Faith and family are foremost for Jonathan Kim.
They were intertwined during Kim’s sophomore season with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels football team.
“My parents sat me down and said, ‘Your dad has a tumour. It might be cancerous. We don’t know yet. If it is, it’s Stage 2,’ ” Kim recalled after practising with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium.
“The only experience I had with cancer was with my grandmother, who passed away from it. A month or two before (learning of his father’s tumour), I tore my hamstring. I grew up as an athlete and my dad was my hero. I was thinking I was going to lose my sport — not being able to play football anymore — and thinking I was going to lose my father. I was in a really dark place.
“My wife — we were friends at the time — directed me to get in the word, get in the Bible, so I started reading. I prayed one day. I said, ‘God, if you save my dad, you’re some saviour. Save my dad.’
“I know now that you can’t make ultimatums with God, but He saved my dad. We found out that the tumour was pre-cancerous, so I Googled it. I asked: ‘How many cancerous tumours are found every year?’ There’s millions of cancerous tumours every single year. Then I Googled: ‘How many pre-cancerous tumours?’ There were only a couple of thousand.
“So, at that point, there’s no denying it. I prayed every single day. To me, if I went back on my word or didn’t believe on that fact alone, then it would just be crazy.”
That experience was the catalyst for what Kim referred to as a “180-degree transformation for the better,” founded in faith.
“The Lord has changed my life,” Peter and Angela Kim’s 25-year-old son said. “It has been immaculate.
“I met my wife (Abbie). We have a beautiful baby boy. I couldn’t imagine where I would be without him right now.”
There was a time when he couldn’t have imagined being in Saskatchewan — 3,000-plus kilometres from his hometown of Fredericksburg, Va.
At Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg, he was the school’s punter and placekicker. He also demonstrated his kicking talents on the soccer pitch — emulating his father, who had played soccer, golf and tennis at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.
Like Peter Kim, Jonathan became a student-athlete at the collegiate level.
After spending four seasons at North Carolina, the future Roughriders kicker transferred to Michigan State and played for the Spartans in 2023 and 2024.
As a senior, he made 19 of 21 field-goal attempts — a 90.5-per-cent accuracy rate — with a long kick of 55. The year before, he had been successful from 58 yards.
Along the way, he played before home crowds that peaked at 75,000, which would seem to be a helpful preparatory tool for the pressure-cooker of professional football.
“I’ve played in front of a lot of people but, realistically, I’m just playing for the Lord,” Kim said. “If I sit there and I think about 75,000 people, I’m going to get nervous and anxious.
“But I play for one man. I play for God. That’s it. Knowing that there’s nothing I can do to disappoint Him or separate me from His love, there’s no pressure at all, so I’m just able to go out and play freely.”
Kim took that approach into pro training camps with the Chicago Bears (in 2025) and, now, Saskatchewan.
During the 2026 pre-season, he was 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts while competing with Alex Hale for the Roughriders’ placekicking job.
Hale, a Global kicker, was 1-for-3 during the pre-season, but both misses were from long distances (56 and 57).
He and Kim are still being tested during Coors Light Training Camp, which is to conclude on Friday. The final cuts are to be made by Saturday.
Kim helped his case by going 3-for-3 in last Saturday’s 31-27 pre-season victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Saskatoon. One of his three-pointers was from 51 yards. Hale converted all three Saskatchewan touchdowns at Griffiths Stadium.
“We practised every day (in Saskatoon) and we got the opportunity to kick there a lot during camp,” Kim said. “I had a lot of opportunities to get used to the wind and to get used to all the conditions that Saskatoon could throw at you — and there were a lot.
“I had a lot of opportunities to prepare. It was just a matter of trusting and relying on my preparation and going from there.”
Kim hopes his performance and preparation will be rewarded with a roster spot for the June 13 regular-season opener against the visiting B.C. Lions.
In the meantime, he is making the most of every practice and seizing every opportunity to connect with his wife and son.
“We FaceTime every day, multiple times, and I try to read (Anderson) a bedtime story every night,” said Kim, who also phones his parents on a regular basis.
“My wife will call me and I’ll get to talk to him. It’s difficult sometimes, because I don’t even know if he recognizes me.
“I just pray that this time away from them is going to be fruitful.”
