{"id":1155,"date":"2016-09-15T10:49:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T10:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/currents.winonastateu.com\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2017-06-29T20:52:29","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T20:52:29","slug":"kinjo-omar-gentle-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/2016\/09\/15\/kinjo-omar-gentle-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Kinjo Omar – Gentle Giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kinjo<\/a><\/p>\n

It is almost impossible for a 6-foot- 4, 300-pound young man to make himself disappear in a hallway filled with chattering, bustling students, but Kinjo Omar \u201917 tried his best.<\/h3>\n

Feeling utterly alone and stunned by culture shock in his first year at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., Kinjo avoided eye contact, barely spoke, and pulled away from normal teenage life.<\/p>\n

Then Austin Opfer \u201916, \u201918 found him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just standing out by myself, I didn\u2019t have any friends and I\u2019d just moved to Springfield,\u201d Kinjo recalled. \u201cHe just walked up with one of his friends and was like, \u2018Hey, me and some of the guys are going to go get some food, you want to join us?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinjo tried a few times to say no, then finally admitted he didn\u2019t have any money to go to a restaurant. No problem, Austin told him, I\u2019ll cover you.
\n\u201cI saw Austin as a blessing,\u201d Kinjo said.<\/p>\n

“We all just noticed him because he\u2019s a huge human being,\u201d Austin said. \u201cI tracked him down at school and talked to him; it was intimidating at first because he\u2019s the most quiet kid I\u2019ve ever met. As time went on it became a friendship, then we became best friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon Kinjo began spending more and more time at the Opfer house. Scott Opfer \u201985, Tracy Opfer \u201986, both members of the WSU Athletic Hall of Fame, and children Austin, Lorin, Alix, and Kasey all saw something special in the big, shy newcomer who was struggling to adjust to life in the Midwest after growing up on Saipan, a Pacific island that is part of the Northern Marianas and a U.S. commonwealth.<\/p>\n

Kinjo eventually became a part of the Opfer family, after he and his family made the difficult decision that he would stay on the mainland and pursue a college education while his parents and siblings returned to Saipan.<\/p>\n

Austin and Kinjo both came to Winona State and joined the Warrior football team, and are in their senior seasons. Austin, a linebacker, is working toward a graduate degree in organizational leadership and Kinjo, a defensive tackle, plans on graduating in spring 2017 with a degree in graphic arts.<\/p>\n

He is the first member of his family to attend college. Kinjo and his family, including father James, mother Mary Lou, brothers Mychal and Jeffrey, and sisters Jeffrian and Kimberly, left Saipan for the mainland U.S. when Kinjo was 14. They first went to Seattle for two years, where an extended family member lived; then to Springfield, where Mychal was stationed after joining the army.<\/p>\n

Going from life on an island 14 miles long and five miles wide\u2014\u201cyou can drive around it in an hour,\u201d Kinjo said\u2014to a major metropolis was not easy.
\n\u201cPeople have a different pace and even a different vocabulary,\u201d Kinjo said. \u201cI was in my own world, I didn\u2019t really want to talk to anyone. I was just upset that I couldn\u2019t go back, we didn\u2019t have enough money to go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinjo wasn\u2019t feeling any more comfortable in Springfield when Austin approached him that day in the halls of Glendale High. As their friendship developed, and Kinjo got to know the Opfer family, Scott outlined a plan that he hoped would help Kinjo carve a new life for himself.
\n\u201cHis family had come here looking for a better life, for education, for opportunity, and couldn\u2019t stay and had to go back,\u201d Scott said. \u201cOne of their goals was to have Kinjo go to college and football would be a way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott and Tracy met Kinjo\u2019s parents, took time to understand their situation and concerns, and eventually offered to take Kinjo into the Opfer family so he could continue high school in Springfield, play football, and get accepted into college.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best things that\u2019s ever happened not only to Kinjo but to our entire family,\u201d Scott said. \u201cKinjo is a gentle, quiet person and he\u2019s a man of great pride. He\u2019s just a really great kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin has helped Kinjo navigate the challenges of college academics and athletics since day one. He said he\u2019s seen a change in Kinjo during their time at Winona State. While Kinjo is still not one to seek attention, his quiet strength and laid- back demeanor have earned him respect, and a lot of friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could pick any house around campus and send him into it and there\u2019s always going to be someone who will say, \u2018Kinjo!\u2019\u201d Austin said. \u201cEverybody knows Kinjo and loves Kinjo. The first summer we stayed here for football camp, a lot of the older guys really took to him and were very accepting of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Warriors football coach Tom Sawyer, who played football with Scott and is close to the Opfer family, knew he was getting a \u201cwork in progress\u201d with Kinjo.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at him now, getting a college degree, that is amazing,\u201d Sawyer said. \u201cIt\u2019s been just as fun for us to watch him grow into a young man and change the lives of the people around him. He got an opportunity and he made the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinjo said that except for missing his family and enduring the Minnesota winters\u2014\u201cI honestly hate the snow and cold\u201d\u2014life at WSU couldn\u2019t be much better. He\u2019s looking forward to his final season of football with Austin, and starting to think about going out on his own next spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really big deal,\u201d Kinjo said. \u201cPeople back home know about it and support me. It does create stress, because you start something and you want to finish it. There were multiple times I thought I would drop out of college but having Scott, Tracy, and Austin and the whole family being my guide and Scott as my mentor, I\u2019ve been trying to do what they think is right and what I think is right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is almost impossible for a 6-foot- 4, 300-pound young man to make himself disappear in a hallway filled with chattering, bustling students, but Kinjo Omar \u201917 tried his best. Feeling utterly alone and stunned by culture shock in his first year at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., Kinjo avoided eye contact, barely spoke, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletic-news","category-wsu-magazine"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2016\/09\/gentle-giant.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PQMT-iD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1413,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}