NILES — A normal day for Niles High School junior Cade Vota does not end after the final school bell rings.

At 5 p.m. he is dressed in shin guards and soccer cleats. Exactly two hours later, he still is dressed in cleats but is found practicing on the football field kicking field goals and punting, instead of aiming a soccer ball into the back of a net.

Vota has been a defender on the Vikings soccer team for the past three years and is gearing up to take on his second year as a kicker for the varsity football program.

While high school football programs around the country often utilize soccer players as their kickers, the amount of practice time and preparation can sometimes be downplayed.

Messing around one day on the Niles football field during head football coach Joe Sassano’s gym class is how Vota was encouraged to kick for the football team.

In his first year as a kicker, Vota quickly discovered the actual act of kicking was not hard, but game repetitions proved to be difficult.

“Anybody can kick something that’s not moving with no one coming at them,” Vota said. “The moment the ball is moving and you have to get the timing down, it’s a lot different.”

Vota, who has been playing soccer his whole life, was familiar with kicking a soccer ball but considers the kicking done in football to be way more of an art form.

“There’s just something I like about it,” Vota said. “Its perfection. It needs to be perfect for it to go well.”

In those high-pressure games where every kick counts, Vota has learned to manage the stress and focus on his task at hand.

“I mean I just kind of focus on the fact that I have a job to do,” he said. “If I don’t get it done then I didn’t do my job well.”

Vota, who received a Southwest Michigan Athletic Conference honorable mention in the 2017-2018 soccer season, is looking forward to improving the team’s record this season.

“I think we are going to be a lot better than last year,” Vota said. “We seem to have a lot better chemistry and everyone kind of meshes better together.”

This is the first season former assistant soccer coach; Abel Fonseca will be taking on the role of head coach for the boys’ soccer program. Vota said he has noticed the team already buying into Fonseca’s program.

“I think the guys really like him and he works well with us,”  Vota said.

Both Sassano and Fonseca have been able to work around a lot of scheduling aspects to allow Vota to be a dual-sport athlete again this season, Vota said. While the pressures of academics have not been added to the mix yet, Vota said last year, he was able to balance sports and school work. 

While Vota described himself as a talkative, personable person who attends many sporting events — even the ones where you will not find his name on the roster, like basketball — he still said adjusting to the football atmosphere and many new teammates did take some time.

“I knew most of the people coming in,” Vota said. “You know them as a friend but you don’t necessarily know them as a teammate. It was cool to kind of see the translation between that and how it follows on and off the field.”

As Vota continues his junior year, he will have a baseball season to look forward to in the spring. As junior year becomes a pivotal point in the college recruiting process, Vota is not putting too much pressure on himself.

“Right now, it’s kind of hard to tell,” he said. “I am just playing it by year and having fun. I try not to get too invested in the recruiting stuff.”

Vota looks forward to stepping on the football field for Friday night games while keeping his soccer cleats closeby for soccer games dispersed throughout the week, as he continues a second year of being a dual-sport athlete.