Willy Roy Jr., the former Huskies’ soccer standout who’s currently trying his foot—er, hand—at football kicking, has had to make a lot of adjustments lately.

You usually don’t have 250-pound athletes sprinting at you during soccer games, the shape of a football makes it harder to kick, and in soccer, the only time you’re likely to run into a helmet is if that’s the name of one of the players.

There are other adjustments too. “In soccer, the coaches are always yelling for me to ‘kick it lower! Lower!” Roy said. “In football, it’s ‘kick it higher! Higher!'”

Roy Jr. starred on his father’s, Willy Roy Sr., soccer squad for four years until he graduated in August.

Roy Jr., prompted by the encouragement of head football coach Charlie Sadler, walked-on the NIU football team last spring to fill his last year of eligibility with a sport, rather than just the classes that he’s taking to earn his second degree.

Now, despite having never done any football kicking before, Roy has emerged as a strong contender for the starting kicker’s job.

“There’s more of a race in the kicking position than in any other spot on the team,” Sadler said. “He’s getting better and better.”

One football lesson Roy Jr. has already learned regards tackling on kickoffs. He has added incentive to make his kickoffs deep because “then there’s a better chance that someone else will probably make the tackle,” he said.

Sadler, for one, is not worried about Roy making a tackle on a charging return man. “Better him than me,” Sadler said. “Actually, we feel better about him making a tackle than some little guy,” Sadler said of the 6-4, 210-pound Roy.

Whether he starts or not, Roy feels that his young football career has been a success. “Everyone’s looking for the best person for the position and it can go either way between Matt (Golden) and myself,” Roy said. “If they want me to be a backup, that’s what I’ll do. I’m just thankful that I’m on the team.”