How Did I Get Here?

How Did I Get Here

For five years, I lived behind the uprights.

I stood on practice fields long after most parents had wandered off.
I sat in bleachers on Friday nights watching a position that only gets noticed when something goes wrong.
I watched my son, Trace, grind through a specialist journey most people never truly see.

From learning how to strike a ball cleanly…
To carrying the weight of late-game moments where one swing can define a night.

That vantage point changed me.
And it’s why Off the Uprights exists today.

The World Specialists Live In

Specialists are different.

They train differently.
They think differently.
They carry pressure in ways few positions ever will.

And yet in high school football, they’re often invisible — until the game suddenly depends on them.

In recruiting, they’re a footnote.
In media coverage, an afterthought.

That never sat right with me.
And some nights, it kept me awake.

The Journey No One Talks About

When Trace started football in 8th grade, my expectations were simple.

Maybe extra points.
Kickoffs.
A few punts here and there.

When he reached high school, I thought, okay — now it starts.
PATs. Field goals. A real opportunity.

Then he made varsity as a freshman at a large 6A program, and I assumed this was the moment everything would open up.

It didn’t.

Freshman year was PATs and kickoffs.
Sophomore year was more of the same — though he added punting.

And here’s the part most people don’t understand:

Trace was a top-10 kicker in the country, yet the special teams system he played in didn’t resemble anything college coaches look for.

Fourth-and-8 on the 30?
They went for it. Every time.

Not because of Trace, but because high school football often isn’t built to showcase specialists.

Trust has to be earned differently.

When the Door Finally Opens

By his junior year, things began to shift.

His performances at showcases and college camps drew real attention.
College coaches started showing up at the school.
And suddenly, his head coach was getting asked a question he’d never heard before:

“We are here to see your kicker.”

His coach asked about the specialist world.
He began to understand it.
And he began to trust Trace.

Opportunities followed.

So did results.

Including a state award, league awards, local KC Metro awards, a game-winning kick.

That moment changed everything, and it launched a massive junior-to-senior summer.

The Summer That Changed It All

Showcases are emotional.

They test confidence.
They test patience.
They test resilience.

Early on, Trace tried to do too much chasing rankings instead of just letting the leg swing.

Then June arrived.

He settled in.
He was locked in.
And the moments slowed down.

First stop: Oklahoma.

We had ten camps scheduled.

OU went so well that Trace earned a full-ride scholarship offer on the spot.

We were stunned and emotional.

I sat there while Coach Venables and Coach Deakins spoke, but I could not hear anything.

I just had rocks in my throat.

This was the dream school.

We still went to Texas Tech next where he crushed the one-on-one training and earned another full-ride offer.

When we got home, we made lists.
We talked it through.
We waited…. a few days.

Then one morning, Trace said what we all already knew:

“It’s OU. It’s always been OU.”

We canceled the remaining camps.
We waited for the official visit.
And on June 20th, he committed.

That story deserves its own post.

The Moment That Sparked This Platform

When Trace committed, I expected the world to finally see what I had seen for years.

Instead, the media stories came out.

And they weren’t stories.

They were stat lines.
Camp numbers.
A height. A weight.
A couple of recycled quotes.

Nothing about who he was.
Nothing about what he had overcome.
Nothing about the context of his skill as a specialist.

Not because the media didn’t care —
But because they don’t know how to evaluate specialists.

Other Recruits and Positions? Media can break down every other position in detail.

Specialists? They get a paragraph.

That’s when it clicked.

Why Off the Uprights Exists

I looked at the 2026 class.

Every article looked the same.
Copy-and-paste evaluations.
Camp blurbs.
Stat sheets.

Across the country, specialists are grinding every day at a craft built on precision, consistency, and mental toughness.

They deserve more than a blurb.
They deserve more than a ranking.
They deserve their story told.

So do their families.

What You’ll Find Here

At Off the Uprights, you’ll find the stories most people miss:

• The pressure coaches see
• The weight parents feel
• The quiet battles athletes fight through

You’ll hear from specialists, parents, coaches, and those who truly understand what it means to chase a dream that rarely comes with spotlight, but always comes with pressure.

This is a home for the overlooked.
For the underappreciated.
For the pressure tested.

If you’re an athlete chasing the next level…
A parent walking beside that dream…
Or someone who wants to understand the specialist world better…

I’m glad you’re here.

Special teams may not always get the spotlight
But the stories behind them are worth telling.

Welcome to Specialist Stories.
Welcome to Off the Uprights.

This is where the journey becomes more.