As he recounted the moment he watched Andrew Ivaniciuc trot onto the field to attempt a program-record 51-yard field goal, Jackson State coach T.C. Taylor laughed.
The Tigers' freshman kicker had missed his first kick of 25 yards in the season opener against Tennessee State but had already made two others.
“I heard a couple of gripes in the crowd, but the only ones that was excited about it was our team and our coaches because we’ve seen him do it each and every day,” Taylor said on Aug. 31. “I heard people (say), ‘We need to be punting,’ but I’m like y’all don’t know the leg power that this kid has.”
Ivaniciuc finished 4-for-5 on the night. In addition to making kicks of 38, 45 and 51 yards, he also made a 21-yard field goal with 2:31 left that proved to be the difference in JSU’s 26-24 win.
“He’s a young man that has a lot of confidence,” Taylor said. “He missed early, but he didn’t flinch at all to come back and do what he did in that football game. I’m excited about what he’s going to mean to this football team going forward.”
Ivaniciuc will make his home debut with the Tigers (1-0) against Division II Edward Waters (1-0) on Sept. 5 (6 p.m. CT, HBCUGO) at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
How Andrew Ivaniciuc transitioned from soccer to football
Ivaniciuc didn’t start playing football until 2024 in his junior year at Buford High School in Georgia. He grew up playing soccer and had considered trying football but never followed through.
After Buford’s starting kicker left the school midseason, Ivaniciuc reached back out to coach Bryant Appling and special teams coordinator Drew Dasher about joining the team.
“The first ball I ever saw him kick, he was working his kickoff, and you could tell he had never really thought about how you step off and kick a football,” Dasher said. “… But he ran up and kicked it, and he kicked that thing 68 yards. … I was like, ‘Good gosh, yes, we can find something for you to do.”
Although Ivaniciuc’s father, a former professional soccer player, preferred to see his son on the pitch, his mom, Alina, was in favor of the decision, noting that her son was all in on football by the time his senior year came around.
“I think the atmosphere of Buford High School was such a family, brotherhood atmosphere, that he fell in love with not just the sport, but the whole brotherhood,” she said. “… I think the combination of the two really sealed the deal for him.”
After a mental health coach spoke to the team about visualization, Dasher helped Ivaniciuc develop a routine before each kick that helps him calm his breathing and spot his target. Physically, he gets himself ready for each kick by rolling his shoulders and pumping his arms before beginning his approach.
“Mentally, when he was first starting out, we were having those mis-hits,” Dasher said. “And so, he started figuring out he hit it better if he, he called it charging himself up. … Like any high school kid, he started to get embarrassed by it, and he tried to go away from it, and I’m like dude, who cares? Everybody’s got a ritual.”
In just a season and a half, Ivaniciuc managed to impress coaches with his power. Taylor said he’s able to consistently make 52-yard field goals. Dasher said the longest he’s seen Ivaniciuc make in practice is 57 yards.
Even as Ivaniciuc grew comfortable with football, his unfamiliarity with the sport still showed up occasionally, like when he took the first big hit of his career in the second round of the 2025 GHSA playoffs.
He broke free on a fake punt and rushed for 13 yards on fourth-and-8. Instead of going out of bounds after getting the first down, Ivaniciuc kept running and “got absolutely leveled” at the end of the play, according to Dasher.
“I start looking at him like, dude, what are you doing?” Dasher said. “He said, ‘Coach, you’ve got to tell me when I can get out of bounds. I couldn’t find the down marker.’ … He ended up taking a lick that I’m sure would have been targeting in college. … But it was refreshing because he was so new.”
Andrew Ivaniciuc’s confidence makes him stand out
Appling credits Ivaniciuc for helping Buford get the ball rolling in its 2025 GHSA 6A state championship win.
Buford didn’t score in the first half, but a season-long 44-yard field goal from Ivaniciuc got his team its first points of the game in the third quarter. He finished 2-for-2 on field goals – his other make being from 39 yards – in the 28-21 win.
“I don’t think he ever actually understood at the time what a pressure moment was,” Dasher said. “… He didn’t know, hey, we really need these points that ended up being part of the difference in us coming back and winning that game.”
Ivaniciuc’s inexperience made handling high-pressure situations easy, according to Appling, because every attempt was “just another kick” to him. Appling added that often, in pivotal moments, Ivaniciuc was more relaxed, calming his coaches down instead of the other way around.
After watching Ivaniciuc miss his first field goal in Nashville, his mom, familiar with her son’s resilient attitude, eagerly prayed that he wouldn’t get benched and would get a second opportunity.
“Andrew’s one of those people that’s a fighter,” she said. “He’s not going to go down without fighting, and I knew that if he gave him that one chance, he was going to prove what he can do.”
On the sideline, Taylor recognized that Ivaniciuc was hungry to try again, adding that his confidence never wavered.
“He loves and thrives for the big moments,” Taylor said. “You could see after he missed that first one that didn’t bother him at all. He was waiting for another opportunity, and I told him, ‘You’re going to get another chance.’ … He loves the light, and he’s only going to get better."
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Freshman kicker Andrew Ivaniciuc still learning football but already has Jackson State record