The Aloha High School kick returner broke to the sideline with nothing but green turf in front of him. He was not as free as he thought. A hard shoulder from charging Grant General kicker Aidan Schneider knocked him to the ground.

A number of his Grant High School teammates yelled their approval and ran over to Schneider, a senior, to slap him on the back.

Two years ago had you told Schneider, a longtime soccer player, that he’d be playing this role with the Grant football team, he wouldn’t have believed you. He might have thought that you were confusing American football with futbol.

Schneider was strictly a soccer player until his junior year. He had played the game since age 5 and was a varsity soccer player as a junior. His big right leg and 6-foot 4-inch height made him an impressive central defender. He appeared to be on a path to Division III level college soccer.

That was until the fall of 2012 when he got a phone call from his next-door neighbor, Grant’s football captain Max Glicker.

Glicker called to tell him the team’s regular placekicker had left the team. Schneider could have the job if he wanted. He accepted and ever since has been working hard to promote himself as a potential college football kicker.

And last month, Schneider was named as a preferred walk-on kicker to the vaunted University of Oregon football team.

Schneider was born Aug. 8, 1996 to Laurie Causgrove and Bruce Schneider in Portland. From a young age, Schneider showed an aptitude for sports.

“Aidan has been kicking balls around the house for as long as I can remember,” says Causgrove. “He didn’t like to run that much, but he sure loved to kick.”

He played soccer and would seek out games wherever he could find them. In sixth grade, he made the transition to year-round club soccer and his game took off. Always bigger than most kids, the year-round instruction gave him foot skills and agility that he could use to overpower any attempted attacks from the defender position.

By the time he reached Grant, he was on a clear path to a varsity roster spot. He made JV as a freshman and sophomore, and by his junior year, he found a spot on varsity. During his senior year, he was named second team all state.

He continued to play club soccer, including traveling with his team to play in a national age-group championship soccer game in 2012. Football pretty much was the last thing on his mind.

Close friend Jonas Hanna saw in Schneider the potential to be a placekicker. He remembers when he saw the first sign. “One day in seventh grade, me and Aidan were messing around, trying out our placekicking skills,” recalls Hanna, a senior. “He hit a 45-yard field goal. That was crazy for a 7th grader.”

Then, during his junior year, Schneider got the offer to take the kicking job, and he went with it. He only played half of the year, but he enjoyed it.

Grant head coach Diallo Lewis says Schneider was more than just a soccer player kicking the ball around for fun. “I saw in Aidan a great work ethic,” Lewis says. “He had a strong commitment to being his best. He showed up for practice on time, every time, and put extra work in on the weekends, even while still playing soccer.”

In the summer of 2013, Schneider received an offer that sparked his interest. His powerful leg had gotten him an invitation to an Oregon Ducks kicking camp, hosted by kicking specialist Chris Sailer.

Sailer does the national rankings for kickers and was impressed by Schneider’s abilities. “Aidan is big, strong and athletic, which is unusual for kickers, but can be very useful,” Sailer says. “I saw great potential in him, and told him to work at it, and he did. The kid worked his tail off.”

Schneider began to get serious about kicking. He trained every day during the football offseason, and began to attend other Sailer-hosted camps in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. “We just turned them into mini family vacations,” says Causgrove.

His parents knew very little about football. But their son’s recruiting profile began to grow throughout the summer. Smaller schools such as University of Puget Sound and Whitworth University in Washington began offering him spots on their teams.

However, he was no longer content with small colleges. He wanted to take a shot at Division I. He contacted coaches, sending them e-mails and making highlight reels of his kicking. “Working with Sailer is unlike anything you can get at a local high school,” Schneider says. “He can improve your technique and skill so easily. He helped my game a lot.”

All of his off-season training paid off in the Generals 2013 football season. He made four out of six field goals, had 16 touchbacks and averaged 36 yards per punt. These numbers allowed Sailer to put him at No. 61 in the country for kickers, second best in Oregon. The ranking, combined with another strong performance in a January Las Vegas kicking camp (where his ranking rose to 37), peaked the interest of Tom Osborne, special teams coach of the Oregon Ducks.

In late February, Schneider made an unofficial visit to the University of Oregon, where he was told by Osborne that he would be a preferred walk-on player at Oregon.

Schneider was ecstatic and he immediately called his mom, who shared his feelings. “I was so happy that he got in at Oregon,” she says. “It’s great that he can play in Division I, and it’s fairly close to home.”

Sailer believes the future is bright for Schneider at UO. “He’s going to be good,” he says. “He’s got the physical talent and mental preparedness. I think he has the talent to start right away on kickoffs, where his strong leg can shine.”

He cautioned that starting at placekicker or punter as a freshman could be difficult, considering that the upperclassmen already on the team have college kicking experience.

None of it fazes Schneider. “I am going to try my best to start right away, whether I actually do or not,” he says, adding that he’ll major in business.

Schneider sometimes finds the idea that he will be playing with and against players he has seen on TV hard to fathom, considering he has played only two years of organized football.

“I just think it’s crazy,” Schneider says, “that I have played only 15 games of football in my life, and my sixteenth game will be as a Duck.” ♦