Caden Pellizzer

IRON RIVER — Former West Iron County and Northern Michigan University football player Caden Pellizzer was at work last Saturday morning, mowing grass and weed whacking at the Iron River Country Club.

Typical golf course work at a typical summer job for an athletic young man in his first summer after graduating from college.

What happened next, however, was not typical.

After finishing his shift, Pellizzer, a three-year starter at long snapper for the NCAA Division 2 Wildcats, checked his Instagram and Twitter (now “X”) notifications and saw a message from Kyle Stelter, a long snapping coach at Special Teams University in Eau Claire, Wisconsin who has worked with Pellizzer (and many others, including NFL snappers) to perfect his technique.

“I saw that he had video-called me, so I called him back,” Pellizzer recalled. “He said, ‘Hey, I need your number, South Dakota University needs a long snapper.’ So he sent them my number and not even a minute later, they called and (asked), ‘Do you want to play football?’

After finishing his third season with the Wildcats last fall, Pellizzer entered the transfer portal for the express purpose of trying to hook on with a Division 1 team. So when USD director of player personnel and NFL liaison Josh Rosenthal called, Pellizzer didn’t need long to answer.

“I said, ‘Sure.'”

And so just that quick, Pellizzer’s goal of becoming a D1 football player took a gigantic step forward. That Aug. 12 morning, Pellizzer woke up as a 2022 graduate of NMU with a bachelor’s degree in athletic coaching who was preparing to become West Iron’s varsity boys basketball coach this winter. Now, he will don the red-and-white jersey of the Missouri Valley Conference South Dakota Coyotes and his coaching career will be put on hold.

Not only will Pellizzer get a shot to start the Coyotes season-opener on Thursday, Aug. 31 (at the SEC Missouri Tigers no less), but he will also get an opportunity to showcase his snapping skills at an NFL pro day at his new university after the season is over.

“They had 28 NFL teams show up to the pro day last year,” Pellizzer said.

And so with two weeks before the season starts, Pellizzer will pack up and drive himself to Vermillion, South Dakota, on Wednesday to join his new team, a squad which saw its starting long snapper leave the team recently.

The former Wykon football and basketball standout said he was told he will be in immediate competition for the starting job.

“It was a shock,” the soft-spoken Pellizzer said. “And it’s so late. They’re just finishing up their fall camp and they just had their first scrimmage. So I’ve got two weeks to practice.”

Actually, Pellizzer has kept his skills in tune all along, but it’s a massive jump from snapping footballs into a net at West Iron’s practice field to snapping footballs in front of rabid SEC fans at the 61,000-seat capacity Faurot Field in Columbia, Missouri.

But inside the heart of the son of Pastor Jim Pellizzer and his wife Sheri is a confident, gutsy and highly competitive athlete.

“I feel ready, but it’s definitely nerve wracking,” Caden said. “It’s like I’m dreaming. I’m definitely excited. This is what I wanted.”