Born kicker: Late switch to football landed Vernon Hills’ Szmyt in NFL

Imagine taking up a new sport and within three years, being the best in the country at it — at least on an amateur level.

That's what happened to Vernon Hills native Andre Szmyt. A lifelong soccer player, he decided to try kicking a ball through the uprights during his senior year of high school.

That was in 2016. In 2018, he won the Lou Groza Award as the best kicker in college football with Syracuse.

The next step took a few years, but he's now landed an NFL job with the Cleveland Browns. Szmyt grabbed the spotlight in Week 3 with a 55-yard field goal at the buzzer to beat Green Bay 13-10.

“Yeah, it's stressful,” Szmyt said of kicking with a game on the line. “But you prepare for those moments, so you just stay true to the process and what you do in practice. It takes a lot of trust in yourself.”

The chance to have stressful moments in front of huge crowds is one reason why Szmyt decided to boot soccer heading into his senior year at Vernon Hills.

His class happened to be the best in school history at football, and that first season on the gridiron ended with a trip to the Class 5A championship game in Champaign against Peoria Central.

“All my friends, they were like, 'You should come play football. There are more fans in the stands. It's more fun to play,'” Szmyt said. “I grew up watching European soccer and obviously the following there was huge.

“So I said, 'Sure, I'll play football.' It was fun to do that with the guys I grew up with.”

At one point, Szmyt's goal was to play college soccer. But football went well enough for him to start looking for kicking opportunities. He just needed someone to believe in him.

“My sister would send out my (highlights); pretty sure she sent emails to every single Division I school,” Szmyt said. “(Dave Boller) was one of the few people that actually answered.”

Boller was recruiting director at Louisville, so that's where Szmyt was planning to walk on. But then Boller took a new job, joining the staff of former Eastern Illinois coach Dino Babers at Syracuse. The Orange had a senior kicker, so the timing was perfect.

Szmyt redshirted as a freshman, took over the lead role in his second year and went 30-for-34 on field goals, one short of the FBS record for most 3-pointers in a single season.

On Dec. 6, 2018, he walked onto the stage at the College Football Awards show to accept the Groza Award. Sure, kicking is a primary skill in soccer, but that's an impressive three-year start in a new sport.

“I don't really know (how to explain it), honestly,” Szmyt said. “Having an even, go-with-the flow-attitude definitely helps. I was super raw coming out of high school and had that first year at Syracuse to learn and develop. Had a whole year to refine my craft, and was able to go out there and execute.”

After the stellar college debut, Szmyt found out kicking success is very dependent on offensive performance. To pile up field goals, a team needs a strong offense, but not so good that it scores touchdowns all the time. Syracuse went 10-3 in 2018, then 1-10 two years later. After making 30 field goals as a redshirt freshman, Szmyt attempted just 25 in the 2020 and '21 seasons combined.

By his final season in 2022, Szmyt made 20 field goals and was a Groza semifinalist. He currently ranks No. 9 on the all-time list of kick scoring in FBS.

His next stop was Lake Forest, where he joined the Bears for OTAs and training camp, but was released before the preseason games began.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Szmyt said. “I was meant to be in Chicago as a rookie and learn from Cairo Santos. Still have a relationship with him and talk to him.”

As it turned out, Boller would once again step in to help keep Szmyt in the game. Boller had become general manager of the St. Louis Battlehawks, so Szmyt spent the spring of 2024 kicking for the UFL team. Last December, he joined the Browns practice squad and signed a futures contract.

During preseason, Szmyt won the Cleveland kicking competition with Dustin Hopkins to become one of just 32 people with a job as a full-time NFL kicker.

On Dec. 14, Szmyt will get a chance to test his skill on the shores of a different Great Lake when the Browns play the Bears at Soldier Field.

“I think ever since high school when I started kicking the ball, I was like, 'This is pretty fun, I'd like to make something out of it,'” Szmyt said. “I think going to Syracuse, after that first year, winning the Lou Groza, you're thinking, 'I've really got a shot at it.'

“A lot of these Lou Groza winners had NFL opportunities. So I was thinking I could really make this work.”

Funny how much can change just by choosing to kick a different ball.