Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Rohrwasser's journey takes him from U-12 soccer to Herd football hero
10/28/2019 10:58:00 PM | Football, Word on the Herd
Marshall senior is perfect on 11 field goal attempts this season
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Even on the coldest winter days, Dave Rohrwasser would go to the nearest high school and shovel a four feet by six feet area of the football field so his son, Justin, could practice kicks.
Dave believed. Justin needed convincing. The younger Rohrwasser clung to his soccer ambitions, but Dave wanted to give his son as many avenues for his future as possible.
"It didn't matter if it was Father's Day or Christmas Day," Justin said, "we're out there shoveling snow off the field and my dad is holding for me. Without him, I would have never done it. I'm so lucky with the family I have and the support they give me."
Justin Rohrwasser, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior from Saratoga Springs, New York, now sees what his father recognized years ago. The accolades for Rohrwasser piled up Monday after his four-field goal performance in Marshall's 26-23 Homecoming win against Western Kentucky on Saturday, which included a career-long 46-yard field goal in the first half that he bested with a 53-yard game-winning field goal as time expired. Conference USA named Rohrwasser the Special Teams Player of the Week. The Lou Groza National Collegiate Place Kicker Award named Rohrwasser one of its three Stars of the Week.
And, yet, Rohrwasser continued to redirect the praise. He showed gratitude toward his parents. He credited his teammates. He talked about the perfect execution of his long-snapper, Matt Beardall, and his holder, Jackson White. He commended the offensive line for the protection. He thanked Marshall head coach Doc Holliday for believing in him enough to let him attempt a lengthy field goal – in the rain – with the game on the line.
"It was one of the best moments of my life," Rohrwasser said Monday. "I'll never forget it."
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Soccer was Justin Rohrwasser's first love. When Justin was 8 or 9 years old, Dave recalled, Justin was beset by a broken arm suffered at a neighbor's house and he was sidelined from organized soccer. While injured, Justin took a soccer ball to his basement and kicked it repeatedly against a concrete wall for at least an hour every night.
He practiced for hours every day, and joined the Black Watch Premier soccer club. It was with the Black Watch Rangers that Justin made his first trip to Huntington, West Virginia, and Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Justin's team, which won the New York state championship, competed in the United States Youth Soccer East Regionals in 2009, and the opening ceremonies were held at Marshall's on-campus football stadium. Rohrwasser walked behind a black banner held by his teammates and took in the sights of a major college football venue.
"That was a surreal moment for a 10-year-old," Dave Rohrwasser said.
"I thought it was the coolest thing ever," Justin said. "I knew I wanted to do something, anything, here."
The Rohrwassers stayed in downtown Huntington and Dave remembered the picturesque setting of soccer along the Ohio River. Eight years later, when Justin had decided to transfer from Rhode Island and was in search of a new college football home, he remembered his Marshall experience as a young boy. He visited UMass and New Mexico, and then the opportunity at Marshall was presented to him.
"It was a beautiful country to drive through," Dave said. "He loved the small town. That trip, it was a definite influence. He was dead set, once he had the chance to visit Marshall, that that's where he wanted to go. He had fond memories."
Justin blossomed as a football player in high school. He was the quarterback and kicker for Holy Trinity. On Oct. 25, 2014 – five years and one day before Saturday's game-winner against WKU – Justin engineered a game-winning drive as the team's QB, and then lined up for a game-winning 37-yard field goal to break a 20-20 tie. He nailed it.
"I just have fun with it," he said Saturday night. "You live for these opportunities. Just enjoy the moment."
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Justin Rohrwasser has six piercings and tattoos cascading down his arms. There's one that reads "Liberty or death," and another that says "Don't tread on me." He has an American flag on his forearm, and his initial on his triceps. There's an anchor, the all-seeing eye and another for the Dave Matthews Band.
"They're all random," he said.
Some might call them quirky, which would also describe his kicking style. He lists Sebastian Janikowski and Matt Bryant as NFL kickers he admires.
"They don't follow through too much and I don't either," Justin said. "I don't look pretty kicking it."
He often draws parallels between place-kicking and golf, although he confesses to being a terrible golfer. He said his kicks have a slight draw, so he knows kicks that start at the right upright are going to go through. Brooks Koepka is one of Justin's personal heroes, but it is Jim Furyk who he mentions for form.
"He has that little hitch," Justin said. "Some people don't follow through. I'm weird like that."
The results are hard to dispute.
Justin is 11-for-11 on field goal attempts this season, and has made 12 consecutive field goal attempts dating back to last season.
Justin's 53-yard field goal against WKU is tied for the fourth-longest made kick in school history, and tied for the third-longest made kick in Joan C. Edwards Stadium history. The 53-yard field goal is the longest in 217 games at Marshall, since Curtis Head made a kick of the same distance against Buffalo in 2002. Justin tied a school record with four made field goals, equaling the four made by David Merrick (East Tennessee State, 1993), Tim Openlander (The Citadel, 1995), Billy Malashevich (Miami, 1999) and Justin Haig (Louisiana Tech, 2014). His 14 points – four field goals and two extra points –  tied for the third-most in school history (four others).
"He hasn't even plateaued yet," Dave Rohrwasser said. "Every year he's gotten better. Most college kickers, by this time, have gotten to where they're going to be. Justin is still developing. He was a soccer player, so he kicked totally different. He has improved every year, and this year has been dramatic."
Dave said he could see the improvement this summer when Justin had as much as 7 extra yards on his kicks. It is why he knew that, if the coaching staff trusted him, Justin could come through in the clutch for the Thundering Herd.
Dave saw the potential on the snow-covered fields of New York. Justin kept his vision private, saved for the bus rides to the stadium when he imagined what it would be like to kick a football true with the game on the line.
"Sometimes the dreams aren't as good as that one was," Justin said. "The best part is how happy everyone else was."
