Dawson Evitts, a 2018 graduate of Schuylkill Haven Area High School, had more than enough reasons to give up on a dream of becoming a pro football kicker.
The Auburn area native is 24 years old and started kicking in football games as a sophomore at Schuylkill Haven. In that time, he’s torn his ACL three times and broken his femur once.
“I had a rough go for 5 years,” Evitts tells The Canary from a hotel room just off the Las Vegas Strip on Friday evening.
He says he’d undergone 4 or 5 surgeries in 3 years.
But on Saturday night at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, he’ll be with his Arizona Rattlers teammates in the Indoor Football League for a conference semifinal playoff game against the Vegas Knight Hawks.
The Rattlers and Knight Hawks kick off at 10 p.m. (Eastern).
Evitts Battles Back from Injuries to Sustain Pro Kicking Career
Evitts says those injuries could have kept him from pursuing a career as a pro kicker but he chose otherwise.
The road to Arizona and tonight’s playoff game has been about as rough as any of the roads here in Schuylkill County.
In his senior season at Schuylkill Haven, he was offered a scholarship to attend University of Pittsburgh. But then he tore his ACL and the Panthers revoked their offer.
“I doubled down on what I wanted to do with my career. It gave me the extra motivation to keep going,” Evitts said of that setback.
So, he spent a season kicking for a junior college in Buffalo, NY, before enrolling at Kutztown University.
In his senior season at Kutztown, Evitts earned an FCS Bowl invite to kick in front of pro scouts in Florida. But he couldn’t attend because the Golden Bears had advanced to the Division II Final Four.
After graduating in December 2023, Evitts went to Arizona for a combine with renowned kicking coach Gary Zauner, who over the course of nearly 40 years worked as a special teams coordinator and kicking consultant with numerous NFL teams.
He also attended a small-school combine in Indiana and the consulted with his agent on the next step in his career as a kicker.
Adjusting to the Indoor Football League
His agent presented several options. He bypassed an opportunity to kick in Mexico and ultimately signed with the Rattlers. Evitts says playing for the Rattlers gives him an opportunity to compile some film in an attempt to woo pro scouts.
There was just one issue: the Indoor Football League is quite different than traditional football, especially in the kicking game.
At the time, I didn’t know what the IFL was,” he says in our phone conversation. “There’s a lot of crazy rules.”
For instance, kickoffs through the uprights on the 50-yard field count as “deuces” and earn 2 points for the kicking team. Drop kicks instead of place kicks earn an additional point, so it’s 2 points for a PAT and 4 points for a field goal.
But the biggest change, Evitts says, is the size of the uprights.
In high school, the uprights are 24 feet wide and 10 feet high. At the NCAA level, they’re 18×10. But in the IFL, the uprights are only 9 feet apart and 15 feet high.
The change, Evitts says, has actually been good for his game.
“It’s a world of a difference,” he says. “It’s really helped my accuracy.”
It must be working. Evitts has enjoyed great success on the field in his first season with the Rattlers.
He’s first in the league among kickers in field goal percentage and third in kickoffs and PATs.
His prowess so far in the IFL could be crucial for his Rattlers tonight in Vegas. Arizona dropped the teams’ two previous meetings but only by a combined 7 points.
After this season is completed, Evitts says he’s been talking with several United Football League teams about a potential spot on one of those rosters.
But he’s looking forward to returning to Schuylkill County, where he’d like to lend his knowledge to local high school kickers and hopefully help them improve their games.
Watch Arizona Rattlers vs. Vegas Knight Hawks
You can watch Evitts and the Rattlers take on the Knight Hawks tonight at 10 p.m. (Eastern).
The game will be streamed exclusively by Stadium Network and there are several ways you can watch the action tonight.
It will be available on the Stadium YouTube channel and you can also find Stadium Network on the following streaming services:
- Amazon Prime Video
- YouTube TV
- Fubo
- Freevee
- Tubi
- Samsung TV
- Sports Tribal
- Plex TV
- The Stadium app
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