OPSU Kicker Carlos Vazquez Signs Pro Contract With Southwest Kansas Storm

Carlos Vazquez, who wore jersey No. 37 as OPSU's kicker and punter through the 2025 season, signed a professional contract with the Southwest Kansas Storm, completing a recruiting pipeline that runs from Longview, Texas, through the Oklahoma Panhandle, and into professional indoor football.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pound specialist arrived at Oklahoma Panhandle State University by way of Kilgore Community College, a route that took him from East Texas to Goodwell before landing him a professional roster spot. Vazquez was listed as a junior on the 2024 OPSU roster, making 2025 his senior year with the Aggies. OPSU's official football account announced the signing, a public marker of what the NAIA program's player development can produce.

The Storm play their home games at United Wireless Arena in Dodge City, Kansas, in neighboring southwest Kansas. The franchise has moved through three leagues in four years of existence: founded in 2021 as a Champions Indoor Football expansion team, the Storm competed in CIF through 2023, joined the revived Arena Football League in 2024 under head coach Gary Thomas, then became a charter member of the newly formed Arena Football One in 2025. The move to the National Arena League for 2026 came alongside the Salina Liberty, the other Kansas club entering the circuit this season.

The NAL, which began play in 2017, now fields nine teams in a 13-week regular season. The league's indoor game differs from the college outdoor game Vazquez played at OPSU in one fundamental respect: teams compete on a 50-yard field enclosed by dasher boards rather than open sidelines, compressing the angles on every kick. Specialists who can operate precisely in that geometry find professional footholds that larger programs rarely develop. The Storm opened their NAL home schedule on March 28 with a matchup against the Omaha Beef at United Wireless Arena, and played host to the Colorado Spartans in Week 5 on April 4.

For OPSU, a program drawing from a sparse recruiting base across Texas County and the broader panhandle, the signing offers a concrete answer to a question every specialist recruit eventually asks. Vazquez's path from Longview High School to Kilgore Community College to a NAIA program in Goodwell, and ultimately to a professional contract two hours north in Dodge City, is exactly the kind of outcome that gives smaller programs credibility when the next kicker is weighing his options.