a practice player for the women’s soccer team and, eventually, a manager for the following year. Two weeks into the soccer season, he decided that he wanted to try out for the football team. Skowron made the team, and is now the starter on all kicking units with little experience in-game football experience.

“I played in high school for a little bit,” Skowron said. “I joined the team at the end of the year because they needed a kicker and they knew I could do it from soccer. I knew that I had a strong leg and thought that I could kick in college.”

Skowron’s brief high school football career took place at Brophy Prep in Phoenix. He made one of two field goals and had seven touchbacks on 14 kickoffs during his brief senior campaign. Skowron thought he could have a chance at being a Division I kicker but decided to play club soccer instead.

“I thought it was a possibility to be a kicker in college,” Skowron said. “I always told myself that if I would’ve kicked longer in high school that I could have been a scholarship kicker somewhere. It’s different to think about it and to be about it though.”

He has made the best of the opportunities presented to him. He was patient by redshirting his first year on the team, and then by backing up Jake Smith during the 2013 season. Skowron has made a potentially difficult transition of playing soccer to succeeding in college football appear seamless.

“It wasn’t too tough,” Skowron said. “Form wise it was very different though. If I were to look at film from my first year to now, it would be completely different. From a practice standpoint, where I was playing soccer was very competitive, so the environment here is almost the exact same as in high school. Getting used to wearing pads all the time was probably the hardest part because in soccer all you have is shin guards.”

If the toughest part of Skowron’s transition is wearing a helmet and shoulder pads, then it seems that he has a pretty good handle of his job as a kicker. He was named one of three Lou Groza Stars of the week and National Specialist of the Week by the College Football Performance Awards for his performance at UTSA. He currently leads the nation in field goals made after going 4-4 and making field goals of 44, 38, 28 and 23 yards in San Antonio. His 30 points are the most in the nation by a kicker.

The Wildcats return to action Saturday when they welcome Nevada to Arizona Stadium on Sept. 13, at 8 p.m. MST, on Pac-12 Networks. Tickets can be purchased at ArizonaWildcats.com/footballtickets or by contacting the McKale Center Ticket Office (520-621-CATS).

For continued coverage of Arizona football, follow the team on Facebook at facebook.com/ArizonaFootball and on Twitter @ArizonaFBall.