How a hometown kid and former college walk-on got a chance with the Kansas City Chiefs
Dalton Schoen did not have a Division I scholarship offer coming out of high school, even though he once broke a state record in Kansas with 380 receiving yards in a single game.
It didn’t bother him much, though. He’d already made plans to become a mechanical engineer, and with a 4.45 grade-point average at Blue Valley Northwest, the 2015 Kansas City Star Scholar-Athlete of the Year award winner figured to be whatever he wanted to be.
Well, except this.
Schoen has put off his future career, at least temporarily, to launch into one he never thought he’d have the chance to pursue.
Football.
Better yet: A wide receiver for his hometown team, the Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s so awesome to represent Blue Valley Northwest,” Schoen said after participating in the Chiefs’ rookie minicamp this month, though he’s two years removed from his college career at Kansas State. “Being from this area and now to be here in minicamp is just so cool. I’ve had so many high school teammates, just random people I knew in high school (and) teachers all reach out to me and again show their support for me.”
Coming out of Blue Valley Northwest in 2015, a handful of Division II and Division III programs offered Schoen a spot on their team. He politely declined, instead electing to walk-on at Kansas State. At an early age, he’d taped a poster of Bill Snyder’s “16 Goals for Success” to his bedroom mirror. Looked at it every day.
Really, he just wanted to make the team. Wanted to to be able play for Snyder. That alone, he said would “be a dream come true for me.”
Within a couple of years, K-State couldn’t keep him off the field. He initially earned his playing time as a regular on special teams before breaking into the receiver rotation. He learned to focus on the finer details that others might overlook, his best avenue toward playing time. It came naturally to him as a former three-sport athlete who used his unfinished basement to train for one sport while in season for another.
Schoen finished his college career with 92 catches for 1,569 yards and nine touchdowns.
If that all seems like old news now, well, there’s a relation here. Schoen hasn’t forgotten that journey, and it’s particularly relevant today as he attempts to turn a long-shot chance with the Chiefs into something bigger.
“It’s the exact same mindset (as college),” Schoen said. “Going there as a walk-on and being here as an undrafted free agent, you know you’re instantly kind of thrown to the bottom of the totem pole.
“You just have to have that mindset that you’re a street dog; you’re going to show up; you’re going to fight every day; you’re going to do most things that other guys don’t want to do or won’t do; and you just have to keep fighting until you get the opportunity to prove yourself.”
The Chiefs signed Schoen in February to a reserve/futures contract. He’d signed on with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent last offseason but was one of the team’s final cuts at the conclusion of training camp.
For a guy who’s made a living out-working people on the football field, a virtual offseason forced by a pandemic became an intrusive hurdle. He thought he had a good training camp. No regrets there. But latching on with a new team — without preseason games on tape — became increasingly unlikely.
Then the Chiefs called. After more virtual meetings to start this offseason, he’s actually had the chance to get on the field. Baby steps. For now.
“It felt really great to just be out in a full live practice setting,” Schoen said. “It felt great to finally go out and run the routes I’ve been learning virtually for a few weeks now.”
His phone has remained active over these past few months. Since he signed with the Chiefs, he’s had a steady stream of messages from people wishing him well. Friends. Former teammates. Former classmates. Some he hasn’t talked to in years. It’s part of being the hometown kid, he’s come to realize, and he’s embraced that part in all of this.
Heck, he grew up watching the Chiefs. Schoen remembers watching Travis Kelce’s first touchdown with the Chiefs. It came in the preseason actually, back in 2014. Kelce caught a slant pattern near midfield, then out-ran the Bengals secondary and dived into the end zone to cap a 69-yard play.
Anyway, Schoen doesn’t recall who watched the game with him that day, but he does remember his reaction.
That guy is going to be somebody.
He’s now a teammate.
“Here we are years later,” he said. “And it’s just really cool that now I’m here in this building.”