Kickers’ Kalungi: no shortage of motivation

Henry Kalungi has been an integral part of a Kickers defense that has allowed just four goals -- including two own goals -- in its past seven USL-2 matches. Motivation follows Henry Kalungi like a shadow on a sunlit day. It pursues him relentlessly. He cannot escape it. Nor does he wish to.

Kalungi, the Richmond Kickers' durable rookie defender, practices and competes with an urgency that few other 21-year-old pros can match. His family, living half a world away in Kampala, Uganda, depends upon him for financial support.

"It's very important that I work hard because I depend on the Kickers [for a paycheck] and my family depends on me," said Kalungi, a former all-Big South performer at Winthrop. "If the Kickers are happy, I'm happy, because I know I'll be able to give my family what they need."

USL-2 rookies typically earn from $1,000-$1,500 a month. Given that a portion of each Kickers paycheck is immediately earmarked for his family, Kalungi said, it is essential that those paychecks flow unimpeded.

"My father can't do it by himself," he said. "I want to help. I feel like it's my responsibility to help."

Certainly, he is helping the Kickers. Kalungi, physically imposing at 6-2 and 175 pounds, is a central member of a defense that has permitted but four goals (two were own goals) in its past seven USL-2 matches. He has played every minute in 12 of the Kickers' 13 matches.

That he has performed so steadily seems little shy of remarkable, given the distractions with which he is dealing.

His mother is ill. "I'm just trying to stay focused," he said. "I'm just praying to God that everything will work out." His father, a teacher, is attempting to hold together a household that is overflowing with children and teens. Four are Kalungi's siblings; 12 are his cousins. The cousins were summoned when their father, Kalungi's uncle, died.

Said Kalungi: "We're not rich. My father doesn't make a lot of money. But he wanted [the 12 cousins] to stay with us because he wants them to go to school. Children that young -- you can't let them roam the streets all day. That's when bad things happen."

Kalungi, who graduated from Winthrop with a bachelor's degree in general business, shares his father's concern.

"My family is depending on me," he said. "I can't do a lot for them. There are a lot of things at home that I can't change. But I'll do what I can. The money I send might help my father buy food, or pay [medical] bills or keep the children in school."

Predictably, Kalungi's austere background colors his perception of American society. A man whose family frequently cooks over an open fire can be expected to marvel at the abundance available in the United States. He marvels, too, at the tendency of many to take that abundance for granted.

"Here I get everything I need," he said. "It's not like that at home. There, sometimes, there's nothing to eat."

He is bewildered, he said, when he watches American diners toss out unwanted food.

"Here, many times, you throw leftovers away," he said. "That would be a serious thing, a very serious thing, at home. At home, we never throw food away. Never."

Kalungi said other adjustments have been humorous. He speaks with, and is accustomed to listening to, a colonial British accent. When he arrived at Winthrop, he said, he was stunned by his first exposure to a syrupy Carolina drawl.

"My coach would tell me something, and I'd stand there and nod as if I understood. But really, I had no idea what he was saying."

Contact Vic Dorr Jr. at (804) 649-6442 or .