By Tim Booth Seattle Times
RENTON — After the Seahawks arrived back in Seattle last weekend following a few days of joint practices and a final preseason game in Green Bay, Wis., kicker Jason Myers’ phone started to ding with messages.
The messages had nothing to do with the Seahawks or the final preseason game. They were about a college kicker in Hawaii more than 2,600 miles away with an unknown connection to Myers.
“Some buddies when we landed on Saturday sent me the article,” Myers said. “It’s a cool experience. It means you’ve been around a while, too.”
The article mentioned was about Kansei Matsuzawa, the 26-year-old kicker for the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors who hit a game-winning 38-yard field goal on the last play to beat Stanford 23-20 on the opening weekend of the college football season.
So what does Matsuzawa have to do with the Seahawks kicker?
As expertly chronicled by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Matsuzawa grew up in Japan and as a 20-year-old made a trip to the United States. He saw an NFL game and fell in love with the sport. When he returned to Japan, he set out to become a kicker.
Matsuzawa started learning about kicking by watching YouTube videos featuring — of all people — Myers. As he started to improve, Matsuzawa sent videos to more than 50 colleges in the U.S. looking for an opportunity to kick. Only Hocking College — a junior college in Nelsonville, Ohio — invited Matsuzawa to play.
Matsuzawa spent two seasons at Hocking before the opportunity at Hawaii came about, and his story was unknown to most of the country until last weekend. He’ll get another chance to kick against a Power Four conference team this week, as Hawaii is set to play at Arizona on Saturday night.
Myers was unaware of Matsuzawa’s story. He had no clue about the connection until those phone messages.
“It was awesome. Happy for the kid. That’s tough going to a different country and a different sport. But it was pretty cool,” Myers said.
How Matsuzawa found clips specific to Myers or why he gravitated toward watching Myers is part of the mystery. Myers said he has not put any of his kicking clips on social media, at least since his high school days when maybe he was trying to get looks in recruiting.
But a YouTube search for Myers revealed a handful of videos posted by some of the kicking coaches he’s worked with during the offseason. Counting those clips on YouTube, other videos on Instagram and those posted by the Seahawks on their channels, there’s a pretty solid database from which Matsuzawa could draw.
“Usually it’s just like guys I work with, or camps and stuff that take videos and put it out there,” Myers said.
Finding a kicking specialist and kids willing to specialize in that aspect of the game isn’t difficult anymore. When Myers was growing up, he played football, soccer and baseball, and it’s one thing for a kicker from late high school and beyond to start working with a kicking coach.
Now, though, he’s seen seventh- and eighth-graders who are focused solely on becoming kickers.
“It’s totally changed now. There’s so many young kids that are kicking as their only sport,” Myers said.
In some ways that makes Matsuzawa’s story even more refreshing as someone who taught himself and created the opportunity he’s received at Hawaii. Though it hasn’t happened yet, Myers said he hopes to connect with Matsuzawa at some point.
There’s another connection for Myers that adds a layer to this story. He spent part of his childhood in Japan, as his father was stationed at Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa.
Myers was young — in kindergarten the last of his three years living there — but there are some faint memories.
“Not too detailed. I can visualize where we lived. It was on base back in ’96, ’97, that time frame. It was super safe. Six years old, I was walking to the park across the street by myself. It was a good experience,” Myers said.
His family moved back to the San Diego area after that time in Japan, but his connections with the country have continued even though he hasn’t made a trip back. Myers said some good friends run the Japan Kicking Academy, which has on its Instagram page the stated goal to “produce the first Japanese NFL player.”
“I’ve talked a few times with the guys that run Japan Kicking Academy and they want me to come out in the offseason,” Myers said. “But it’s a long trip.”