Last week, we here at the Student Life paper had the opportunity to sit down with Washington’s former star receiver and crowd favourite, Kevin Koh.
As our readers who are football fans may know, Koh is one of the Washington Huskies’ greatest players in recent years - this writer still nurses fond memories of Koh’s 74-yard game-winning reception in our Rose Bowl victory over Georgia (along with, naturally, the wild afterparties that followed). Given his stellar performances over the past 3 years with the Huskies, it’s only natural that Koh is one of the top Wide Receiver prospects in the DSFL draft this year.
It has, naturally, taken a while to get Koh out to do this - not for lack of enthusiasm on his part. His response to our initial request for pre-draft was an instantaneous, unequivocal, yes. After all, in his words, Washington has given him more than he could ask for. As we found, however, the pre-draft schedule makes a mockery of even the best of intentions. Meetings with GMs, media, coaches, along with combine prep, on top of an already intense training schedule, naturally leaves little free time, if any, for personal time, let alone talking to your alma mater’s local paper.
Given all that exposure, the first impression of Koh is striking in just how ordinary it is. I can’t say I’ve had much experience with fame, but the expectation would be some press at least, perhaps a small entourage, or at the very least a fashionably late arrival from the star of the show. Instead, by the time we arrive at our venue at 10am, Koh is already seated in the corner with an espresso, nose buried in a book - “When breath becomes air” -, and looks as if he’s been there for ages. Even the venue of choice - Portage Cafe on Roosevelt, on the outskirts of campus - throws you for a loop, reminding me more of the leisurely, slow Sunday brunches that I’m so fond of, a far cry from the explosive speed and dramatic on-field performances the student population has come to associate with Koh. In such an incongruous location, and up close rather than from up in the bleachers, Koh is unassuming. At 5’10”, he’s barely taller than I am. Koh’s grip, however, is just as firm as it would be on the field.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he begins, “thanks for coming all this way.” We get our orders, chat about the weather, complain about the cold - it’s funny, somehow I never figured athletes for small talk. After 10 minutes of companionable conversation about all and sundry, I almost begin to worry - surely it would be impolite to segue so transparently into my painstakingly prepared list of questions?
My fears are unfounded. Koh breaks off to order a quick breakfast (morning training always gets him hungry, apparently), and motions for me to continue - “Why don’t we get started, then?”.
What drives you , I ask? I love football too, but I can’t imagine spending hours upon hours, days upon days, on that pitch throwing, catching, running, let alone the dozens of conditioning exercises that must come in a pro players regime. Surely there must be something that motivates you to try hard and to go that far?
“It hasn’t always been easy to find that sense of determination, to get yourself up at 5 in the morning to train for 6 hours. In fact, when I was younger I was probably the laziest person in my team. Not just in football but also at school… My mother would never stop yelling at me,” he laughs. “I loved the sport, but I was young, and I was already one of the best players on my high school team. I didn’t understand that on a wider scale, at other high schools, in other states, there were thousands of other kids just like me. As we started playing at the state level, at the national level - that’s when it clicked. Suddenly, I wasn’t the best, I wasn’t great. I was barely even good. And my father took me aside and told me, ‘Look, Kevin, you need to make a decision. Either you’re playing this sport as a hobby, or it’s part of your life. Don’t waste your time if you’re not going to give it your all. There’s no middle ground to success.’. And that really stuck with me. From then on, it was easy. I don’t make a choice to work hard, because there isn’t a choice to be made, period.”.
When Koh speaks, the words come measured, weighted, but also fluid and intense - much like his route running. “That said, I know I’m lucky. It’s a lot easier to be motivated when someone believes in you, when you don’t have to worry about where you’re going to find support, or whether you’re going to get your next meal. Despite, you know, all the usual stereotypes about Asian parents, my mother and father really were the driving force behind me and my safety net when I was down. It’s not hard to give a hundred per cent every day when you know there’s a loving family waiting for you when you get home. Sometimes I talk to other prospects, my team mates, and I’m in awe at how so many of them have made it so far despite all the challenges they’ve had - I have nothing but respect for them. We all have our own obstacles, and mine are nothing compared to many peoples’…”.
We all know just how much difference family can make in each of our lives. Was that a big reason why Koh chose to come to Washington over some of the other powerhouse universities looking to bring him aboard?
“Definitely. I think I’ve spoken about this a few times in some of the pressers I’ve had, but it’s hard to overstate just how much of an impact it had on my decision. I do love the Huskies, and I wouldn’t change the journey I’ve had over the past 3 years for any other, but if you’d asked me objectively what would’ve been the best option for me from a football perspective when I graduated, I don’t necessarily think Washington would have been in the conversation. I do think going to LSU or Alabama, for example, would have made it a lot easier for me to get on GM’s radars.”
“But at the point in time, there were so many other considerations to make. It couldn’t have known for sure I was going to make it this far. One injury could’ve ended my career, so I had to think about other things as well. Chief among these was family. My father had just taken a job in DC, and my whole family was moving with him. My mom was sick and wasn’t doing so well - and being in and out of the hospital it definitely was not easy with two other kids to take care of. Also - being the tiger mom that she is - she was also going on about making sure I still go to a good University, with the possibility of getting a good degree, should pursuing a career in football didn’t work out (god knows it was hard enough getting her to let me try in the first place). And at the end of the day, my family has given me so much that there was no way of saying no. It was my turn to give back. So I came to Washington University, majored in Business and Economics, and kept my family happy. Now, my mom’s recovered, my younger brother and sister are going to high school and college too, and here I am. Best decision of my life!”
So how does this all translate to his play on the field? It is one thing being driven, but putting it into practice is, at many times, a separate thing altogether - something that we’ve all seen hundreds of promising prospects fail to do.
“First you have to get the fundamentals right, put in those thousands of hours of practice. Then, once you’re in the game, you have to forget every single minute of that, put every single thought out of your mind. You have to make sure that you are in the moment, clear your mind, and keep within it only the vision of what you want to do. You envision the goal, and let your body take over. But that is much easier said than done. In order to get there, you have to build your experience, build your mental strength - and most of that is practice.”
“I think half of every performance is determined before you even set food on the pitch. Of course the other half can be determined by anything that happens on the day itself, but if you aren’t working as hard as the guy you’re lining up across from, you are automatically at a huge disadvantage. And having that level of training, of work, creates a sense of essential self-belief which I think is necessary for success in anything you do. Because if you don’t have that belief to insulate yourself from the pressure, it gets to you - you begin to overthink, you begin to let fear take over. And fear, after all, is the mind-killer.”
Sitting across from Koh, and having seen him in action dozens of times over the past 3 years, it’s hard to believe that he ever feels fear. Does he still get afraid, having achieved all there is to achieve at the college level?
“Of course! Without a doubt. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are not afraid, you clearly do not care enough about what you are trying to achieve. Absolutely every single person feels fear. Perhaps the true freaks of nature that come along once in a generation do not - maybe Tom Brady does not feel fear, maybe Michael Jordan or Lebron James cannot begin to comprehend the concept - but for the rest of us, fear comes as naturally as breathing when we are challenged. But that is a blessing in disguise. When you conquer it, when it passes, then the success and the accomplishment is sweeter than if you had never feared in the first place.”
What, then, does the typical level of practice and training look like to achieve the level of comfort and experience necessary for Koh to execute his moves and plays so flawlessly on the field?
“Honestly my training routine has evolved so much. It used to be very routine. Monday, strength training, weights, like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, declines. Tuesday, speed and burst - cleans, pulls, jerks, jumping. Wednesday, rest. Thursdays to Saturdays, repeat. Sunday was mainly conditioning and stamina, low intensity running, swimming, rowing… I would just keep going all day to get my conditioning up. But now, I change it up whenever I can! If I feel like today is better spent on strength, that is what I do. And I spend more time watching film than ever. At a high level, I honestly think that is what makes the difference, because honestly everyone I play with in college is already an athletic freak, and I can only imagine that gets worse in the Pros.”
We pause for a quick break - it seems like five minutes but we had already been talking for about an hour. Ordering a quick breakfast (bacon sandwich for me, a full english for him), I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his Rose Bowl victory earlier in the year. Given the crazy schedule Koh has just described, did he take much time off to celebrate after?
“Oh hell yeah! Before the end of junior year I could not remember the last time I had gone on holiday - or, for what matter, the last time my entire family had! So I insisted everyone take a week off, we took a flight up to Hawaii and spent 10 or 11 days there. Did not even think about football… no tv, no reading about it, nothing. Definitely not expecting anything like that in the near future, but I treasured it and it really fired me up when I got back. Might start to make a yearly habit of it, just so I don’t get burnt out and I can start every year on the right note!”
Speaking of habits, one of Koh’s non-football related routines is participation in work and fundraisers for various charities in the Washington area. In particular, the bulk of his non-draft related free time in this off season has been spent raising funds for the several special needs schools in the area, along with selling merchandise at various charity sales for immigrant advocacy causes. What started this passion for Koh in the first place and where does he find the time to give back?
“To be honest, it’s been a passion for a really, really long time. I’ve never really been given a choice not to participate, because my family - my father, especially - has always been a firm believer in participating in local causes and giving back, and as first-generation immigrants we were very cognisant that not everyone had the smooth journey to the United States that we did, whether because they were escaping tragedy back home, or whether because they just didn’t have the privileges of family and relative wealth that we did. I’ve never regretted getting involved, today it’s such a fulfilling part of my life, and I think I would be an entirely different person if I never had that exposure. I think for every athlete or any public figure, it really is essential to do something like this to keep your feet on the ground.”
“As to where I find the time, you always can if you want to. If someone ever gives you that excuse, it just means they don’t care enough. To me, family time and charity time - those are untouchable. My agent, my coach, they know I’ll work as hard as they want me to work, I’ll appear at every single event they want me to, but those hours are sacred, non-negotiable. It keeps me sane, it keeps me going. And I can’t let them down, because they don’t have anyone else. I do.”
Does he think this makes him a role model? And is that label stressful at all?
“Ha! Not at all - to both questions. I don’t think anyone, beyond the truly extraordinary, deserves the term role model. I think there are values, characteristics, actions that we aspire to - never the person, because people are fallible. And if my actions inspire others, if people think my actions are worthy of emulation, that’s not stressful - it’s a privilege, and one that I hope will do a lot of good.”
That’s quite a bite to digest. Slowly the conversation tails off, our plates are cleaned, and we fall back into small talk. The interview, I sense, is over. To Koh’s credit, he doesn’t glance at his watch, prompt me that he’s running late, or even so much as look at his watch. But he’s perfectly comfortable with his last thoughts in this interview being on something larger than himself, and more important than football. That, I can do nothing but respect. Here’s to our erstwhile captain - I can think of no better representative for our college.
2,596 words (1.5 draft bonus)
As our readers who are football fans may know, Koh is one of the Washington Huskies’ greatest players in recent years - this writer still nurses fond memories of Koh’s 74-yard game-winning reception in our Rose Bowl victory over Georgia (along with, naturally, the wild afterparties that followed). Given his stellar performances over the past 3 years with the Huskies, it’s only natural that Koh is one of the top Wide Receiver prospects in the DSFL draft this year.
It has, naturally, taken a while to get Koh out to do this - not for lack of enthusiasm on his part. His response to our initial request for pre-draft was an instantaneous, unequivocal, yes. After all, in his words, Washington has given him more than he could ask for. As we found, however, the pre-draft schedule makes a mockery of even the best of intentions. Meetings with GMs, media, coaches, along with combine prep, on top of an already intense training schedule, naturally leaves little free time, if any, for personal time, let alone talking to your alma mater’s local paper.
Given all that exposure, the first impression of Koh is striking in just how ordinary it is. I can’t say I’ve had much experience with fame, but the expectation would be some press at least, perhaps a small entourage, or at the very least a fashionably late arrival from the star of the show. Instead, by the time we arrive at our venue at 10am, Koh is already seated in the corner with an espresso, nose buried in a book - “When breath becomes air” -, and looks as if he’s been there for ages. Even the venue of choice - Portage Cafe on Roosevelt, on the outskirts of campus - throws you for a loop, reminding me more of the leisurely, slow Sunday brunches that I’m so fond of, a far cry from the explosive speed and dramatic on-field performances the student population has come to associate with Koh. In such an incongruous location, and up close rather than from up in the bleachers, Koh is unassuming. At 5’10”, he’s barely taller than I am. Koh’s grip, however, is just as firm as it would be on the field.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he begins, “thanks for coming all this way.” We get our orders, chat about the weather, complain about the cold - it’s funny, somehow I never figured athletes for small talk. After 10 minutes of companionable conversation about all and sundry, I almost begin to worry - surely it would be impolite to segue so transparently into my painstakingly prepared list of questions?
My fears are unfounded. Koh breaks off to order a quick breakfast (morning training always gets him hungry, apparently), and motions for me to continue - “Why don’t we get started, then?”.
What drives you , I ask? I love football too, but I can’t imagine spending hours upon hours, days upon days, on that pitch throwing, catching, running, let alone the dozens of conditioning exercises that must come in a pro players regime. Surely there must be something that motivates you to try hard and to go that far?
“It hasn’t always been easy to find that sense of determination, to get yourself up at 5 in the morning to train for 6 hours. In fact, when I was younger I was probably the laziest person in my team. Not just in football but also at school… My mother would never stop yelling at me,” he laughs. “I loved the sport, but I was young, and I was already one of the best players on my high school team. I didn’t understand that on a wider scale, at other high schools, in other states, there were thousands of other kids just like me. As we started playing at the state level, at the national level - that’s when it clicked. Suddenly, I wasn’t the best, I wasn’t great. I was barely even good. And my father took me aside and told me, ‘Look, Kevin, you need to make a decision. Either you’re playing this sport as a hobby, or it’s part of your life. Don’t waste your time if you’re not going to give it your all. There’s no middle ground to success.’. And that really stuck with me. From then on, it was easy. I don’t make a choice to work hard, because there isn’t a choice to be made, period.”.
When Koh speaks, the words come measured, weighted, but also fluid and intense - much like his route running. “That said, I know I’m lucky. It’s a lot easier to be motivated when someone believes in you, when you don’t have to worry about where you’re going to find support, or whether you’re going to get your next meal. Despite, you know, all the usual stereotypes about Asian parents, my mother and father really were the driving force behind me and my safety net when I was down. It’s not hard to give a hundred per cent every day when you know there’s a loving family waiting for you when you get home. Sometimes I talk to other prospects, my team mates, and I’m in awe at how so many of them have made it so far despite all the challenges they’ve had - I have nothing but respect for them. We all have our own obstacles, and mine are nothing compared to many peoples’…”.
We all know just how much difference family can make in each of our lives. Was that a big reason why Koh chose to come to Washington over some of the other powerhouse universities looking to bring him aboard?
“Definitely. I think I’ve spoken about this a few times in some of the pressers I’ve had, but it’s hard to overstate just how much of an impact it had on my decision. I do love the Huskies, and I wouldn’t change the journey I’ve had over the past 3 years for any other, but if you’d asked me objectively what would’ve been the best option for me from a football perspective when I graduated, I don’t necessarily think Washington would have been in the conversation. I do think going to LSU or Alabama, for example, would have made it a lot easier for me to get on GM’s radars.”
“But at the point in time, there were so many other considerations to make. It couldn’t have known for sure I was going to make it this far. One injury could’ve ended my career, so I had to think about other things as well. Chief among these was family. My father had just taken a job in DC, and my whole family was moving with him. My mom was sick and wasn’t doing so well - and being in and out of the hospital it definitely was not easy with two other kids to take care of. Also - being the tiger mom that she is - she was also going on about making sure I still go to a good University, with the possibility of getting a good degree, should pursuing a career in football didn’t work out (god knows it was hard enough getting her to let me try in the first place). And at the end of the day, my family has given me so much that there was no way of saying no. It was my turn to give back. So I came to Washington University, majored in Business and Economics, and kept my family happy. Now, my mom’s recovered, my younger brother and sister are going to high school and college too, and here I am. Best decision of my life!”
So how does this all translate to his play on the field? It is one thing being driven, but putting it into practice is, at many times, a separate thing altogether - something that we’ve all seen hundreds of promising prospects fail to do.
“First you have to get the fundamentals right, put in those thousands of hours of practice. Then, once you’re in the game, you have to forget every single minute of that, put every single thought out of your mind. You have to make sure that you are in the moment, clear your mind, and keep within it only the vision of what you want to do. You envision the goal, and let your body take over. But that is much easier said than done. In order to get there, you have to build your experience, build your mental strength - and most of that is practice.”
“I think half of every performance is determined before you even set food on the pitch. Of course the other half can be determined by anything that happens on the day itself, but if you aren’t working as hard as the guy you’re lining up across from, you are automatically at a huge disadvantage. And having that level of training, of work, creates a sense of essential self-belief which I think is necessary for success in anything you do. Because if you don’t have that belief to insulate yourself from the pressure, it gets to you - you begin to overthink, you begin to let fear take over. And fear, after all, is the mind-killer.”
Sitting across from Koh, and having seen him in action dozens of times over the past 3 years, it’s hard to believe that he ever feels fear. Does he still get afraid, having achieved all there is to achieve at the college level?
“Of course! Without a doubt. I’ve always been of the opinion that if you are not afraid, you clearly do not care enough about what you are trying to achieve. Absolutely every single person feels fear. Perhaps the true freaks of nature that come along once in a generation do not - maybe Tom Brady does not feel fear, maybe Michael Jordan or Lebron James cannot begin to comprehend the concept - but for the rest of us, fear comes as naturally as breathing when we are challenged. But that is a blessing in disguise. When you conquer it, when it passes, then the success and the accomplishment is sweeter than if you had never feared in the first place.”
What, then, does the typical level of practice and training look like to achieve the level of comfort and experience necessary for Koh to execute his moves and plays so flawlessly on the field?
“Honestly my training routine has evolved so much. It used to be very routine. Monday, strength training, weights, like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, declines. Tuesday, speed and burst - cleans, pulls, jerks, jumping. Wednesday, rest. Thursdays to Saturdays, repeat. Sunday was mainly conditioning and stamina, low intensity running, swimming, rowing… I would just keep going all day to get my conditioning up. But now, I change it up whenever I can! If I feel like today is better spent on strength, that is what I do. And I spend more time watching film than ever. At a high level, I honestly think that is what makes the difference, because honestly everyone I play with in college is already an athletic freak, and I can only imagine that gets worse in the Pros.”
We pause for a quick break - it seems like five minutes but we had already been talking for about an hour. Ordering a quick breakfast (bacon sandwich for me, a full english for him), I take this opportunity to congratulate him on his Rose Bowl victory earlier in the year. Given the crazy schedule Koh has just described, did he take much time off to celebrate after?
“Oh hell yeah! Before the end of junior year I could not remember the last time I had gone on holiday - or, for what matter, the last time my entire family had! So I insisted everyone take a week off, we took a flight up to Hawaii and spent 10 or 11 days there. Did not even think about football… no tv, no reading about it, nothing. Definitely not expecting anything like that in the near future, but I treasured it and it really fired me up when I got back. Might start to make a yearly habit of it, just so I don’t get burnt out and I can start every year on the right note!”
Speaking of habits, one of Koh’s non-football related routines is participation in work and fundraisers for various charities in the Washington area. In particular, the bulk of his non-draft related free time in this off season has been spent raising funds for the several special needs schools in the area, along with selling merchandise at various charity sales for immigrant advocacy causes. What started this passion for Koh in the first place and where does he find the time to give back?
“To be honest, it’s been a passion for a really, really long time. I’ve never really been given a choice not to participate, because my family - my father, especially - has always been a firm believer in participating in local causes and giving back, and as first-generation immigrants we were very cognisant that not everyone had the smooth journey to the United States that we did, whether because they were escaping tragedy back home, or whether because they just didn’t have the privileges of family and relative wealth that we did. I’ve never regretted getting involved, today it’s such a fulfilling part of my life, and I think I would be an entirely different person if I never had that exposure. I think for every athlete or any public figure, it really is essential to do something like this to keep your feet on the ground.”
“As to where I find the time, you always can if you want to. If someone ever gives you that excuse, it just means they don’t care enough. To me, family time and charity time - those are untouchable. My agent, my coach, they know I’ll work as hard as they want me to work, I’ll appear at every single event they want me to, but those hours are sacred, non-negotiable. It keeps me sane, it keeps me going. And I can’t let them down, because they don’t have anyone else. I do.”
Does he think this makes him a role model? And is that label stressful at all?
“Ha! Not at all - to both questions. I don’t think anyone, beyond the truly extraordinary, deserves the term role model. I think there are values, characteristics, actions that we aspire to - never the person, because people are fallible. And if my actions inspire others, if people think my actions are worthy of emulation, that’s not stressful - it’s a privilege, and one that I hope will do a lot of good.”
That’s quite a bite to digest. Slowly the conversation tails off, our plates are cleaned, and we fall back into small talk. The interview, I sense, is over. To Koh’s credit, he doesn’t glance at his watch, prompt me that he’s running late, or even so much as look at his watch. But he’s perfectly comfortable with his last thoughts in this interview being on something larger than himself, and more important than football. That, I can do nothing but respect. Here’s to our erstwhile captain - I can think of no better representative for our college.
2,596 words (1.5 draft bonus)