Kyle Ostendorp was a 4.65 guy in high school.
We’re talking grade-point average here, not 40-yard dash.
Ostendorp is smarter than the average punter. He carries a 4.0 GPA at Arizona. He’s majoring in aerospace engineering.
Ostendorp also ranks second in the Pac-12 and sixth nationally with a gross average of 48.4 yards per punt. It’s almost 10 yards higher than the mark he posted as a freshman. The UA season record is 47.5 yards.
With his newfound ability to flip the field, Ostendorp has been one of the most valuable performers for struggling Arizona, which visits USC on Saturday.
The Wildcats have yet to win a game. But as UA coach Jedd Fisch noted, they won special teams last week against Washington. Arizona blocked a punt. Ostendorp averaged 56.2 yards on five attempts, landing three inside the 20-yard line without a touchback.
After not playing at all last season because of an ankle injury, Ostendorp had to win the punting job in training camp. Which he did. It was hardly all that he did last summer.
Ostendorp worked as a paid intern for GEOST in Northwest Tucson. GEOST provides optical systems that operate in environments “under the ocean to those that orbit the earth and everywhere in between,” said Adam Wade, senior optical engineer and program manager for the company.
Ostendorp didn’t spend his time there picking up coffee and making copies. Using CAD (computer-aided design) and 3D printing, he helped create models and prototypes for instrumentation units, or “payloads,” that are attached to satellites.
“It was fun,” said Ostendorp, a third-year sophomore from Phoenix. “It was a little different than what I was used to. They did a lot more optical engineering. That’s dealing with light and laser sensors. Whereas aerospace engineering, it’s more like airflow over objects, like a plane wing.
“It was hard to get accustomed to at first. But I picked it up pretty quickly.”
Ostendorp worked 40 hours a week at GEOST from May through July. He also aced Arizona’s offseason workout program.
It’s all part of a balancing act this UA student-athlete has come to master.
‘Get ahead, stay ahead’
Ostendorp couldn’t just punch in at GEOST at 9 a.m. and punch out at 5 p.m. He had to fit his internship around his day job as a scholarship specialist for the Wildcats.
“Sometimes I’d be there at 4:30 in the morning,” Ostendorp said. “Sometimes I’d be there until 8 at night.”
If Ostendorp was distracted in any way, his coaches didn’t pick up on it. Fisch said the specialists were among the hardest workers in strength coach Tyler Owens’ rigorous program.
“Those guys were attacking conditioning and attacking the strength program,” Fisch said. “I think it’s showed up with his leg. His leg has gotten stronger. He’s kicking the ball really well.”
Fisch said Ostendorp and kicker Lucas Havrisik sometimes “look like linebackers” during conditioning drills. Ostendorp, who’s listed at 6 feet 1 inch and 215 pounds, played linebacker and fullback from youth football through his freshman year at Desert Vista High School. Punting and kicking were strictly side gigs.
But Ostendorp began to show an aptitude for punting. He developed his skills under Rich Camarillo, a Desert Vista assistant coach who had spent 16 years as a punter in the NFL, including five with the Cardinals.
Ostendorp became a full-time specialist. By his senior year, he had boosted his punting average to 42.7 yards per kick.
All the while, Ostendorp maintained a weighted GPA of 4.65. Academics were always a priority in the Ostendorp household. His father, Christoph, is a mechanical engineer who works for Intel. His mother, Jill, is a realtor. His older brother, Jared, graduated in three years from Washington with degrees in finance and applied mathematics. Kyle is on pace to graduate in May.
“It’s a balancing act for sure with football and school and everything,” Jill Ostendorp said. “He’s always been great at time management. He just tries his best to get ahead, stay ahead and do what he needs to do.”
What’s a typical weekday like for Ostendorp? He wakes up about 5:30 a.m.; lifts weights from 6:30 until about 7:30; eats breakfast “real quick”; does homework from about 8:30 until 12:15 p.m.; goes to class from 12:30-2; goes straight from class to team meetings; attends practice; then goes to another class at 5:30 p.m.
“Mr. Ostendorp was a highly engaged student,” said Alex Craig, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering who taught Ostendorp in an instrumentation laboratory class. “It was never even noticeable that he had a competing priority such as a varsity sport, with the exception of a few times where a due date conflicted with a game day.”
Aiming high
Ostendorp has two more years of eligibility after this one. He’s planning to get a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and possibly an MBA. He’d like to someday work on high-performance sports cars for Mercedes-Benz or Formula One.
“Every little kid’s dream is to become an astronaut,” Ostendorp said. “With my major, that’s the closest thing you can do to becoming an astronaut without actually becoming an astronaut.”
Ostendorp knows the odds of becoming an astronaut are, well, astronomical. In 2017, for instance, NASA received 18,300 applications. Twelve people made the cut.
The odds of becoming an NFL punter aren’t quite as steep, but it’s a pretty exclusive club. There are only 32 in the world at any given time.
Ostendorp is giving it his best shot. He doesn’t like to lose, whether it’s academics or athletics.
“I just like doing the best I can,” he said. “I get frustrated if I don’t. I’m a competitive person. If there’s a highest grade on the test and I didn’t get it, I’m kind of like, ‘Damn.’
“I’m not gonna beat myself up over it. But I do try really hard to be perfect in school and in football.”
Ostendorp conceded that his freshman year was a “struggle.” He averaged just 39.7 yards per punt and couldn’t keep a firm grasp on the job.
Then, just before the shortened 2020 season was set to begin, Ostendorp rolled his right ankle. Freshman Tyler Loop handled the punting duties. Ostendorp didn’t appear in a game.
Once he got healthy, Ostendorp went to work to improve his strength, technique and consistency. It’s paying off. The NFL might not be as out of reach as an orbiting satellite. But even if he were to make it, Ostendorp knows football “is not forever.”
“I want to stay in school, get my degree, continue to get as much education as I can, keep preparing and improving to see how the NFL would go and then obviously try that out,” he said. “And if not, I have a great backup plan.”
