Football, Track & Field
Favorite athlete: DK Metcalf
Favorite team: Seahawks
Favorite memory competing in sports: Touchdown against Bensalem junior year and clearing 11’6” junior year
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was practicing pole vault and whilst I was jumping my legs split the pole as the bend straightened out
Music on playlist: Can I Get a Witness - SonReal, Still Your Best - Giveon, No Role Modelz - J. Cole
Future plans: Go to college (hopefully Pitt), Get to states for pole vaulting (14’0 I believe is the requirement)
Words to live by: “To live in regret is to not live at all.” -Unknown
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Iceland
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to live in New York (Long Island) from the ages of 1-4.
By Mary Jane Souder
Seunghyeon Kim surprised just about everyone when he announced he was going out for football his freshman year.
It was an idea that first crossed his mind when the now Council Rock North senior and his brother - three years older and a member of the football team - were picking up their younger brother from summer camp.
“It was right before I started high school, and he was like, ‘Do you want to play any fall sport?’” Kim recalled. “I was like – ‘Football kind of interests me because you play it, and it’s probably the only sport I understand besides track.’ I was like, ‘Why not?’ He said, ‘Okay, let me text my coach.’
“My brother and I told our mom over lunch, and she was like, ‘No way, are you sure?’ because I’d never shown any interest in it. My parents were like – do what you want to do. They never forced us to do anything. We didn’t reluctantly have to do soccer. I know some kids did soccer just because their parents told them to, so we never had that, and I never showed interest in doing football or any sport, so it was just out of nowhere literally that I was on the football team.”
Kim in football pads - he’s still not an imposing figure at 5-8, 145 pounds – didn’t surprise only his mother.
“I just remember going to preseason in August, and even all the kids were like, ‘No way you’re joining. Are you here because your older brother is taking care of you?’” Kim said. “I was like, ‘No, I’m playing.’
“A lot of my friends looked at me like, ‘No way.’ Even to this day, people look at me are like – ‘I could not play football on a team with you.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, well, four years.’”
Kim just wrapped up his final high school football season. He’s never been a star. As a matter of fact, he didn’t see meaningful varsity minutes until this year, and even then, it was a position – lead blocker - that wasn’t exactly natural for Kim. He was, however, always a positive addition to the team.
“He could have easily packed it in, especially after last year as a junior not getting a lot of playing time,” Rock North coach John Greiner said. “He’s motivation for all the players because of the fact that he’s undersized, but he has the biggest heart out there of anybody.”
Kim has not regretted his decision to stick with football.
“I have a few friends who played freshman year who have quit, and they said they regret quitting,” Kim said. “My older brother himself quit junior year, and he said the one thing he thought about was how he could have played junior year. I’m definitely learning from my friends from their decision and my older brother’s decision, and I didn’t want to feel that way.”
Although the Indians struggled this season, winning just three games, they closed out their season on a high note, overcoming the worst of conditions – high winds and torrential rain - to defeat archrival Council Rock South 7-3 in the annual Rock Cup game on the final Friday of the regular season.
“Coach Greiner put it well before the game - it was poetic,” Kim said. “All year long and for the past three years, there's always some challenge we face. Council Rock North is not known for its size or its numbers, but regardless we persist and continue fighting.
“I think besides the cold I didn't mind the weather at all. It was almost as if it was proof that our team will always play our hardest and will continue to fight to the end no matter what the weather is, no matter the size of our team, and no matter the challenges thrown at us. Winning the game in the rain was quite refreshing, like all the pain, sweat, blood, and tears were washed away letting us soak in our win. I don't think I would ask for any other condition to win in, as miserable as it might have been, it was truly the pinnacle of Council Rock North's strength.”
*****
Kim admits that his involvement in sports had more to do with following in his older brother’s footsteps than anything else.
“He’s a big inspiration for me,” Kim said of Seungchan Kim. “A lot of the things he did – I wanted to do, and even now, I still look up to him. He did track and I did track. I thought I was going to stick with track, but there was no fall track.”
That’s pretty much why football entered the scene when he got to high school.
“Freshman year, it’s separate – there’s no JV or varsity,” Kim said. “It’s freshman only, and everyone is learning the new program.
“I think I’m very fortunate to have joined freshman year because I wasn’t too far behind. I just had to get used to hitting and reading plays.”
Kim’s older brother played cornerback, and Kim found himself at cornerback as well.
“They tried putting me at running back, but it just did not go well,” he said. “I was not a good running back. I played cornerback until junior year, and last year, it all kind of hit me at running back – ‘Oh, I understand the plays, I know what to do, I know where to go.’
“I didn’t play much cornerback senior year, but the Paessler brothers (Jack and James) – who are our cornerbacks – I really respect them, and I don’t think I could have chosen anyone else to ‘take over’ that position because they are really good, they are really talented.”
This fall, Kim found himself in the unfamiliar role of lead blocker.
“I didn’t get the ball much – I had a lot of blocking responsibilities,” he said. “No matter what you get, you have to play your hardest.
“At first, I was a little bummed, but I think knowing if I would make the block, our team would win really drove me to put in the best that I could.”
“He can block even though he’s undersized,” Greiner said.
“I enjoyed it,” Kim said. “I think football gave me a good outlet. It was good for me because I’ve always been a smaller kid, so sticking to football – I can say I stayed with it for four years, I stayed with my team.
*****
While football occupies Kim’s fall, track and field fill his time in winter and spring. He is a jumper and sprinter, but pole vaulting is his specialty.
“I was really into it because it was one sport I was genuinely interested in,” Kim said. “My older brother had done track and he also pole vaulted. One of the pole vault coaches is coach Rogers. Coincidentally, he was also my social studies teacher in freshman year, so it was unavoidable from everywhere.
“I joined and I really enjoyed it, but I struggled my freshman year, and my two friends were clearing before I was. It was really frustrating, but then at the end of the year, I ended up jumping higher than both of them. After losing my sophomore year (to the COVID-19 pandemic), I was really excited to get back to it.
"Then my junior year I had gotten back into it in the spring and again I struggled, but towards the end of the season I cleared higher and higher, and I eventually got a PR (personal record) of 11’6” and second place in the SOL Patriot Division Track and Field Championships.”
Kim has his sights set high entering his final high school season, aiming to reach 14 feet and advance to the state tournament.
“Seunghyeon is a great kid,” CRN track and field coach Brian Hoffman said. “I coached both he and his older brother as both pole vaulters. Seunghyeon has been a leader on my team, especially last year during a tough situation during COVID rule changes.
“He is a positive guy to be around, and he keeps the other athletes at ease. Both he and his brother had had issues with their nerves with big games/meets, but last year Seunghyeon showed up big time to take second in the league meet. He PR'ed multiple times to move up multiple spots and get us eight hard earned points in the league meet. He is a funny kid who works hard, and I hope he has a great senior year.”
Away from the athletic arena, Kim is an excellent student. He is enrolled in two AP classes and has taken honors social studies since he was a freshman. Most of his classes have been accelerated. He is also active in the school’s theater department.
“Seunghyeon is heavily involved in Sock ‘N’ Buskin Theatre Program where Mrs. Miranda Leiggi has had a wonderful influence over him advancing his theatre prowess with the fulfilling experiences the Council Rock North theatre program provides for all involved,” Greiner said.
“That’s really fun,” Kim said. “I work in tech, I do the sound. It’s a whole different crew of people, but I think it’s important to expand my experiences and my connections.”
The technical aspect of theater comes naturally to Kim, who plans to major in computer science with a final list of schools that includes Pitt, Drexel and Temple.
“Talking to my computer science teacher and guidance counselor and people I know who have helped me out a lot in that path – I think the best option is widening my opportunities in college and working it down into what I want to do,” he said.
During the summer months, Kim works at Rooks Farm.
“A lot of labor, but it’s fun – I work with some South kids, and number 45 (Connor Omlor) is a linebacker at South,” Kim said. “We talk about football, and it was funny seeing him on the field – he’s on defense and I’m on offense, and we were head to head.”
Whatever the setting, Kim, according to Greiner, is certain to embrace any task assigned to him.
“Seunghyeon is the epitome of what we as teachers and coaches at Council Rock North strive for in our desires for all our students and athletes to become as they transition through the years,” the Indians’ football coach said. “Each year, he has immersed himself in the high school experience while still maintaining his stellar academic standing.
“In the summer, he often would wake up in the wee hours of the morning, bailing hay and collecting fresh corn from corn stalks at a local farm in the community. Seunghyeon has mastered the concept of time management to allow himself to be fully successful in all his endeavors.
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