A late start turned whirlwind career, Dominic Zvada’s journey to Michigan

In the fall of 2021, as Dominic Zvada — then a high school junior — lined up to kick a 55-yard field goal in the midst of a blowout victory, there were very few people watching the Valley Christian football team who expected the ball to go through the uprights. 

Zvada was 17, it was his first-ever season playing football, and more than that, he had made only one other field goal attempt all season. So even as Valley Christian coach Jake Petersen trotted Zvada out onto the field for the try, he wasn’t optimistic.

“No, I did not expect it to go through,” Petersen told The Michigan Daily, chuckling. “I actually got talked into letting him try it by one of my mentors. … He was like, ‘Coach, why don’t you try this?’ And I was like, ‘Uhh, that’s 55 yards.’ ”

But Petersen relented, and Zvada nailed the kick with “five yards to spare,” breaking a divisional record in the process. 

Valley Christian won the contest 58-34, so the three points Zvada added with his leg didn’t matter much. But for Zvada, who had been kicking footballs for less than a year, the field goal was proof that he could have a serious career in football. And for everyone who saw it, the kick was impossible to forget. 

Petersen remembers the moment vividly, and even said that the opposing high school’s coach still brings it up to this day. Zvada’s private kicking coach Steve Raush also remembers “where he was sitting, where they were playing, and who they were playing.” And Zvada, too, remembers the kick in clear detail.

“When you’re missing a lot it brings you down, especially when you’re just starting,” Zvada said. “Being able to go out there and (kick a 55 yard field goal), it really put a sense of hope in me that I can do this, that I’m talented and that I have it in me. … I don’t know what would’ve happened if I didn’t make that.”

Fortunately for Zvada and his future prospects, the kick sailing through the uprights grew his confidence, and word of the kicker who had set a divisional record spread just far enough that he earned himself a walk-on spot at Arkansas State. 

Four years later, Zvada again nailed a 55-yard kick in a blowout victory. But this time, instead of that kick happening at a high school in Chandler, Ariz., it took place in front of 110,000 fans at the Big House in Michigan’s season opener.

Going from a novice with special talents, to a walk-on competing to get on the field for the Red Wolves, and now finally a star kicker for the Wolverines who has turned heads in his first two starts, Zvada’s career has moved at warp speed. But for those who know him, his success hasn’t been a surprise. 

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Steve Rausch had just started his career as a kicking and punting coach when he got a call from one of his longtime friends — former NFL cornerback Kevin Miniefield — asking him if he might be interested in taking on a new client. Miniefield’s son had played soccer with Zvada, and Zvada was looking for a change that he thought football might provide, so Miniefield put the Zvada family in contact with Rausch and the two got to training. 

And it didn’t take long for Rausch to realize that Zvada had special talent. 

“A lot of kids in high school when they first start kicking, they’ll use what we call a field goal block,” Rausch told The Daily. “After the first session I told him, ‘Throw that away. You’re that natural, you strike the ball that clean.’ ”

Immediately, Rausch saw raw talent in Zvada. At the same time, Zvada saw a sport that he could fall in love with. Throughout that summer leading up to his first season as a kicker, Rausch and Zvada trained together frequently, and Zvada trained by himself constantly. 

Jake Petersen, Zvada’s coach, also made note of Zvada’s leg talent almost immediately. But as he moved through high school, not everything went to plan. Despite being excellent on kickoffs and setting numerous state records, he reached a point that Petersen and Zvada described as a ‘mental block.’

Zvada would be automatic in practice, yet miss in games, and he had to work through it.

“It’s a very mentally hard position,” Zvada said. “People look at it as, ‘You only have one job, and that one job is to go out there and kick it.’ When you’re not experienced and you haven’t been doing it for a long time, it can really be a lot in a person’s mind. Once you get to college and there’s an actual long snapper and an actual holder and the line is actually there. … It eases the kicker’s mind and the kicker is able to focus more on just what they have to do.”

But getting to college wasn’t a guarantee for Zvada.

Coming out of high school with such limited experience, Zvada had visited just three schools — California, UC Davis and Arkansas State. When he graduated, the Red Wolves were the only ones willing to take a chance on him, offering a preferred walk-on spot that Zvada happily accepted. Just a few months later, Zvada proved that Arkansas State’s bet on him would pay off. 

In the fall camp of his freshman year, Zvada won a three-way kicking battle against more veteran kickers, and he immediately got off to a blazing start. While the Red Wolves went a dreary 3-9 that season, Zvada was lights out. He converted on his first 13 kicks, missed only one attempt all season and was a Lou Groza Award semi finalist his first year in college. 

Although Zvada hadn’t been a highly sought after prize coming out of high school, the same couldn’t be said of him upon entering the transfer portal after his sophomore season at Arkansas State. Now, instead of having only one walk-on offer, he had choices — and they were good ones. 

“We were Twitter messaging everybody that we could as they hit the portal,” Michigan special teams coordinator J.B. Brown said. “Ended up being one of the best kickers in the country was getting in the portal … I know a lot of other people were in the hunt for him. And we got lucky and won it at the end.”

While Zvada made the difficult decision to leave the Red Wolves after two successful years, the move wasn’t sparked by any form of animosity or frustration. In fact, Zvada and Rausch still credit Arkansas State and its coaching staff for much of the success Zvada has seen.

“I think it was the best path that he could’ve taken,” Rausch said. “I don’t know if he would be where he’s at today if he hadn’t gone to Arkansas State.”

But even now as a Wolverine, Zvada won’t have to go long without seeing the Red Wolves. In a funny coincidence, this Saturday the Wolverines will face off against Arkansas State for the first time in history, and just months after he left them, Zvada will see his former teammates again. Just this time, he’ll be wearing the other team’s jersey. 

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In just two games in Ann Arbor, Zvada has shown a confidence and poise that betrays the fact that he’s been kicking for just four years. So far, he’s perfect on five kicks, has already nailed three kicks longer than 50 yards and has been a bright spot of Michigan’s otherwise lackluster start.

From being done with soccer and needing something new, to a 55-yard field goal that maybe only he expected to go through and now finally to the Big House, Zvada’s career has shot upward at breakneck speed. 

When he faces the Red Wolves on Saturday, he’ll see both his past and his future on the field as he aims his kicks through the uprights and into the crowd. But he won’t be focused on that. 

Because distractions like that might cause him to miss, and up to this point in his career, he hasn’t been in the business of missing. 

The post A late start turned whirlwind career, Dominic Zvada’s journey to Michigan appeared first on The Michigan Daily.


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