Temple punter Dante Atton recently played his first football game, ever. It was years in the making.

It is 4 a.m. Sunday morning, Sept. 3, in the Atton household in Melbourne, Australia.

The family is typically sound asleep around this time. But on this particular morning, an American college football game turned the normally quiet living area into a “crazy” atmosphere.

Meryl Atton, her husband, and their four children crowded their L-shaped couch to watch her son, Temple punter Dante Atton, in his first American football game.

“We were cheering and screaming at the TV,” Meryl Atton said during a recent phone conversation. “We were buzzing, to be honest.”

Atton’s journey to Temple began at a young age — more than 10,000 miles away. With his family’s support, Atton is looking to turn his NFL dreams into reality.

Atton grew up in the suburb of Cranbourne East in a “loud” and “fun” household. Meryl described her son as being easygoing but also a very driven child.

“He’ll achieve whatever it is he puts his mind to,” she said.

So, how did Atton end up playing American football at Temple? His journey to North Philadelphia began after seeing the Aussie version of the sport when he was just 6 years old.

» READ MORE: When it comes to attracting top student-athletes, Temple is ‘woefully’ behind on having the dollars

After watching his cousin’s Australian rules football match, Atton knew he wanted to play. Although she was concerned, Meryl granted him permission — and little Dante was on the field by the next game.

His uncle and former Australian Football League player, Bert Andrews, just so happened to be the coach of his youth team.

“He taught me everything I know about the sport,” Atton said. “If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been able to come to America because I wouldn’t have had the skills to kick a football.”

Atton continued to play local Aussie football through his 20th birthday, while simultaneously working full-time as a forklift driver for Terra Mater, an Australian flooring company.

In May 2022, Atton’s dissatisfaction with his situation led him to make a life-altering decision — joining Prokick Australia, the organization founded by former NFL punter Nathan Chapman and kicker John Smith in 2007 to help train, guide, and transition Australian athletes into kickers and punters from the college to professional levels of the American game.

Prokick is responsible for jump-starting the careers of several Aussie punters, including the Houston Texans’ Cameron Johnston and the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Adam Korsak.

“It’s changed my life,” Atton said. “If I wasn’t in Prokick, I’d probably still be a forklift driver working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.”

While at Prokick, Atton worked closely with former Rutgers punter Tim Gleeson.

Gleeson works with many athletes who have never punted an American football before and says he can tell immediately who wants to work and who does not. Gleeson had no problem telling which side Atton was on.

“The look in people’s eyes straightaway is either fight or flight,” Gleeson said. “He definitely had that fire in his eyes.”

For Atton, punting became an addiction. He had no problem with a training schedule that featured kicking and punting three days a week and off-field weightlifting/workout sessions Monday through Friday.

» READ MORE: Temple football coach Stan Drayton thinks the Owls are getting close to winning tight games

Atton went through this training regimen for seven months before hearing the news that Temple special teams coordinator Adam Scheier was going to give him a call. Scheier, who has an extensive history with Prokick, contacted Chapman and Smith looking for a punter who fit his scheme.

Atton was the glove.

Atton and Scheier were in contact for the next two months and on Dec. 19, his 21st birthday, Atton received an official scholarship offer from Temple and signed his letter of intent. Now, it was time to get Atton over to the United States for the first time in his life.

The night before his flight, Atton’s family hosted a dinner with his friends and extended family to celebrate his birthday and send him off to a new country.

The next morning, 20 members of Atton’s family joined him at the airport with custom-made T-shirts, and everyone was overcome with emotions.

“I was a bit of a mess,” Meryl recalled. “It’s not something I want to do again.”

Within a year, Atton went from being a forklift driver in Australia to a Division I football player in Philadelphia. Naturally, there was some adjusting that needed to be done. However, Atton’s biggest adjustment was not seeing his family. Just a month before, Atton was able to walk out of his room and see his family. Now he’s limited to FaceTime.

“Being away from them was hard to adjust to,” Atton said. “I still haven’t adjusted to it.”

Atton does mention the specialist group, which includes Owls kicker Camden Price, Scheier, special teams analyst Keith Bruno, and his roommate, defensive lineman Joseph Appiah Darkwa, as people who have helped him adjust to living in America.

American football was also brand new to Atton. Beyond his first time in America, this is also his first time putting on shoulder pads and a helmet.

Atton never punted in a live practice setting before, which means he had never seen a punt rush. He had one thing on his mind when he saw his first punt rush.

“The first thing,” Atton said, “was don’t drop [the ball].”

Throughout the spring and summer, Atton honed his skills as a punter, and it was time to see if that hard work paid off in the season opener against Akron.

He took the field for his first punt with a smile on his face. His first college punt? A 40-yard high flyer. He’d go on to finish his first American football game with six punts for an average of 42 yards, all part of a 24-21 win over the Zips.

“It was just trying to be present and enjoy the moment,” Atton said postgame. “It was surreal.”

As Temple fans cheered for him at Lincoln Financial Field, his family cheered him on back home in Australia — but not without some difficulties.

Because of streaming problems, Atton’s family missed his first two punts. However, the issues were resolved by Atton’s third punt and his family was overcome with tears of joy as they watched him take the field. So much so that the tears flowed in his postgame FaceTime call back home.

“I started crying, bawling my eyes out,” Atton said. “Then everyone started crying … but it was good tears.”

Atton now heads into just the seventh game of his American football career at Temple, but although his game experience is small, his dreams in the sport are major.

“I want to punt professionally,” Atton said. “I love punting and I want to do everything possible to make that happen.”

» READ MORE: Temple men’s hoops schedule set with the release its 2023-24 conference schedule