Barton during a club soccer game this fall. Courtesy | Trevor Hall

When junior club soccer player Jude Barton tried out for a spot as a kicker on the Charger football team, he said it was probably the third time he had ever kicked a football. Now, he’s the first club soccer player in more than a decade to walk onto the varsity football team. 

“There are only so many ways to kick a ball,” Barton said. “But there are a few noticeable differences, so I’m still trying to get the muscle memory and everything going for kicker.”

Barton said he was playing Legos with his younger siblings during fall break when he received a call from Director of Club Sports Ryan Perkins saying the Hillsdale football team wanted to recruit a kicker from the men’s club soccer team. 

Barton told his parents after the call, and they encouraged him to go for it. 

“I had already thought I should totally do it,” Barton said. “I thought my parents would be like ‘no, you have to focus on studies.’ So when I heard they were into it too, I said ‘yeah, I’ll give it a go.’”

Barton agreed to a tryout, and Perkins put him in touch with the coaches. The next day, Barton set up a private coaching session with a kicking coach, his first and last coaching session before his official tryout with the Hillsdale football coaches. 

The football team began their search for an additional kicker after freshman kicker Braeden Chiles suffered an injury and missed multiple weeks of practice, according to receivers coach Ryan Stokes.

“We just were curious if there was anybody else that was already on campus from the soccer team, since their season was over, that could step in and provide more depth to our specialist room while we had some guys banged up,” Stokes said. 

Without Chiles, the team was down to two kickers — redshirt sophomores Evan Mick and Ian Woodyard — and the coaches didn’t want to make them kick every rep in practice.

“We loved when we had three kickers, so we could separate the units and they could all take reps off each other,” Stokes said. 

Stokes was the first to suggest bringing on a guy from the soccer team, having played both soccer and football himself in high school before playing kicker for the Grand Valley State University Lakers. In tryouts, Stokes said he could see Barton had potential.

“One of the first things I noticed was how good his ball rotation was for a guy who hasn’t kicked much,” Stokes said. 

After a second-round tryout with the coaching staff, they offered him a spot on the team. Barton said the transition from soccer to kicker was not difficult for him despite the addition of shoulder pads and a helmet. 

“Soccer is what I’ve done my entire life,” Barton said. “I watch soccer way more than I watch football. I’m better at it too. But I do really like the professionalism that goes with doing an actual DII sport, and I’ve had a great time so far.”

Redshirt sophomore wide receiver David Dorn said he has known Barton and his family since fifth or sixth grade, and they went to high school together. 

“His mom told my mom, and that’s how I found out,” Dorn said. 

Dorn said his mom texted him to tell him Barton made the team before the coaches had announced the decision. He said he was both surprised and happy when he heard it was his former classmate. 

“There’s a lot of soccer players they could have picked. It’s just funny,” Dorn said. “He never played football in high school. He played soccer — he was a really good soccer player.”
Stokes said Barton is smart, a hard worker, and a great fit for the team.

“What he can do athletically out on the football field for us definitely comes third to being a great human being and being a great student first,” Stokes said. “Those are two things he does well. Whatever else he can do on the football field is a bonus.”

Stokes said the coaching staff hopes Barton will stay on the team past this season, but he’ll have to earn a starting spot.

“He definitely has the ability to compete, and that’s what we expect him to do every week, and we’ll see where it goes from there,” Stokes said. 

The coaches have been supportive and understanding as he adjusts to the team and the sport, Barton said.

“I’ve had a ton of questions coming into the team, even just a ton of basic, stupid questions like, ‘what are we supposed to wear for practice? When am I supposed to come in?’” Barton said.

Though Barton joins the team with only a few weeks left in the season, he said the other players have made him feel welcome in the group.

“I think he’s just trying to learn everyone’s name,” Dorn said. “That’s probably the hardest part.”