Kim recalled after practising with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThe only experience I had with cancer was with my grandmother, who passed away from it. A month or two before (learning of his father\u2019s 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 \u2014 not being able to play football anymore \u2014 and thinking I was going to lose my father. I was in a really dark place.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife \u2014 we were friends at the time \u2014 directed me to get in the word, get in the Bible, so I started reading. I prayed one day. I said, \u2018God, if you save my dad, you\u2019re some saviour. Save my dad.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI know now that you can\u2019t make ultimatums with God, but He saved my dad. We found out that the tumour was pre-cancerous, so I Googled it. I asked: \u2018How many cancerous tumours are found every year?\u2019 There\u2019s millions of cancerous tumours every single year. Then I Googled: \u2018How many pre-cancerous tumours?\u2019 There were only a couple of thousand.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, at that point, there\u2019s no denying it. I prayed every single day. To me, if I went back on my word or didn\u2019t believe on that fact alone, then it would just be crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That experience was the catalyst for what Kim referred to as a \u201c180-degree transformation for the better,\u201d founded in faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lord has changed my life,\u201d Peter and Angela Kim\u2019s 25-year-old son said. \u201cIt has been immaculate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met my wife (Abbie). We have a beautiful baby boy. I couldn\u2019t imagine where I would be without him right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a time when he couldn\u2019t have imagined being in Saskatchewan \u2014 3,000-plus kilometres from his hometown of Fredericksburg, Va.<\/p>\n
At Massaponax High School in Fredericksburg, he was the school\u2019s punter and placekicker. He also demonstrated his kicking talents on the soccer pitch \u2014 emulating his father, who had played soccer, golf and tennis at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.<\/p>\n
Like Peter Kim, Jonathan became a student-athlete at the collegiate level.<\/p>\n
After spending four seasons at North Carolina, the future Roughriders kicker transferred to Michigan State and played for the Spartans in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
As a senior, he made 19 of 21 field-goal attempts \u2014 a 90.5-per-cent accuracy rate \u2014 with a long kick of 55. The year before, he had been successful from 58 yards.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played in front of a lot of people but, realistically, I\u2019m just playing for the Lord,\u201d Kim said. \u201cIf I sit there and I think about 75,000 people, I\u2019m going to get nervous and anxious.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I play for one man. I play for God. That\u2019s it. Knowing that there\u2019s nothing I can do to disappoint Him or separate me from His love, there\u2019s no pressure at all, so I\u2019m just able to go out and play freely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim took that approach into pro training camps with the Chicago Bears (in 2025) and, now, Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
During the 2026 pre-season, he was 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts while competing with Alex Hale for the Roughriders\u2019 placekicking job.<\/p>\n
Hale, a Global kicker, was 1-for-3 during the pre-season, but both misses were from long distances (56 and 57).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Kim helped his case by going 3-for-3 in last Saturday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practised every day (in Saskatoon) and we got the opportunity to kick there a lot during camp,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI 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 \u2014 and there were a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of opportunities to prepare. It was just a matter of trusting and relying on my preparation and going from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/a><\/p>\nIn the meantime, he is making the most of every practice and seizing every opportunity to connect with his wife and son.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe FaceTime every day, multiple times, and I try to read (Anderson) a bedtime story every night,\u201d said Kim, who also phones his parents on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife will call me and I\u2019ll get to talk to him. It\u2019s difficult sometimes, because I don\u2019t even know if he recognizes me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just pray that this time away from them is going to be fruitful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faith and family are foremost for Jonathan Kim. They were intertwined during Kim\u2019s sophomore season with the University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-699649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}