During a recent Hawaii football practice, Kansei Matsuzawa was set to kick a football that holder Ben Falck placed 60 yards from the goal posts.

Matsuzawa’s right-down-the-middle attempt was a yard short of the crossbars. Of note: 1) Matsuzawa was asked to used only 70% of his power, and 2) at full strength, special teams coordinator Thomas Sheffield said, “he would have easily kicked it more than 60 yards. He has that kind of leg strength.”

“I told him ‘don’t over-kick it, just nice and smooth,’” Sheffield recalled. “We’re focusing on accuracy right now, and that (kick) was right down the middle.”

Sheffield is confident Matsuzawa, who was born and reared in Japan, will be able to master the intricacies of place-kicking. After all, Sheffield noted, Matsuzawa taught himself to kick a football and to speak English.

“He listens,” Sheffield said.

Two years after graduating high school, Matsuzawa was working while trying to find a goal. At 20, he discovered the NFL. “I felt this was so amazing, and I wanted to be a kicker,” said Matsuzawa, who grew up playing soccer.

For the next two years, he worked on kicking. “I had a passion to be a kicker,” he said. “I kept kicking every day, and focusing on me. I practiced for two years in Japan.”

He put together a highlight video. With the help of an interpreter, he wrote to several community colleges. The coaches from Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, extended a walk-on invitation. Although he had opportunities to attend colleges in California, Matsuzawa felt Nelsonville (population 5,373 in 2020) offered few distractions.

“I could focus on football and studying,” he said.

There was a slight problem. He did not speak English fluently. “I could say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” he said. His dorm room did not have a television set, so he had to pick up English by listening to teammates and new friends.

Matsuzawa excelled in his studies. Thanks to taking six classes in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years, Matsuzawa earned an associate degree in three semesters. By then, he gained attention for his powerful leg. He nailed the winning 50-yard kick in Hocking’s 13-12 victory over Louisburg last October.

Chris Sailer, who runs a popular kicking camp, wrote that on field-goal attempts Matsuzawa “gets the ball up quick, hits a pure ball and easily has 55+ range. His kickoffs are strong. He drives the ball into the end zone with 4.0+ hang time. A competitor who does well under pressure.”

Nevada made an offer to Matsuzawa in December, and soon after, UH made a pitch. In March, Matsuzawa made an oral commitment to join the Warriors this season. In April, he took an unofficial visit to Hawaii. He brought omiyage for the coaches. When he joined the team last month, he also brought Japanese candy. “A couple weeks ago, his dad comes from Japan to spend a week with Kansei, and he brings things,” Sheffield said. “In my office, a top drawer is loaded with Japanese candy.”

When camp opened, starting kicker Matthew Shipley explained his routine on game days and approach before kicking. Sheffield recalled Matsuzawa saying, “oh, man, I don’t have one of those.” Sheffield then said: “Let’s find you one.”

Sheffield added: “He does a really good job. But I want to make sure he builds a routine so everything is the same every single time. It looks like in our film study of him, when he does miss, there’s something different to it. Teaching and building a routine is kind of where the focus is right now with Kansei.”