Kansas sophomore Damon Greaves grew up more than 10,000 miles from where he plays college football. It is hard for the Australian-born punter to see his family during the season.
They finally made the trip to the Show-Me State over the weekend but they did not get to watch their star specialist in action. He literally sat on the bench for the entire 60 minutes.
Greaves is part of the Aussie wave that continues to take over college football. The 24-year-old was born in the beach town of Busselton, which sits on the westernmost coast of Australia just over two hours south of Perth. He calls it “the best place on Earth.”
American football is not a thing in the Land Down Under, so Greaves grew up playing Aussie rules football. As a natural right-footer, his father used to give him 50 cents for every left-footed kick he attempted until he was capable with both feet.
All of the hard work paid off! He was selected No. 14 overall by the Hawthorn Football Club during the 2019 AFL Draft and played 10 professional games in three seasons.
Greaves later decided to switch to the American game and trained with Prokick Academy. He committed to Kansas in the recruiting Class of 2023 as a punter.
The Punter from Down Under🦵
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) February 1, 2023
Damon Greaves is Lawrence bound!#Legacy23 | #RockChalk pic.twitter.com/2Q2lo2NHwG
Fast forward to this past weekend. The Jayhawks are currently renovating their home field so they played all of their home games at pro sports stadiums in Kansas City in 2024. They hosted the Colorado Buffaloes at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday.
Arrowhead Stadium is located 10,731 miles from Busselton. Greaves’ close friends and family traveled all that way to hopefully watch him punt at least one time.
Although they were able to see him do his thing during warmups, they did not get to see him punt during the game. Kansas scored on seven of its eight offensive drives. The eighth offensive drive ended the game.
- Six plays, 73 yards — touchdown
- 13 plays, 61 yards — field goal
- Eight plays, 61 yards — touchdown
- Eight plays, 69 yards — field goal
- 12 plays, 73 yards — field goal
- 10 plays, 80 yards — touchdown
- 14 plays, 70 yards — touchdown
- 10 plays, 53 yards — game over
Damon Greaves’ family traveled half way around the world, covering about 11,000 miles over at least 31 hours, and did not witness a single punt. Not even one! At least the Jayhawks won…