Marian University kicker invited to Colts rookie minicamp
Michael Josifovski practices kicking field goals on May 6 at St. Vincent Health Field at Marian University in Indianapolis. Josifovski, a star kicker for the past two seasons for Marian’s national championship football team, will participate in the Indianapolis Colts’ rookie minicamp from May 10-12. (Photo by Sean Gallagher)
By Sean Gallagher
Michael Josifovski had worked for years for this moment. Now it was time for the work to come to fulfillment.
He lined up to kick a game-winning field goal on Dec. 13, 2012, for the football team of Marian University in Indianapolis.
The ball was snapped. The holder caught it and put it squarely in place. Then Josifovski kicked the ball through the uprights.
In just the sixth year of its existence, the Marian University Knights’ team was the football champions of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
“It was a great feeling that came over me,” Josifovski said. “It made me feel like I hadn’t been lost all this time. There was some type of plan behind it. I stayed true to my faith. I stayed true to myself. I stayed true to my goals and my morals. And they did pay off.”
As an all-state kicker at Hobart High School in Hobart, Ind., Josifovski dreamed of playing in the NFL. But poor grades, the death of his father and playing for a junior college that only won two games in two years seemed to have brought those dreams to an end.
Then Coach Ted Karras, a fellow Hobart alumnus, met Josifovski and recruited him to play at Marian, saying that a bright football future was on the horizon for the new program with no history of success.
“He’s a great coach, and I can’t thank him enough for everything,” Josifovski said. “He convinced me and I bought in, as we all did. And he wasn’t lying.”
Josifovski’s kick made in Rome, Georgia, and a 51-yard game-winning field goal he booted on the last play of Marian’s semifinal game not only garnered him the praise of his teammates, fellow Marian students and the school’s alumni and supporters. It also attracted the attention of NFL teams, the ultimate goal of all football players who dream big.
A few weeks before the NFL draft held from April 25-27, Josifovski was invited by the Indianapolis Colts to participate in a pro day at their facility in which local college players could show their skills to the team’s coaches.
Two days before the draft began, Tom McMahon, the Colts’ special teams’ coordinator and himself a graduate of a small NAIA school, called Josifovski and told him to have his cell phone with him on Saturday after the draft was over.
“I waited and I waited,” Josifovski said. “About 10 or 15 minutes after the draft ended, I received a phone call from him, formally inviting me to the Colts’ rookie minicamp.” The camp will be held from May 10-12 at the Colt’s Indianapolis facility.
“He asked me if I was OK with it, and I said, ‘Yeah. Absolutely.’ It was an amazing feeling. It was validating. All of my hard work had paid off.”
He’ll be trying out for a team that features four-time Super Bowl champion kicker Adam Vinatieri (whom Josifovski calls “The Legend”) and up-and-coming punter and kicker Pat McAfee, whose nickname is “Boomstick.”
The reputation of these pro kickers doesn’t intimidate Josifovski, however, who is confident in his abilities.
“I’ve been blessed with a very strong leg,” said Josifovski, who gained the nickname “Megafoot” at Marian. “I feel like there’s no distance I can’t kick from. So I really never focus on what yard line it’s from. I just make sure everything is going down the middle.”
Josifovski isn’t alone in his high hopes.
“I hope that he can stick [on an NFL roster],” said Coach Karras, now the head coach of the football team at Walsh University in North Canton, Ohio. “I think that he has an NFL leg. He has superior leg strength. He’s also shown that he has nerves of steel to do what he did in the last two games of our season last year.”
Although Josifovski is brimming with confidence in himself, he keeps in mind how he’ll represent Marian at the Colts’ rookie minicamp.
“It’s an honor,” he said. “Looking back and seeing the great staff there from the president down and how much they care about Marian, being able to represent them at the next level on a national stage is wonderful. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”
Seeing his NFL dreams starting to come true also leads Josifovski back to his faith in God and the Orthodox faith instilled in him by his Eastern European parents, who emigrated to the United States.
“I feel like I use my faith to re-center myself, to help me step back and say, ‘Everything’s going to be OK as long as I’ve done the work, put in the training,’ ” he said. “You ask God to keep you strong, not necessarily to beat the other team, but to perform as well as I can.”
Seeing the faith and hard work of his fellow Marian students has also encouraged him to continue to pursue his football dreams.
“Seeing their struggles on a day-to-day basis, which are very different from mine, seeing them push forward and using faith to help them get through it motivates me,” Josifovski said. “You kick a few point-after-attempts. It can’t be that bad. Look at the girl next to you who’s got 20 credit hours of nursing classes.”
Josifovski knows that his faith will continue to be key for him as he tries to take advantage of his NFL opportunity.
“You stay focused,” he said. “You stay strong. Don’t let people tear you down. Don’t become morally weak. Always keep at it.
“And when an opportunity presents itself, it’s God giving you the chance, saying ‘Here you go. Now you have to go out and grab it.’” †
