Concordia-St. Paul's Football Team Takes On 29-Year-Old Kicker
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- There is a term for 29-year-old college students. They are called doctoral candidates.
"Hopefully I don't look 29 years old," Peter Farris said.
Despite being the oldest player on the Concordia-St. Paul football team, Farris is just a freshman.
But when you think about the odd jobs he has worked -- a store manager for a SuperAmerica gas station, a manager at an Aldi grocery store – perhaps a 29-year-old going back to college to try to win a job as a kicker is not so odd after all.
"I just want to improve my life," Farris said. "And that's why this opportunity, I'm taking it so very seriously."
The hopes and dreams Farris has for his future feel a little familiar. He is like Rudy -- if Rudy was pushing 30, had graduated from culinary school and played soccer in high school.
For the Rosemount Irish.
"I did not play high school football at all," Farris said.
Maybe the most interesting part of all of this is that Farris taught himself how to kick. Only three years ago.
"I actually pulled out my cell phone, and I would pull up YouTube," Farris explained. "And I'd pull up, for example, Blair Walsh or David Akers, because they're very good kickers, and just see what their style is. And I would just kind of try and replicate that."
That's right. He learned to kick watching YouTube.
"Basically yes," Farris said with a laugh. "Honestly."
Where do you find a guy like that? Who hits 60 yarders like its nothing? A place very few would ever look.
"Funny story," Concordia coach Ryan Williams said.
He just so happened to be looking for a kicker after All-American Tom Obarski graduated and signed with the Bengals.
Three years ago -- thinking Farris could use something fun to do on the weekends, and thinking his amateur football team could use a kicker (after all, Farris had played soccer in high school) -- a friend of Farris' invited him out. Well, that is putting it politely anyway.
"Basically [he] wouldn't leave me alone until I decided to meet him at a field," Farris said.
Good thing for YouTube, because Farris didn't know how.
"It felt really awkward at first, because it's completely different from kicking a soccer ball," Farris said. "I did it for my first year. I was actually pretty bad."
But he got better. And then he got noticed -- by, of all people, the father of the guy he is now trying to replace. It really is a small world.
"Our former kicker, Tom Obarski's dad, actually called me," Williams said.
He was watching Farris' amateur team play because his daughter was dating someone on the team.
"His son's Tom Obarski, so he knows what to look for," Williams said. "And when he said he had the leg strength that's close to Tom, I was like, 'Wow, let's look into it.' [I] Got film, looked at Peter and honestly it was a no-brainer."
The NCAA approved Farris for four years of eligibility. He says he will major in business management so he can take his previous management experience and build on it.
On the field, nothing's been promised to him yet. He still has to go out and win the starting job, and beat two other freshmen to do it.
But if anything, he can rely on a little more life experience.
"I'm not nervous about this," Farris said. "And I'll do anything I can to make that happen."
