Senior Signing Spotlight: Juaquin Rodriguez-Higuera

This is the 24th in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 296) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.

SPOTLIGHT: 3/5/20

Arizona Christian had success last season with a Higuera at kicker. The Firestorm looked to the same family to continue that legacy with the recruitment of Juaquin Rodriguez-Higuera.

The younger of the two brothers is completing his senior year at Centennial, where he kicked for the Coyotes the past two seasons. The interesting part of the story is Rodriguez-Higuera wasn't a special teams player throughout high school.

He has only been kicking a football for 2-1/2 years. Prior to that, he was a diehard soccer player. Starting out at Paradise Valley HS, Rodriguez-Higuera had a special kicking tryout late in his freshman year. His older brother, Nestor Higuera, played a role in the start of Juaquin's journey into football.

"I had to have my brother help convince my Mom to let me play by having us both play," Rodriguez-Higuera said in an e-mail interview. "I was able to kick the last two games on the freshman team and one game at the JV level."

In his sophomore year, Rodriguez-Higuera played at a place you'd normally expect to find a 5-9, 255-pounder - defensive tackle. He made 19 tackles for the Trojans while Nestor was the team's kicker in his senior year.

When Nestor moved on to ACU in 2018, Juaquin transferred to Centennial. After sitting the first five games, he made an impact for the high-scoring Coyotes. Rodriguez-Higuera handled kickoffs (71 of them in nine games), was 56-of-58 in extra points, and converted both of his field goal attempts (CeHS scored a lot of touchdowns).

The reason for the transfer was convenience as the Peoria school was closer to his Mom's place of work. During his sophomore year, Rodriguez-Higuera started going to Arizona Cardinals Kicking Camps run by former ASU and NFL player Luis Zendejas. From there, he attended one-on-one trainings with Zendejas to fine tune his form and technique.

Rodriguez-Higuera missed just two extra points again in his senior year (39-of-41) and booted three field goals with the longest being a 44-yarder down in Vail against Cienega. He received an offer from ACU in December, but waited until Signing Day in February to publicly announce he would be joining the Firestorm.

"I wanted to make sure that it was the right fit for me and my future," Rodriguez-Higuera said. "I also had to consider that I would be competing alongside their current kicker that had a great season."

That "current kicker" would be his brother, Nestor. He redshirted in 2018 and then last season went out and hit 10-of-14 field goals for the Firestorm with a long of 49 yards.

So, how far can Rodriguez-Higuera boot it? He posted a video last spring.

Kicking for a perennial power like Centennial has its benefits, like the Coyotes posting a record of 23-3 over the past two years. But, playing in a lot of big games can rattle the nerves as well.

"It added pressure knowing we were the first group of schools to make the Super-8 and everyone was going to be watching us as a team and as individual players," Rodriguez-Higuera said. "I knew I had to be on my A-game and I knew that during some games, I was not performing at my best. I felt that by being there, it made me a valuable player because the team would turn to me when they needed those words of encouragement and I had their backs."

Centennial was among the first eight schools to make the Open Division tournament. While the season ended in Game 11 against Hamilton (28-19), Rodriguez-Higuera was up to the challenge as he connected on both extra points and his lone field goal attempt (32 yards). The Coyotes, who entered the 2019 season as defending 5A champions, were one of just two schools in the 5A Conference to make the Open.

When asked for a couple memorable moments from his high school years, Rodriguez-Higuera mentioned one on the field and one off of it.

"It was my senior year when we went on our senior retreat to a cabin and had the opportunity to bond as a team and as a football family," Rodriguez-Higuera said. "Another was my junior year when we won the state championship."

Finally, Rodriguez-Higuera is appreciative of those that have helped him along the way and for his faith as he gets set to enter this new journey in his education and football career.

"I would like to thank God for all the opportunities that he has presented to me," Rodriguez-Higuera said. "I want to thank my family for always supporting me in everything I do and being supportive in my decisions for my academic and athletic careers. I want to thank all the Centennial coaches for always pushing me to better myself on and off the field. Thank you to Coach Barry Bain (ACU kicking coach) for the opportunity he has give me to pursue my academic and athletic careers."