Ben Derby had never worn football pads before this time last year. He’d never kicked a football until a few months before that. Never played Pop Warner football, or kicked for the Okemos High School football team. Or even thought about it.

A week from Saturday, on Aug. 23, Derby will kick for the Vegas Knight Hawks in the Indoor Football League championship game, televised on the CBS Sports Network, capping his first season of professional football — about 16 months after he bought a kicking holder tee at Dick’s Sporting Goods and went to Okemos’ football stadium to see what would happen.

“Oh, my gosh, I’ve got a big leg. I’m pretty good at this,” he realized.

Derby spent his childhood and college years focused on soccer. That was his dream, one he lived out as a standout at Okemos High

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