Ryan Guzman Juarez | Built Without a Blueprint

A 2027 kicker from Victor Valley High School, Ryan Guzman Juarez came from Nicaragua, learned the

position without a traditional kicking coach, and is entering his senior season determined to show what can

happen when an athlete keeps finding a way.

FIND A WAY

Ryan Guzman Juarez did not receive the clean specialist blueprint.

There was no long list of private lessons at the beginning. No kicking coach standing beside him every rep. No

easy path into exposure, camps, or a finished technique.

There was Nicaragua. There was soccer. There was a goalkeeper who understood pressure before he ever put on

football pads. There were YouTube videos, trial-and-error reps, balls he had to chase himself, and days when he

knew there was more inside him but did not always know how to pull it out.

That is what makes the story matter now.

Ryan is entering his senior season at Victor Valley High School with a different kind of fuel. He has already felt

people notice. He has already made kicks in games. He has already learned from misses. He has already found

ways to improve without the same specialist resources others may have had from the start.

There is no time to give up anymore. Find a way to get better and leave a mark.

For Ryan, that is not just advice for someone else. It is the way he has been building his own path.

FROM NICARAGUA TO THE HIGH DESERT

Ryan talks about being from Nicaragua with pride.

He grew up there before coming to California at age 12. Sports looked different there. Opportunities were not

always simple, but he still found a place to play. He credits God for the chance to spend a year in a soccer

academy before his move to California.

That foundation mattered.

Ryan started playing soccer at age four. Because he was the youngest in his family, he became the goalkeeper. At

first, it may have simply been where he was placed. Over time, it became a position he loved.

Goalkeeper is not a quiet job. It asks a player to stand alone in moments that can decide everything. It asks for

footwork, timing, body control, courage, and the ability to move on fast when something goes wrong.

Those pieces followed Ryan into kicking.

The steps. The approach. The way he strikes the ball. The comfort of being isolated in a pressure moment. Long

before he understood football kicking, he had already spent years learning how to be responsible for a result.

A GAME HE DID NOT UNDERSTAND YET

Ryan’s first memory of American football came back in Nicaragua.

He remembers watching a game without fully knowing what was happening. The Patriots were playing the

Seahawks in the Super Bowl. The rules were not clear yet, but the image stayed with him.

Years later, football became more than something on a screen.

His high school coach saw him playing soccer in the PAC and gave him a chance to try kicking. Ryan calls football

a beautiful game now, but at the beginning, he was honest about where he was.

He did not know what he was doing.

So he started learning the only way he could.

NO COACH, NO BLUEPRINT

Ryan did not have a traditional kicking coach guiding every step.

He watched videos. He tried things. He started with field goals because that was what he wanted to understand

first. Then came the details: follow-through, ball contact, steps, body control, and the small corrections that

make the difference between a clean ball and a miss.

He recorded himself and studied other kickers. He looked at swing paths. He looked at the position of the kicking

foot. He studied contact and follow-through. When something went wrong, he had to slow it down, think through

it, and try to fix it himself.

That is not an easy way to learn a specialist position.

But Ryan kept finding a way.

In his first year, he did not even have all the setup he needed. He was the one retrieving footballs, and he did not

have a kicking stick. Eventually, his coaches got one because they saw how seriously he was taking the position.

My coaches saw I was taking my position really serious.

That detail says a lot. The work did not just improve Ryan. It changed how people around him saw the position and

how they saw him.

THE POTENTIAL HE COULD FEEL

One of the strongest parts of Ryan’s story is the honesty in how he describes his development.

He knows there is potential in him. He can feel it. But he also knows there have been times when he did not know

how to get it out.

That can be frustrating for any specialist. It is even harder when camps are expensive, coaching access is limited,

and every improvement has to be earned through self-study and repetition.

Ryan has had to learn patience. He has had to learn how to relax. He has had to learn that misses hurt, but they

also point to the next piece of work.

He saw that in games. He learned that every time he steps on the field matters because nobody is promised

another chance.

That mindset is becoming part of his senior-season approach.

WHEN PEOPLE STARTED TO NOTICE

Ryan remembers his first season game because of what happened around him.

There were people screaming his name. After the game, people told him he had the talent to play at a high level

and not to waste it.

For a self-taught kicker still trying to figure out the details, that kind of belief can hit hard.

It told him other people could see something in him too.

Another moment came against Legacy in Las Vegas. Ryan was kicking on professional goals for the first time, and

the game became one he still remembers clearly. He made a field goal. He made all of his PATs. He produced a

touchback. He also made a tackle.

That is the kind of game that can change how a specialist sees himself.

Not because the work is finished. Because the athlete starts to understand what is possible when the work shows

up under lights.

LEARNING TO RELAX IN THE MOMENT

Ryan trusts his field goals and kickoffs, but he is still learning the mental side of game kicking.

At practice, he says he can be consistent. In games, the pressure is different. That is where he is still growing.

He learned one of those lessons during a scrimmage. A kickoff came off wrong and went to the right panel.

Instead of spiraling, he slowed down. He relaxed. He looked down. He controlled his body movement and reset.

That may sound small, but for a kicker, it is not.

The next level is not only about leg strength. It is about whether a player can correct himself, manage his body,

and stay present after a bad ball.

Ryan is learning that. Kick by kick. Rep by rep.

THE WORK WHEN HE IS TIRED

Ryan’s answer about being tired and sore is simple: he goes to the weight room anyway.

That is the part of his story that coaches need to hear. He is not presenting himself as a finished product. He is

presenting himself as someone willing to keep building.

He warms up before practice. He works live special teams. He kicks field goals and kickoffs. After those reps, he

studies what went wrong and works on fixing it. He also works on tackling because he understands that a kicker

has to be part of the football team, not separate from it.

He wants to improve his kickoff accuracy because his coaches want the ball in specific locations. He wants to

improve his field-goal consistency because he does not want to let his team down in a moment that matters.

That is the edge in Ryan’s story.

He knows the ability is there. Now he is chasing the consistency to match it.

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PATH

Ryan’s motivation is not only about himself.

His mom is always in his mind. He wants her to see that her son never gave up. That line carries weight because it

shows what this season means beyond kicks, stats, and recruiting attention.

He also points to his head coach as one of the biggest reasons he is where he is. His coach gave him the

opportunity to play football, and Ryan describes him as being like a dad to him.

For an athlete who has had to figure out so much of the position on his own, belief from the right people matters.

His family supports him. His coach gave him a chance. His teammates now help him retrieve footballs and train.

Those pieces have helped him keep going while he continues building the parts of his game that still need work.

My mom is in my mind, and I want her to see that her son never gave up.

WHAT COMES NEXT

Ryan knows what he wants from the next step.

He wants a college program that offers athletic training academically and a football environment that values

kickers, develops them, and helps them become better. He does not need the story to be about one level only. He

wants the right program, the right chance, and the opportunity to keep growing.

Earning a college football opportunity would mean everything to him and his family. It would be proof that the

hard work mattered, but Ryan is also clear about something else: if the opportunity comes, the job is not finished.

He wants to become the best kicker he can be. He wants to compete early. He wants to show coaches that if they

ask him to do something, he will try to do it no matter how hard it is.

That is what he wants coaches to understand beyond the leg.

He will work. He will learn. He will try. He will find a way.

FINAL WORD

Ryan Guzman Juarez’s story is not polished because the path has not been polished.

That is what makes it powerful.

He came from Nicaragua. He grew through soccer. He became a goalkeeper. He found football. He learned

kicking through videos, mistakes, and the courage to keep trying when he did not have all the answers.

He has felt the crowd notice. He has felt misses hurt. He has felt the frustration of knowing there is more in him

and not always knowing how to reach it yet.

But he is still reaching.

Senior year is the chance to show it. Not just the leg. Not just the potential. The work. The belief. The ability to get

back up and keep going.

His message to another athlete with limited opportunity is direct:

No matter how many times you fall, always, always get up.

Ryan does not need a perfect blueprint to leave a mark.

He needs what he has already been building.

A way forward. A reason to keep working. And one senior season to show how far he has come.