Where Are They Now? Jordan Congdon
Jordan Congdon: A Dream Bigger than Football
What do you do when your dreams slip through your fingers, but a more profound purpose emerges in their place? For Jordan Congdon, the answer was far from what he ever imagined. While soccer and football became his passions, the call to serve others would ultimately reshape his future. From kicking game-winning field goals at Nebraska to facing a crossroads that led him away from the NFL, Jordan found a new calling: using sports to transform the lives of at-risk youth.
Jordan Congdon grew up in San Diego, California. His parents would select a small community called City Heights. They picked this area for a reason: to help those around them. Jordan’s parents were Christian missionaries, and together they founded Amor Ministries. City Heights at the time was the most racially diverse part of San Deigo, while also having a low socioeconomic status and issues with drugs and violent crime. They needed all the help they could get, so Jordan and his parents would answer that call. While helping those around him, he fell in love with playing sports like soccer, baseball, and tennis. Over the years, his passion for soccer increased, but a new sport came into his life: football. His excellent leg and ability to kick in soccer would carry over to football, and after going to a kickers camp, he knew he wanted to one day be a kicker in the NFL.
His football journey would start in high school, where he ultimately won the kicking job as a sophomore. Soon, colleges would begin to notice Jordan. His hometown team, San Diego State, would become the first school to offer him a scholarship. Bill Busch would go to San Deigo on a recruiting trip shortly after, stopping by multiple high schools, including a stop to see Jordan kick in person. Only a few days after his visit, Bill Busch would call Jordan to set up a visit to Lincoln. Congdon fell in love with Nebraska, and after receiving a scholarship offer, it was a done deal.
At Nebraska, Congdon had an impressive freshman season, earning All-America honors after successfully converting 19 of 23 field goals and 31 of 32 extra points. He immediately impacted Nebraska’s season opener against Maine, where he achieved a standout performance by hitting all four of his field goal attempts—the highest for a Big 12 player in 2005. His consistency was evident as he maintained an 11-game streak of made field goals and finished the season strong, converting his last 31 extra-point attempts after an early miss. His ability to perform under pressure was the highlight of his season. Congdon kicked a game-winning 40-yard field goal against Kansas State in challenging weather conditions, sealing a dramatic 26-25 victory for the Huskers. Additionally, he tied the game with a crucial fourth-quarter kick against Iowa State, ultimately contributing to a 27-20 win in overtime. In Big 12 play, Congdon excelled, making 13 of 15 field goals and even shared kickoff duties, bolstering Nebraska’s kick coverage to rank among the league’s best.
During his sophomore season, things wouldn’t go as planned; Jordan would start to drift down the wrong path off the field. After some thought and serious conversations with his family, he moved closer to home and transferred to USC. Due to NCAA rules at the time, Congdon would have to sit out a year before being able to play. It was around this time Jordan got even more involved in his community. He would spend countless hours helping the needy, especially those around Skid Row, so much so that he contemplated quitting football to spend those hours helping others. He was conflicted about what to do, so Jordan sat down with his parents to discuss his next step in life. During this conversation, Jordan’s mother would say to him, “Your goal is to work with kids on Skid Row and tell them to stay in school? You’re going to tell them to finish? How are you going to tell them to do that when you didn’t?” It was a fair point, so Jordan continued to play football at USC. During his senior year at USC, Jordan won the starting job after not missing a single kick during camp. Jordan would go on to have a good year but realized his dream of going to the NFL wasn’t likely to happen. So, after graduating from USC, Jordan enrolled at Princeton Seminary School to earn a master’s degree and dive deeper into his faith. 
After earning his master’s degree, Jordan and his wife moved back to San Deigo and helped build houses in Puerto Morelos, Mexico, with Amor Ministries. Eventually, housing was no longer the most significant concern in that community, so Jordan found a new way to help it: sports. Jordan and his wife started a summer sports camp, but people in the community didn’t take them seriously, so only two kids attended that first camp. The Congdon’s would be consistent and show up daily to prove to the community that they were serious. Jordan then started a flag football team, and once again, only two kids would show up; however, that would grow to a dozen kids. Slowly but surely, trust was built in the community, and people began to see the difference that playing sports could make in the lives of young children. The Congdon’s had found a new way to help their community, so they moved to Puerto Morelos full-time. That once small group turned into over a hundred kids who play basketball, baseball, track, soccer, and, of course, American football. Their work helped instill discipline, effort, and confidence into the local youth, which helped those once troubled youth become model members of their community. Some of those kids went to college on a sports scholarship, which nobody thought was possible just a few short years early. Others got jobs and started families. In just a couple of years, the Congdon’s were able to make a massive impact on their community through sports. 
Today, Jordan and his family still live full-time in Mexico, where they continue to coach multiple sports and have even started En Su Imagen Childcare and a school of the same name. Here, they provide care for children up until the age of five and teach kindergarten through the first grade. Jordan hopes to continue raising money so they can expand the school and teach even more grades. Jordan’s life has been a journey of unexpected turns and unwavering purpose. What began as a young boy’s love for sports would ultimately evolve into a mission to change the lives of troubled youth, proving that sometimes, the most important victories are the ones off the field.
