Moving the Chains with … Eastern Illinois punter Jacob Horvath

Australian native Jacob Horvath (93) has stepped into both punting and placekick-holding duties for Eastern Illinois. (Photo by EIUPanthers.com)

By Dan Verdun

The worldwide pandemic altered nearly everyone’s lives. In the case of Australian Jacob Horvath, it also led to a life-changing decision.

“Making a long story short, during COVID I didn’t have much to do. I found out about a program called Pro Kick Australia that recruits Australian Rules footballers to become punters in the U.S.,” Horvath told Prairie State Pigskin. 

The opportunity called out to the Bentleigh, Australia native.

“I thought I had a reasonably good leg and thought I’d give it a crack and see what happened,” Horvath said. “I didn’t really have anything to lose because I wasn’t doing anything at the time. 

“In March I got into contact with Coach (Kyle) Derickson at EIU, and he and I spoke for a couple months and he offered me a spot on the team and now I’m here. It’s a bit of a whirlwind story.”

Adding to the whirlwind was the trip his father made to surprise him for EIU’s Sept. 23 home game with McNeese.

“We knew he was coming in town. He flew about 15 or 16 hours. He was able to get into Champaign Friday night,” said EIU head coach Chris Wilkerson, whose wife Sharna hails from Brisbane, Australia.

The next day, the senior Horvath completed the surprise by walking up to his son during team warmups on the turf at Charleston’s O’Brien Field.

In our Moving the Chains Q&A series, Jacob Horvath shares what his life was like in Australia, what his biggest adjustments have been and why Americans imitating Australian accents doesn’t quite seem to work.

Your birthday is coming up. When is it and how old will you be? 

We play Oct. 7 against UT Martin and it’s the day after that. I’ll be 20.

What was your life like in Australia prior to coming to Charleston?

It was definitely different. I wasn’t doing university because I wanted to save my eligibility. I was just doing warehouse work in a factory and I was training with “Pro Kick Australia” the rest of the time. On the weekends, I was just doing things with my mates. That was about it.

Did you play Australian Rules Football up to that point?

I was kicking a ball pretty much ever since I could walk. You start playing Aussie rules when you’re about eight or nine. I played that the majority of my youth growing up. I also played a bit of soccer. I played up until I was about 16, but then I found out about Pro Kick Australia. 

It was during COVID, and all the sports were shut down in Australia. Once I got in touch with Pro Kick Australia, they told me that if I wanted to do this I had to stop playing other sports, especially Australian rules because the worst thing would be for me to get injured and miss out during the recruitment process. 

Did you have any other offers besides EIU?

No, the way it works is that we only speak to one school at a time. So, my process was that I trained fulltime for about a year and a half when I got my offer. (Pro Kick Australia staffers) John Smith, Nate Chapman and Tim Gleeson did all the recruiting for me. Coach Derickson expressed interest in Eastern Illinois wanting a punter and they came to me and said, ‘hey, there’s a school we think would be good for you’. I was on board straight away. I just wanted to come here and play. 

Was there an apprehension on your family’s part?

No, Mom and Dad were prepared mentally for what was going to happen with me moving out. At first they were a little skeptical about it because at that stage I was 16 and didn’t know anything about how it all worked. But once they sat down with the coaches and they explained how everything goes on, they felt more comfortable. Now they are super supportive and happy that I’m here.

How has it helped that Coach Wilkerson’s wife Sharna is an Australian native?

Oh! She’s been super welcoming to me. Since I got here, she’s just been the best to me. I met her my first week. It’s been little things, like she brought me an Australian care package. It means a lot to know there are people that care about you.

She came over here at a similar time (to play softball at EIU in the 1990s). She can relate to the problems and the struggles of moving overseas when you’re younger. She’s been really good to me, especially in those early days.

Coach Wilkerson talked about having to teach you how to hold the ball when you were practicing fake punts. 

My eyes lit up a little when I heard there was a potential for me to run. I didn’t really think about technique, I just thought about running as long and fast as I could. 

We had a training session where the coaches asked me to hold the ball and tuck it and run for the first time. When we were watching the film, everyone was laughing because it was the complete wrong way to hold it. 

There were probably a bit of nerves when people saw me running against Bowling Green, but luckily I tucked it and ran and got the first down.

In three of your first four games, the opposing punter was also from Australia. What was that like?

It was pretty cool because a few of the boys I hadn’t seen in a couple years. It’s really nice seeing them; it reminds you of home. You can have conversations about things you took for granted back home. It’s the little things that no one here knows, like Australian Rules Football. (McNeese punter) Callum (Eddings) is a Collingwood fan, and we spoke about that. It was nice having a chat for five or 10 minutes, and then competing against each other.

What has been the biggest adjustment to American college football for you?

Probably the fans. I’d never played in front of a big crowd growing up in any of the sports I played growing up. Maybe a couple hundred when I was playing high school sport. 

Then we started at Indiana State in front of about 5,000 and then went to Bowling Green for about 12 or 13,000. That place was just rockin’ like it was goin’ off. The student section was up and about. I had never really dealt with heckling or anything like that. But it was pretty funny, and I enjoyed it.

How surprised were you when we saw your dad at the McNeese game?

I couldn’t believe it. I was speaking to Callum, who I hadn’t seen in a couple of years, and all of the sudden my dad was walking across to me. It didn’t seem real. It probably didn’t sink in until after the game when I was speaking to him.

It was awesome and then as it turned out, he picked a perfect game to come to as well. He loved it.

(Note: EIU won on a 56-yard field goal by Stone Galloway in which Horvath was the holder).

It’s only been a couple of months since I had last seen him, but I spent pretty much every day with him growing up.

What is something that the Americans you have met assume about Australia and/or Australians?

They think we have massive spiders. They see videos online about crazy animals and all these things. You would have to go to the Outback to see half the stuff they think is normal for Australia. 

Another thing I will say is when Americans try to do an Australian accent they actually wind up sounding British. That’s probably one thing that they get wrong. 

What is something that you have discovered about America?

One thing that I kind of knew, but I’ve really learned since coming here is how crazy America is about sport. Some of my friends on my team and their parents will travel hours to come and watch their kids play. 

I’ll turn on a sporting event, and for Americans they think it’s normal, but the fact that college football games will get millions of viewers. We don’t have anything like that in Australia. The craziest thing about America is how massive sport is. 

Sport is big in Australia, but nothing compared to here. It’s something that college games get 100,000 people. And these players are superstars, even in high school.

Seeing it firsthand, you see how crazy it is.

How is school going?

It’s pretty similar to back home. I didn’t do university in Australia so I really can’t compare, but at the moment I’m taking subjects like I did in high school. It’s very similar. The size of classes is a bit different. Some of my classes now might have 60 people in them whereas back in high school in Australia most of my classes were 20-25 students. 

What are your future plans? Will you return to Australia or stay here in the States? 

Honestly, I’m really not thinking about that. I’ll see what happens as I go. I’m only a freshman. I don’t really have any plans. I’m open to anything. If I go back to Australia, I’d love to do that. But I’d be more than happy to stay in America if a situation arises where I could stay and make a living here.

Dan Verdun is a co-founder of Prairie State Pigskin. He has written four books: NIU Huskies Football, EIU Panthers Football, ISU Redbirds Football and SIU Salukis Football.

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