Football Rewind: Joshua Hossmann Lees Reflects on Game-Winning Kick against Weber State

Football doesn’t get much more exciting than this.

With about two minutes left in the fourth quarter, Weber State tied the game 41-41 and appeared to have momentum. PSU threw three incomplete passes, using up about 20 seconds, and the Wildcats were driving in PSU territory as the clock wound down to a minute following the Viking punt.

Then lightning struck. Safety Terahiti Wolfe, junior transfer from Montana in his fourth game as a Viking, stepped in front of a Weber State pass at around the PSU 30…his second interception out of six turnovers PSU gained… and returned it to the Wildcats’ 45 with less than a minute left.

Junior running back Delon Thompson ran two plays to the Weber 24, managing to get out of bounds with two seconds left.

On comes Joshua Hossmann Lees for his third field goal attempt of the game (the other two successful). As the play unfolds, Weber State calls time out trying to rattle Hossmann Lees, who follows through with his kick anyway…and misses.

After the timeout, Hossmann Lees hits his third field goal of the game right down the middle (well, maybe slightly off center to the right) as time expires.

The attempt at rattling the kicker had backfired. “Actually, I was glad they did it. That missed kick relieved the pressure,” he said.

At Helix High School in San Diego, Hossmann Lees remembers he wanted to play football, but his mother had other ideas. She was fine with him playing basketball and soccer, sports he’d been playing for several years, but football was too dangerous.

Knowing he’d played soccer, a friend (now a defensive back at Idaho State) suggested he try kicking. That pleased his family, too.

Hossmann Lees immediately found that the kicking community is a connected community.

“There are so many camps all over the U.S., and you go and compete against everyone, but at the same time, you make so many friends who go through all the same highs and lows,” he said. “Back home in San Diego, there is a big kicking community as well, and it’s a lot of fun to go out with friends and kick the ball and get better.”

And, get better, he did…but he wasn’t physically ready to step onto D-1 playing fields right out of high school.

“I chose to go to junior college because I thought I wasn’t ready yet physically. I knew I needed the extra time to develop…and junior college is free in California,” he said.

At San Diego Mesa college, he also realized kicking is really a mental game, more than a physical one.

“The challenge of being a kicker is the mental side. Of course, getting bigger and stronger and more explosive is challenging, but the mental side is really something. I started taking it way more seriously last year,” he said and sought out a sports psychologist, a practice he continues today.

That seriousness paid off. PSU’s new coaching staff needed a kicker.

“Once we got here as a new coaching staff last winter and began to get a feel for the needs of the roster, it became clear that we had to generate competition in the specialist room. We needed to add a kicker, and we needed him to start by spring ball,” said Special Teams Coordinator Jared Gallatin.

It was a whirlwind courtship.

“I’d finished my second year at San Diego Mesa College (with a cumulative 4.0 GPA) and I got a text from my kicking coach (Jaime Medina of Newgen Kicking) about interest from PSU. I hopped on the phone with Coach Gallatin and a few days later I met Coach Fisk on FaceTime. After hearing from both of them and hearing how much they value special teams, it felt like the perfect fit,” Hossmann Lees said.

And, four weeks after getting his first call, he was flying to Portland.

From warm and sunny San Diego to Portland’s damp cool spring was an adjustment. “When I got here spring term, that (the weather) was definitely something I had to get used to. I was getting laughed at a little by my teammates because I was wearing a hoodie and tights under my pads every day when some of the other guys were in T-shirts and shorts…but, then I got used to it,” he said.

As soon as Hossmann Lees arrived, Gallatin noticed something different about his new recruit.

“Josh has been with his teammates from day one. Often, kickers are off to the side and live in their own world a little bit. Josh is not that way. He is a great teammate and cares about others. His ability to support those around him while pursuing his own goals and aspirations has made him a great addition to the team,” he said.

“It was an entire team win. Offense and defense were making plays all night and I’m grateful for the other 10 guys on the field goal unit doing their job so I could execute mine,” Hossmann Lees said.

He’d had a couple game-tying field goals in high school, but this was his first game-winning kick. He described it as “nerve wracking, but fun at the same time.”

He has goals on and off the field for his time as a Viking. “On the field, I have worked on becoming more process oriented, rather than outcome oriented so my goals have been to be consistent with my journaling every night and picking one thing to work on at practice.”

Besides his game-winning boot, another football highlight so far as a Viking has been playing in front of friends and family in San Diego this year. And, he’s pleased his parents have been able to come to almost all his games.

Off the field, Hossmann Lees is aiming for a bachelor’s degree in global studies and a master’s in international studies. International studies is an interest because he’s interested in international business…”and I speak German fluently. My mom was born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, and my Oma still lives there.”

Where all that leads, he’s not sure yet. “But I love travel and would like to experience doing business in Germany. School has always been super important to me.” So far, he’s replicated his junior college four point at PSU.