ITHACA, N.Y. -- On fall Saturdays in Macomb, Ill., the town felt small enough that every face was familiar and every story overlapped with your own.

It's the kind of place where your pediatrician might also be your teammate's mom, where the local circuit court judge doubles as your Scout leader, and where a soccer team can grow up together from first grade through senior year without changing much more than jersey sizes.

"Small-town America really made me who I am," senior sprint football place-kicker Sumner Roberts said. "Everyone knows everyone. You can't fake it. You learn to be authentic."

Roberts didn't grow up dreaming about American football. Born in Denver, he spent his early childhood in Turkey before his family settled in Macomb when he was seven. His father taught American history at Western Illinois University; his mother homeschooled Sumner and his twin sister. Soccer became the thread that tied the new life together. He played center attacking midfield for high-level travel teams, driving hours from rural Illinois to compete in St. Louis, Kansas City and Indianapolis. At Macomb Senior High, he earned all-section honors and captained the program for three years.

"I wanted to play college soccer my whole life," he said. "I had eight or nine offers going into senior year. I knew if I chose a smaller liberal arts college just to play soccer and turned down an Ivy League education, I'd have a hard time looking back on that."

Cornell meant letting go of one dream — but it quickly replaced it with others. The son of an Oxford-trained historian arrived planning to study history and follow a pre-med track. Instead, a first-year course in Greek and Roman philosophy opened a door he didn't know existed. Plato and Aristotle grabbed him first; ethics and political theory kept him.

"Philosophy's kind of in everything — the mind, consciousness, existence of God, ethics, logic, identity. It's so versatile," Roberts said.

He shifted majors, added minors in Law & Society and American Studies, and found himself transformed by courses with faculty like Professor Kate Manne.

"It completely changed my worldview," he said. "Masculinity, sexism, gender, race — how all of it intersects. I'm 100 percent a better person because of her. She helped me understand how theory can inform practice."

Playing college athletics, however, came only after another dramatic pivot.

Roberts joined the Army National Guard and ROTC in 2020, spending his first years in Ithaca training toward a commission. Then, midway through college, he was medically disqualified, losing a full scholarship and the built-in community that came with it.

"It was brutal," he said. "All my friends were in ROTC. That was my plan."

Looking for something steady to hold onto, he wandered toward sprint football.

He'd always wondered what it would be like to turn a soccer leg loose on a football. A classmate from Cornell's veterans bridge program, future teammate Nathan Eapen, mentioned the sprint team and encouraged him to try out. Roberts met with the coaches. They told him the roster was full of kickers, but maybe he could try defensive back.

"In my head I was thinking, 'There's no way these other guys are better kickers than me,'" he said, laughing.

He was right.

Roberts won the starting job and immediately became a steady specialist. As a junior in 2023, he hit 3-of-4 field goals — including a 43-yarder against Navy — and converted 4-of-6 PATs. This fall, he became one of the most reliable legs in the Collegiate Sprint Football League, leading the circuit by making 7-for-10 on field goals (perfect inside 40 yards), handling 25 kickoffs and even punting when needed. He drilled two 31-yarders at Mansfield and delivered seven points in a season-ending win at Penn that finally let his team exhale. His 10 field goals are tied for the fifth-most in school history and his .714 field goal percentage ranks No. 1 all-time.

Kicking, he says, fits the way his brain fires.

Diagnosed with ADHD late in high school, Roberts leans on structure — routines, sleep, a color-coded Google Calendar. But on the field, that same brain gives him an edge.

"As a kicker, you get one moment and everyone's watching," he said. "If you miss, you have to move on. I lost my confidence early this season, but I buckled down, talked with the coaches, and hit 15 straight. You can't live in the last kick."

Just as he chased big moments on the field, he chased them off it.

Last spring, Roberts interned in former first lady Jill Biden's office at the White House, working on the Joining Forces initiative supporting military families. He researched bases, drafted briefing memos and watched policy come alive through real stories. Later, he served as a correspondence and briefings coordinator on the Biden-Harris and Harris-Walz campaigns, preparing materials for former Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz helping shape the daily narrative of a race he cared deeply about.

"Politics is the best way to practice ethics in the real world."

Just like in sports, belief and preparation don't guarantee the final score.

"Losing sucks," he said. "I'm competitive — losing games, losing elections, it all hurts. But I didn't want to be on the sidelines for that moment in history. I'm proud of the work we did."

Through it all — Macomb, Ithaca, Washington — he keeps coming back to one idea: teams.

"Sprint is a real brotherhood," Roberts said. "You show up for each other every day, win or lose. It's unconditional. That was huge for my mental health — being able to go to the field, forget everything else and just be with my friends."

As he finishes his degree and interviews for jobs in Washington, D.C., Roberts sees a clear through line from the small-town kid who grew up on a soccer field to the senior who jogged onto Schoellkopf with a game on his foot.

"I've always loved sports and I've always loved ideas," he said. "Cornell helped me put those together — how to compete, how to care about people, and how to do both at the same time. That's what I want to take with me."