When you picture a kicker in football, a 270-pound player likely doesn’t come to mind.
And when you picture a 270-pound football player, you’re probably not also envisioning him to stand at 5-foot-5.
But those measurements precisely describe kicker Nestor “Manny” Higuera.
Although Higuera doesn’t conform to the usual image of a kicker, it hasn’t prevented him from making it to the professional level, as he now plays for the Washington Wolfpack in the Arena Football One league.
In a video posted Monday on X, over 200,000 people were introduced, or perhaps reintroduced, to the 270-pound kicker.
Recently, Higuera was captured on camera executing a dropkick punt during the Wolfpack’s tough 98-12 defeat on Saturday. This moment marked his return to prominence, following his viral moment in 2021 when he secured a victory with a 46-yard field goal that clinched the first conference championship for his NAIA college.
Off the back of his first viral moment, he even made an appearance on Pat McAfee’s self-titled show.
Higuera’s athletic journey began as a soccer player, and it wasn’t until his junior year at Paradise Valley High School in Phoenix, Arizona, that he first attempted to kick a football, after being encouraged by the school’s coach to try his hand at football.
“When I first started, the farthest kick I kicked was like 55 (yards),” Higuera said. “I knew I always had the leg strength from soccer. On goal kicks, I could hit it three-fourths of the field. If I made good contact, I would put the ball like 10 yards away from the 18-yard box on the other side. So I always knew I had the power and the leg strength for it. But switching to football was a little difficult. After I got the hang of it, I was just able to kick and put the ball far.”
Higuera picked up the skills fairly fast, and with the help of a kicking camp run by former kicker Luis Zendejas, he wound up at Arizona Christian University.
“Manny is short and stocky, but he’s got a lot of power. I’ve probably done maybe 50 camps, and he probably won about 45 of those 50 camps,” Zendejas said in 2021. “He’s a very consistent kicker. He has what it takes. Weight and all that stuff doesn’t really matter. Only people see it because it’s not the norm.”
Higuera made 20 of 24 field goal attempts in college with a long of 52 yards and went 67 for 72 on PATs.
Most recently, Higuera made Arena Football One history by converting the league’s first-ever dropkick field goal.
While many social media users make jokes of Higuera, he inspires similar kids who may not fit into the typical body standards of a sport, as he said in 2021 that “most of my messages on Instagram or [X], like my DMs, have all been inspirational stuff. Kids saying I’m an inspiration to them.”
