The sights and sounds of a college football practice were not familiar to Matt Ganyard when he suited up this summer.
"I first picked up a football after my high school soccer season. I’d never played before – just had seen people kick on Saturdays and I said, 'How hard is it?’'"
It wasn’t as easy as it looked on TV, but Ganyard loved a challenge, and he began practicing in his spare time. By his second year as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia he was confident enough to try out for the team. He did well, but UVA already had three fine kickers.
"I’ve still got the email saying, ‘We regret to inform you you didn’t make the team.' That was my iPad background for many years, so it was a little bit of motivation."
After graduation, he enlisted in the Marines and learned to fly helicopters. It was a 10-year commitment, with seven months at sea.
"I didn’t want to go seven months without kicking a football, and so my squadron mates probably thought I was crazy, but I brought a football on this small ship we were on, and any time we were in port I would bring the ball and see if I could kick a little bit."
Recalling a stop in Jordan and a visit to the nearest soccer pitch, Ganyard says the football made travel even more fun.
"A few Jordanian soldiers walked by, and I don’t speak Arabic. They don’t speak English. They kind of looked at me, laughed and pointed at the football, and they went and kicked it, and they probably had never seen a football in their life, and here they are kicking it with me. It was like moments like that that were very special."
And training to be a pilot built his confidence and his ability to handle stress.
"Part of the training for helicopters is you’re put in this tank in the water to simulate a helicopter cockpit. They turn you upside down, simulating a crash in the water, and you have to get out. You do that a few times, and then they blindfold you."
After serving in the military, Ganyard figured he could use his leadership skills as a consultant – and maybe get into sports management, so he applied to UVA’s graduate school of business. And once he was admitted, there was a phone call to make.
"I was able to communicate with Coach Meyer, the special teams analyst here about two years ago, and kind of pitched this idea."
Would the team consider him as a kicker? He couldn’t start until his second year of business school, by which time he would have exhausted his five years of eligibility to play, so he would need a waiver from the NCAA. After seeing him kick, the university was willing to ask for one more year.
“We found out about four days before camp that the appeal went through, and the next thing you know I’m finishing my summer internship and getting a physical with an NCAA football team, and the fun is just getting started in my opinion. I’m excited about it.”
Following his first day of practice, his teammates were astonished to learn his age. He was 16 years older than some of the guys and had a family.
"At the very end coach Elliott had me stand up and introduce myself, and I could see the shock on their faces when I said 34 with two kids."
And last month he appeared at a press conference, feeling like the star of an Apple TV comedy with Jason Sudeikis as a small-time American football coach hired to work with a professional soccer team in England.
"All this is wild just to be sitting up here. I feel a little bit like Ted Lasso, season one,"
Ganyard says the hardest thing about his new gig will be time management – juggling an MBA and a family with the time needed to play college football, but he’s confident he can make it all work and is proud to be teaching his kids an important lesson in persistence in achieving what appeared to some an impossible dream.
