A recent episode of the popular sports show "The Bill Simmons Podcast" highlighted the journey of former Ridgewood standout Younghoe Koo’s journey from South Korea to NFL starting kicker.

Koo defied expectations when he was named the placekicker for the Los Angeles Charges as an undrafted free agent this season, beating out veteran Josh Lambo.

During the conversation Koo talked about moving to North Jersey at age 12 with a background in sports, but no knowledge of English. His kicking abilities helped him bridge the gap with his new classmates and introduced him to football.

“During a lunch break, kids were playing two-hand-touch football. They said, ‘Punt it,’ because they knew I played soccer. And they saw me punt the ball and they were like, ‘Oh man. Look at this kid! You should come out and play football with us.’ And that’s how I signed up for football,” Koo said on the show.

“I’m just trying to soak it all in,” Koo said after special teams coach George Stewart gave him the good news. “I just went in there with the mindset that I have nothing to lose, so control the things you can control. Make every kick when they put you out there.”

He did that, hitting all three extra points and his lone field goal try, a 27-yarder. Lambo was also perfect, going 2 for 2 on field goals with a 53-yarder and 4 of 4 on extra points. While Lambo put 6 of 7 kickoffs for touchbacks, what may have sealed the spot for Koo were his directional kickoffs. Teams averaged only 21 yards a return, and with the new touchback rule bringing the ball out to the 25-yard line, Koo’s hang time on kickoffs gave his coverage team the chance to get downfield and negate the big return.

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None of that would have been possible without the help of a middle school coach who had a talk with Koo's father when it came time to enter high school and choose between football and soccer.

“My middle school coach, my teammate's dad, came to my house and told my dad, ‘He has a future in [football].’ Because my dad looked at it like I was just kicking a football. But my middle school [coach] explained to my dad, ‘You can get a scholarship and you can have a future in this.’ So I got to thank him for explaining that to my dad, so we chose the football route,” Koo said in the podcast.

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Koo pointed to Pat Sempier, the long-time kicking coach who has been instrumental in many other local kickers' success in both college and the pros. He hooked up with Sempier as a freshman at Ridgewood.

“I talk to him every day,” he said. “Not every other day, every day. He taught me how to kick a football, and not just the physical part. He taught me the mental toughness that goes into kicking. He’s more than a kicking coach to me, he’s a life mentor, and I owe everything to him.”

Coming in as an undrafted free agent, he knew he was fighting an uphill battle, but he got a great piece of advice from strength coach John Lott.

“When I first got here, coach Lott asked, ‘if you went back to college right now would you have a great year?’ and I said sure. He said, ‘that’s because you were comfortable there. Here, you’re going against guys who have been here and are comfortable. You need to find the comfortability.’"

Jim McConville contributed to this story.