COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Matt Hansen is putting together a record-breaking season handling the kicking and punting duties for the Saint John's football team.
 
That comes just months after the 5-foot-11, 150-pound junior helped lead the Johnnies' 4x100 relay team to a conference title at the MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships last May.
 
Impressive accomplishments – made even more so when you consider Hansen didn't start out playing either of those sports at Niwot (Colo.) High School.
 
"I was a soccer player," said Hansen, whose leg will again be in use when the sixth-ranked Johnnies (10-1) play at No. 3 Wisconsin-River Falls (10-1) in the third round of the NCAA Division III playoffs at noon Saturday. "That was my first love. I started when I was five and played nonstop from then on."
 
It was his skill as a goalkeeper that first drew the attention of Niwot head football coach Nikolas Blume, who showed up at one of Hansen's soccer practices at the start of his junior year.
 
"He came up to me afterward and said he was watching me kick the ball around," Hansen recalled. "He thought I had quite the leg and wondered if I'd ever thought of being a kicker. I said I hadn't, but I'd really like to try.
 
"So he said he'd bring some of the football guys over with a ball to get me some practice kicks and see how it went. They showed up the next day. He liked what he saw, I really enjoyed it and that's how this all started."
 
Indeed, Hansen played both sports as a junior and senior. 
 
"It made for quite a busy fall season," said Hansen, whose mother Sarah (Omann) Roberts ran cross country and track and field at CSB and whose father Ryan Hansen was a soccer player at SJU. 
 
"But I loved it."
 
So much so he hoped to continue when he enrolled at SJU in the fall of 2023. He started practice in both sports, but as the start of the season approached, he realized he'd probably have to make a choice.
 
"We had tryouts toward the end of camp and the head coach at the time (John Haws) told me the backup goalkeeping spot on varsity was mine if I wanted it, but he couldn't have someone on varsity playing another sport," Hansen recalled. 
 
"He said he'd still support whatever I decided to do, but if I wanted to keep playing football, I wouldn't be on varsity," he continued. "He actually gave me two weeks to think about it. It was a tough decision because soccer had been such a big part of my life and I didn't think I was ready to be done.
 
"But after careful consideration and talking it over with my family members, I realized I wanted to give football a try and see where that took me. So I decided to step away from soccer entirely."
 
Hansen spent his first two seasons backing up All-MIAC kicker Conor Murphy '25 and punter Spencer Ell '24. But those players graduated following last season, and after winning both jobs in the preseason this fall, Hansen has made each of them his own.
 
Though the Johnnies' high-powered offense doesn't require punts often, he has still averaged 35.8 yards per kick in 16 attempts – including two of 50-or-more yards. Meanwhile, as a kicker, he is a perfect 75-for-75 on point-after-attempts, tying a school record for most in a season first set by Zach Barwick '19 in 2018. 
 
He's also 5-for-7 on field goal attempts, including a 47-yarder in a 41-6 win at Concordia on Oct. 18, that is tied for the seventh-longest in program history. Those numbers earned him a spot on the All-MIAC first team.
 
"He's been able to absorb a lot of things around him the past couple of years and I think that's really benefitted him this season," said SJU assistant coach Alexi Johnson '17, himself a two-time All-MIAC kicker for the Johnnies. "It's been fun to see him grow and unlock his full potential."
 
Hansen – who ranks fourth in the MIAC in scoring this season with 90 points – is also extremely quick. His 40-yard dash time this preseason was 4.50 seconds laser-timed and 4.35 hand-held. It's an asset that comes in handy in a number of different ways on the field.
 
"I think you can tell by looking at what my weight is listed at on the roster that there's not a lot of muscle to me," he said with a laugh. "But I do have fast twitch muscles, which is what kicking is based off of. And I have been able to chase down some guys on kickoff returns this season. I've been credited with a few tackles.
 
"You don't necessarily expect speed from your kicker," he added. "The coaches and other guys on the team actually laugh about it. (Offensive coordinator) Kole (Heckendorf) jokingly told me if I ran under a 4.6, he'd find a way to get me a stat that wasn't part of the kicking game. 
 
"That hasn't happened yet. But I'd love it if it does."
 
In the meantime, Hansen has found another outlet to use his speed. He'd never competed in track and field in high school, but when he was home for the holidays during his freshman year at SJU, his younger brother was taking pole vault lessons and he decided to tag along.
 
"The coach there told me it was the best first day of pole vaulting he'd seen," Hansen said. "Maybe he just wanted more business, I don't know. But he said if I came back a few more times over the winter break, he'd have me vaulting around the level the guys at my college back in Minnesota were at.
 
"I did that and it kept going well," he continued. "So I sent an email to the track coach here (Jeremy Karger-Gatzow) asking if I could try out. He said it would be great to have me. So I showed up, and by the end of the first practice, he told me I could be on the team."
 
Yet Hansen quickly transitioned out of pole vaulting and into sprints. It was in that role that he ran a leg on the Johnnies' 4x100 relay that set a conference-meet record with a first-place time of 40.29 seconds last May.
 
"It's kind of crazy how everything has worked out," he said. "But I'm really grateful to have these opportunities."
 
He's making the most of opportunities away from athletics as well. The global business leadership major, who is minoring in both environmental studies and entrepreneurship, is also part of the staff of Studio One, a literary and visual arts journal published each spring. 
 
He also has an artistic side of his own, dabbling in poetry and drawing extensively.
 
"Drawing is actually a really good form of escape for me," said Hansen, who may want to one day put those skills to use in an architecture career. "If I have a big game or meet coming up, sometimes I'll just sit down and draw. It distracts my mind a little. I'm able to slow my heartbeat down and get more relaxed."
 
Though Hansen grew up in Colorado, he has plenty of familial ties to Central Minnesota. His mother is a Sartell-St. Stephen High School graduate and most of her family still resides in the area.
 
"If I ever need anything, they're here for me," he said. "Especially my grandpa. He's one of the most supportive people I know. He's at every game and he checks in on me all the time. Having that kind of support system already in place made it a lot easier to decide to come here.
 
"But this is where I've always wanted to be," he continued. "My mom shared a picture with me a few days ago. It was me and my younger brother standing on the football field here during a trip back to Minnesota in 2019. That was six years ago. Now I'm here kicking and running on the track. 
 
"It's amazing that it's all come together this perfectly."