Dedication To Tasks Keeps Noyes Balanced in Split Life
Rams impressed how the father of three handles his roles
Braidon Nourse
Similar to a kicker prepping for a game-winning field goal, you never know when you’ll be given an opportunity. When the time comes, you’d better be ready.
That’s the same kind of turn 31-year old Colorado State kicker Jordan Noyes’ life took four years ago.
“He just wants it,” Noyes’ wife said, who is also named Jordan Noyes. “He’s been a young teenager, he’s worked a 9-5 job, and now I think he’s found something that he really wants. I think that’s given him all these purposes and systems to figure out how to get to where he wants to go. I think that’s what gives him that dedication.”
After finishing high school in Higham, England, about 15 miles from his hometown of Dartford, Noyes took up a job working for his father, who worked in property management. Noyes was a financial advisor, working on the insurance side of things.
He was a three-sport athlete at that point, playing soccer, rugby and competing in gymnastics at different points in his life. During the nearly 10 years which followed, the only organized sport he played was in a Sunday amateur soccer league. The Sunday league scene is quite competitive in England, just without the fanfare and pressure which comes with college or professional sports.
In September of 2014, Noyes attended a festival with a group of friends, and through a mutual friend group who was at the festival as well, he met Jordan Tulip. She was the only sober friend in the group that night, so appropriately she was given the job of keeping track of everyone’s sunglasses once the sun went down.
Late that night, Noyes was the last to pick up his sunglasses, sparking conversation between the two that turned into texts, calls and constant hangouts.
A few months later, she left for Utah where she was planning to attend college at Utah Valley. She had cousins in the area who would help her settle in and give her a place to stay.
As soon as she got on the plane, something didn’t feel right. It took only a couple of weeks for her mind to be changed, and she wanted to go back home. Noyes was the first to hop on a plane to Utah, and she said it was him who effectively brought her back to England. They started dating not long after.
Four years later, he proposed in Santorini. The wedding was held in Portugal.
It was there she introduced her new husband to Matt Gay, current Indianapolis Colts kicker who at the time handled kicking responsibilities at Utah. Gay was dating one of her cousins there, and they flew out to attend the wedding before they married just a few weeks later.
The boys of the family — cousins, brothers, Noyes and Gay — went to a soccer field to play around. Gay was impressed with the power of Noyes’ leg and the similarities between their kicking form, prompting encouragement to try an American football.
Noyes picked it up as a sort of hobby, sending film to Gay who would give him tips on how to improve. Eventually, Gay started sending tapes to Freddie Whittingham, recruiting coordinator at Utah. Noyes kept improving, and Gay followed his progress along with Whittingham.
As he kept improving and waiting for a potential tryout, he and his wife found out she was pregnant with their first child.
Eventually, Noyes attended a minicamp at Utah in the summer of 2019 and earned a preferred walk-on spot with the team. The turnaround was too short to pack up and move in order to join the team that fall, so he decided to go back home to his wife and prepare for the move. Besides, it takes a while to apply for and receive the right visas.
She was around six months pregnant when he received the spot, meaning the birth of their first child and the time to pack up and move halfway across the world would fall very close to each other. Late that October, their first daughter, Scottie Noyes, was born.
“I had given birth, then when she was like five days old, we had to get her picture and everything done for her visa application,” Noyes said.
We helped him move into his house a couple weeks ago and the kids were just running around smiling. You can just see how much he means to them and how much they mean to him.Paddy Turner
Then it was off to Utah again. This time, the timing was much better to make the move than five years prior.
“It felt right, and I sent him first since school started,” she said. “And I was very much like ‘look, you need to go find an apartment, get a bed, get a crib,’ so that when I come over with a two month-old, it’ll be maybe a little less stressful.”
Her husband happily obliged.
It was time to get to work. Trading in his desk and knowledge in real estate back in England for a kicking tee and goal posts in Utah was his new reality. After long days of school and practice, the 28-year old went home to his wife and daughter while his teammates went home to dorm rooms and bunk beds.
Soon, one daughter turned into three. In November of 2020, they had twin girls, Skye and Summer.
Three years, two Pac-12 championship games and a Rose Bowl later, Noyes has taken up a new challenge in Fort Collins.
“Coach Tommy Perry made me want to come here,” he said. “The fact that CSU had someone dedicated to special teams the way he is, that was just a massive part of it. Another thing was that it wasn’t too far from Utah, so it wasn’t a massive move for my family, which was important.”
He’s made an instant impact on the specialists during fall camp due to his maturity on and off the field. His dedication to his craft has been contagious, especially to CSU’s punter — and Noyes’ holder on field goals and PATs — Paddy Turner.
“He doesn’t take any rep for granted, each one means something more,” Turner said. “He doesn’t come out just to kick 100 balls, he comes out to kick every ball he needs to and to have meaning behind it. It speaks a lot about his professionalism.
“He definitely brings maturity to our group. He shows us how little football is in a big world, but Jordan does a great job of finding that balance of spending quality time with his family and then spending quality time with his football family.”
Turner and Noyes share some of their unique experiences and have become better friends in the process. Noyes didn’t touch an American football until 2018; Turner didn’t start punting American footballs in organized football until last season. For Turner, it’s even refreshing to just hear another accent on the team aside from an American one.
When the Noyes family moved into their Fort Collins home, Turner and a few other specialists were among those who helped them move. He noticed how full of life Noyes was when he was around his family, even when going through the long, tedious process of a move.
“He’s just amazing with his family, he always brings such positive energy,” Turner said. “We helped him move into his house a couple weeks ago and the kids were just running around smiling. You can just see how much he means to them and how much they mean to him.”
Most of all, it’s the kicker-punter duo’s willingness and desire to keep learning a craft still relatively new to them.
“I think it helps our group as well,” Turner said. “We may see things that others don’t see. We bounce off each other and we definitely enjoy the learning process, learning the tricks of the trade. … That sort of brings us together as well.”
Noyes’ desire for being the best he can be extends beyond just making all 55 PATs he’s attempted in his career. Every ounce of effort he puts into his game, he puts into his life as a dad, too.
“When I hear how his coach and the other boys speak about him, it definitely stands out that he’s that much more mature,” his wife said. “The way he puts in the effort to be so present at home and with his kids, and then obviously how he’s able to switch off and go train from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day. I just think the dedication and maturity to balance those two is great.”
Despite the time spent on campus training or studying, he’s the cook at home. If mom can get away with it, he will cook any and every meal for his family. It’s one of the many things his daughters love about him.
“My kids are obsessed with him,” she said. “Obviously with the season they don’t see him as much, but he’s around, he’s present. He’s the cook when he’s home. … He’s the favorite for sure.”
For him, the life experience prior to his time kicking in the U.S. has been a great aid. His maturity is a common theme for anyone who talks about him, and he’s taken note of it. He describes himself the same way while admitting he doesn’t know if he’d find his unique situation as easy as he would have at a younger age.
He may not have always been prepared for the pressure of drilling a game-winning field goal or the responsibility of being a father, but the opportunity to discover a path he truly enjoys has made him ready for anything. His wife has seen the growth from start to finish.
“Seeing him play has been incredible and seeing how much he’s grown since when he was first learning how to kick,” she said. “As a person, I think he’s just so dedicated. It’s amazing that he’s had this time to explore something he actually loves.”