The transition from the baseball diamond to the football field may not make sense to some people, but to LSU senior Chris Sciambra, it was obvious.
Sciambra, a three-year letterman for the LSU baseball team, recently walked on to the LSU football team as a kicker and punter. As a senior at Baton Rouge’s Catholic High School, 34 of his 50 kickoffs sailed through the endzone for a touchback, and he received the special teams MVP award. 
Even after his senior football season at Catholic, Sciambra chose to pursue baseball and play under coach Paul Mainieri at LSU. Although he chose baseball, Sciambra said kicking has always been in the back of his mind.
“It has always been a dream of mine to come out here,” Sciambra said. “When I was growing up, I was a bigger LSU football fan than LSU baseball fan. Football is something I really love to do, and kicking the football is really a passion of mine and is still something I thought I was good enough to do.”
Sciambra joins fellow baseball player Jared Foster on the football squad, entering the ranks of being a two-sport athlete at an NCAA Division I school. He wasn’t originally planning on playing two sports at LSU, but a deal with Foster persuaded Sciambra to try out for the team.
“I bet [Foster] a while back when the rumors about him playing football started that if he made the team, I would come over here and join him,” Sciambra said.
The bet and encouragement from sophomore placekicker Colby Delahoussaye and junior punter Jamie Keehn convinced Sciambra to talk to Mainieri about playing football and baseball.
“I used to kick in my free time with Colby and Jamie Keehn and those guys, I would just come over here and kick with them for fun,” Sciambra said. “And I talked to Coach Mainieri about it and he was cool with it, so it all worked out for me.”
Sciambra joined the Tigers’ special teams after the opening game Aug. 30, and on Sept. 6 he ran out of the tunnel in Tiger Stadium for the first time against Sam Houston State. He is currently fifth on the kicking depth chart behind Delahoussaye, freshman Cameron Gamble, sophomore Trent Domingue and freshman Kyle Pfau.
Being buried on the depth chart hasn’t discouraged Sciambra. He said he believes he has an important role on the team.
“If they decide to redshirt anyone, or if anyone ends up hurt, I’ll be ready to step right in,” Sciambra said. “Similarly to what my role has been with the baseball team, I will just take advantage of whenever they call my name.”
As a freshman, football wasn’t even on Sciambra’s radar, recovering from a season-ending neck injury suffered on the baseball diamond against Auburn in 2012. 
Sciambra fractured two areas of the C1 vertebra in his neck after slamming his head into the wall in an attempt to make a diving catch. The injury forced him to wear a neck brace for three months and forgo the rest of his freshman season with the LSU baseball team. Sciambra wasn’t discouraged and worked hard to make a full recovery.
“I didn’t really ever get discouraged,” Sciambra said. “I tried to look at it as a learning experience. It has made me more grateful for the times I do get to be on the field, and every time I get to step out there I realize that it is special and that I almost had it all taken away from me.”
Sciambra has taken the field at Alex Box countless times, but stepping in front of a crowd of 100,338 in Tiger Stadium for the first time was something he said he had dreamed about since he was a child.
“It was unbelievable, and it was something I had thought about since I was coming to games a kid,” Sciambra said. “It was an incredible experience for me and something I’ll never forget.”
You can reach Michael Haarala on Twitter @haarala_TDR.