Vista Ridge football keeps coaching, kicking game all in the family with father daughter duo

Much like any kid who grew up around a coaching parent, Addison Vrana developed her love for football at an early age.

She had always admired from the sidelines, instead putting all of her athletic energy into the soccer pitch as a goalie and then as a forward. She still couldn’t shake the cultural appeal of the football field.

“It was great to spend a lot of time with him and sit around teams,” Addison said. “It was so much fun because the environment of a football team is so much different than any other kind of sport. It’s a lot of energy and everyone’s very supportive.”

She never thought she would be able to suit up for the sport herself until, one day, her father — Vista Ridge head football coach Michael Vrana — decided to test out her leg.

“We didn’t even think about this, you know, five or six years ago, but she’s an avid soccer player and plays soccer year-round and she’s a multi-sport athlete,” Michael said. “We were just messing around one day. I knew she could kick, but kicking a soccer ball is a little bit different than kicking a football. So we took her out and I was impressed the first time I had her out there. I was like, well, this is maybe something we want to look at.”

Addison, now a sophomore, has wasted no time impressing her teammates, coaches and opponents at the varsity level. In her debut season in the male-dominated sport, she’s secured seven PATs on nine attempts for an accuracy rate of 80%.

From the start, her teammates have supported her in every endeavor, even backing her up when her dad snubbed her on a field goal attempt. She’s shown incredible promise from afar in practice, consistently sending the ball through the uprights from 35 yards out.

“In our second game, I think we played against Far Northeast,” Michael said. “We came to the end of the game and we were winning by a lot. So it was kind of a, do we do this or not do that. And it was about 33 yards and she was looking at it and I was looking at it … and we weren’t quite sure. We let the other kicker, the guy who goes to kickoffs, we let him try it. He came up short.

“She steamed for about three days like, ‘I should have just done it.’ I was like well, it is what it is, and we didn’t make it but I wouldn’t have a problem with that. I mean, I know where her range is at. I’ve just got to make sure she’s comfortable with it. I think the guys that are super supportive of her were mad at me too, because I didn’t let her do it, but I think, within reason, we’re good. She’s not going to kick a 58-yard, game-winning field goal, I can tell you that, but she could probably chip a few in.”