Foxcroft Academy football kicker from Haiti looks forward to opportunity at UMaine
By Sam Canfield, Bangor Daily News Staff
Kemsley Marsters is committed to play for the University of Maine’s football team, and he’s only been playing the sport for three years.
A lifelong soccer player, Marsters walked onto Foxcroft Academy’s football team when he was a sophomore in high school — seven years after landing in Maine as an orphan from Haiti — winning over the Ponies with his powerful right leg, and immediately being promoted as the team’s starting place kicker and punter.
In the state championship game later that fall, Marsters turned a muffed punt into a pivotal 17-yard first down run, going on to become an all-conference running back and wide receiver for the Ponies, and finishing his career this November as a two-time state champion.
CAN’T BE STOPPED — Foxcroft Academy’s Kemsley Marsters runs between a pair of would-be tacklers on his way to a 28-yard touchdown during the 2022 Class D championship victory over Lisbon in Bangor. He also was a perfect 5-for-5 on PAT attempts. After only kicking for three years, Marsters will be joining the University of Maine football team in the fall.
Marsters will have to start from scratch again in Orono this fall, by beating out three other kickers on the roster for the starting job. That starting spot is his only ticket to an athletic scholarship, yet Marsters isn’t the least bit concerned about his future as a college athlete, having blazed his own trail his entire life.
“I’m excited for the competition. It’s always been me against me,” Marsters said. “I’m going to work hard enough so that I can get to be as good as I can be, and leave a big impression on UMaine’s football team.”
Marsters grew up in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, not knowing how many meals he might get in any given day. At the age of eight, Marsters was adopted by his parents in Maine, which he described as distinctly “reassuring” yet “frightening,” not knowing English or having experienced cold weather.
It took Marsters a while to get used to the unfamiliarity of Maine, but his bravery and passion for life never wavered. Years later, when he realized he wanted to try football out, he took the initiative to teach himself.
BACK AT OAKES FIELD — Then Pony sophomore Kemsley Marsters kicks the PAT on a hold by senior Austin Seavey in the 2021 regular season opener vs. Lisbon, Marsters’ first football game.
“We didn’t have a kicking coach at Foxcroft, so I did it my own way,” Marsters said. “The technique is completely different from soccer, so I watched YouTube videos of people who played soccer and switched to football, did online training, and went to summer camps at UMaine.”
Soon enough, Marsters was punting 70 yards and nailing 55-yard field goals. One time, Marsters even mashed a kickoff through the goalposts, winning a bet with his athletic trainer and garnering cheers from the opposing sideline.
It was at a UMaine summer camp his junior year where Marsters’ sheer strength and dedication to his craft caught the attention of the Black Bears’ coaching staff.
“They were surprised I could kick that far as a high schooler,” Marsters said. “As a kicker you don’t normally get scholarships, but they said if I can establish myself as their top kicker, I could get a scholarship by my sophomore year. That’s my goal.”
TOUCHBACK — Kemsley Marsters once kicked a football more than 70 yards in a game.
For most, going from a total rookie to a Division I scholarship athlete in just four years would be a far-fetched goal. But for Marsters, defying the odds has become a source of motivation, and venturing into the unknown has become routine.
“Kemsley possesses the love of football and selflessness we want in a Maine football player,” UMaine head coach Jordan Stevens said. “[He]’s a talented kicker with the strength and power to put points on the board.”