VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- Sam Braidwood's story contains plenty of soccer chapters. He's a goalkeeper on Frank Cox's soccer team.
This summer, however, the Falcons football team was looking for a kicker.
"My wife, Julie, actually went to high school with his parents over at FC," said Cox head coach Alan Faneca. "They were talking and knew that Sam was the goalie on the soccer team."
"It was always an idea in my head," Braidwood added. "My dad came up to me and was like 'hey, they need a kicker. You want to go to the field. We'll pick up a bag of balls from Coach Faneca and then we'll kick and see how you feel."
Before he knew it, he was Cox's kicker and punter. Now the junior is hooked. Sam has been working on his fundamentals and skills for both types of kicks and has seen his confidence reach new heights as well.
"It's fun, it's challenging and it's something I want to keep continuing to get better at," he said.
Braidwood is used to big moments on the pitch, playing in plenty of big games throughout a life playing soccer. Friday night saw him take the field for his first American football game, stepping under the Friday night lights. He would answer the call, converting all five of his extra point attempts and booting several kickoffs for touchbacks. Cox topped Princess Anne, 37-14.
"The ball got snapped and I was like 'oh wow, here we go,'" Sam recalled. "I kicked it off the holder, through the uprights and I was like "wow, let's go,' ran off the field, forgot my tee and everything so I was excited."
"We tried to simulate that as much as we could, maybe a little more than we normally would," Faneca noted. "But definitely, there's nothing like being out there for your first time under the lights and kicking in front of everybody."
Just because Sam has added another tool does not mean he is switching sports. After football practice each day, he heads to practice for his travel soccer team and the junior will be the goalkeeper for the defending state champion Falcons this coming spring.
"It's pretty tough sometimes," Sam pointed out. "I go from work to football to soccer, get home late at night, but I'm lucky to have such great parents who drive me all over the place to wherever I need to go."
The Falcon kicker is finding his groove on the gridiron and even though European football is his main sport, he has not ruled out a future pursuing the pigskin.
"You never know where he's going to go," Faneca said. "He's already consistent in what he's been able to do in practice and he's a gamer. He showed us more on Friday night than he's showed us out here in practice."
"Obviously soccer's my priority, but if I keep getting better and better at football, and I enjoy it a lot, I can definitely see myself in the future," Sam noted.
Cox will take the field for its first home game of 2022 on Thursday night when the Falcons host Green Run.
