Andrew Mikkelsen’s promising high school football career was placed on hold when he was struck by a truck, fracturing his femur and causing a cerebral hemorrhage. He would later find unexpected football success as a kicker. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Mikkelsen)

Neuro specialists told Mikkelsen that it was too dangerous to play contact sports, at least for a couple of years.  For a high-energy sports-loving teenager such as Mikkelsen, two years seemed an eternity. “It felt like a death sentence for me and my football dreams.”

Alexander Graham Bell is credited with the phrase, “When one door closes, another opens.” The famed inventor was likely not a football fan — but Bell’s optimistic words define Mikkelsen’s unusual  football journey.

Mikkelsen discovered his open “door” by learning the highly specialized position of kicker after sitting out of football during his sophomore year of high school.

“Just watching the games that year as a fan was torture,” he remembered. “I knew there had to be some way to get out on the field in a way that would be acceptable to my parents and doctors. That’s when kicking became my path.”

Mikkelsen laced up his football cleats (he didn’t own the soccer cleats typically worn by kickers) and began booting the pigskin. No one spying his early field goal attempts would have ever imagined that college football was in his future. 

“It was brutal,” he said. “I was not good. I watched a YouTube video or two on basic kicking techniques, then went out and started hacking at the football. I could barely get it 10 feet off the ground. It was bad.”

Mikkelsen remembers kicking the ball hundreds of times before making a proper field goal. There were moments when he never wanted to kick another ball.  Then he remembered he had no other football options. No plan B.

“So I was forced to grit my teeth and endure the teasing from the varsity team that was practicing on the other field,” he said.

Recognizing his determination, Canby High’s veteran kicker stepped in to help Mikkelsen with the basics.  Mikkelsen kept practicing and attended a few kicking camps. He practiced and practiced some more. 

“And then things started to come together, slowly but surely.”

By the time his junior year began, he had become a legitimate high school kicker.

“I had never really considered kicking at the college level to be an option,” he said. “But by the end of my junior year, I was putting up good numbers, started kicking touchbacks and started making field goals.”

Soon  Mikkelsen was on the radar of college recruiters taking notice of his sharp learning curve. BYU had already signed a kicker from Mikkelsen’s graduating class, so he selected Oregon State, where he redshirted his first year.

BYU dreams fulfilled – off to Samoa

Then in 2014, an opportunity opened at BYU. Mikkelsen jumped at the chance to realize his dream of competing on Saturdays at LaVell Edwards Stadium. He played the 2014 season for BYU, enjoyed success and playing time, and then opted to step away from football to answer a mission call to Samoa.

Missionary work in the Pacific Islands was difficult for an Oregon kid. He had to learn a new language and adjust to a new culture. Once again, he drew upon his mental resilience. 

“Even when it seems like all of the elements are working against you, you just have to put your head down, go to work the next day and do your best,” said Mikkelsen, who now teaches the missionary preparation class in his Orem, Utah, ward.