Tucson Standard

A multitude of frequently complex rules dominant most sports, especially football. Seemingly endless documents spelling out exactly what you can and cannot do on the field of play.

Growing up, Arizona Football punter Kyle Ostendorp had just one rule to live by in his household: Get good grades and try hard.

"It's always been a pretty big focus of mine to do well in school," Ostendorp said. "Because growing up when I was in elementary school, middle school, and high school, you really had an uncertainty of whether you're really going to play college sports or not. So I always knew that no matter what I was going to have a certainty of having a job."

Take it seriously he has – after graduating from Desert Vista High School in Phoenix with an astounding 4.65 GPA and a pair of Scholar-Athlete of the Year awards he trekked down I-10 to begin his collegiate career.

At Arizona, Ostendorp has worked his way into the full time punter role for the Wildcats while maintaining a 4.0 GPA as an Aerospace Engineering major and earning Pac-12 Honor Roll distinctions.

What started out as an interest in rockets, airplanes, and astronauts has morphed into a more earth-bound desire to work on high performance sports cars, such as the ones driven in Formula 1, after his playing days are finished.

"I wanted to be an astronaut, but I think every kid also wants to be a race car driver as well," he said. "To work on the aerodynamics for an F1 team has really interested me in the past three or four years since I started college. It really relates to everything I've done in aerospace, because the main objective for planes is to produce a high lift and reduce the drag — and now you just reverse everything you knew from school. You want to produce the most amount of downforce, but still minimize the amount of drag as well."

These dreams remain down the road, however, as Ostendorp remains focused on pursuing his career in football as far as it will take him.

The 2021 Associated Press All-Pac-12 First Team selection has made a name for himself and his powerful right leg since stepping foot on campus. Last season, Ostendorp broke the Arizona program record and led the conference with an average of 49.2 yards per punt and booted an impressive 28 punts that traveled 50+ yards.

After pursuing a high-level internship with GEOST, a Tucson-based optical engineering company, during the summer of 2020 he set his sights back on the football field last offseason.

"I really just wanted to focus on football for the summer, so I decided not to do anything academically just to try to become the best football player I can become," Ostendorp said. "For the past four to six years, I've never really had a time to solely focus on football."

Balancing both of these equally important aspects of life can be difficult, but the support and resources provided by the football staff and C.A.T.S Academics have helped him continue finding success.

"Coach Fisch gives us every resource and every opportunity we have to be able to be successful in the classroom," Ostendorp said. "Every team meeting he starts out by talking about academics and where we are as a team with our GPA. He really makes sure kids are on top of their studies because he knows that football is not forever; you are here to get an education as well. So he's done a great job with that."

A lifelong self-starter, Ostendorp has transitioned much of his learning and time management to his own systems. However, after greatly benefiting from C.A.T.S. Academics early in his career, he now repeatedly steers his teammates and fellow student-athletes through their doors.

"I know a lot of our team uses them for tutors, for lessons, or for class planning," he said. "Just to be able to go in there if you need help with a writing tutor or a math tutor, they'll have somebody there for you. Which I think is a great option because we don't have to pay for it; it really allows us to thrive both on the field and off the field."

Ostendorp and the Wildcats are off to their best start since 2019, having just wrapped up non-conference play with an impressive 2-1 record.

Original source can be found here.