Perry football: From karate in Poland to football in America, Hubert Oryniak enjoys getting his kicks in
Oct. 26—Imagine traveling half-way around the world as a teenager to go to school in a foreign country.
Now imagine participating a sport you've only watched on TV, but never played.
Now imagine what it's like to participate in that sport in a state tournament game.
Welcome to the world of Hubert Oryniak, an exchange student from Poland who is the kicker for the Perry football team.
Perry opens postseason play on Friday when it hosts Wooster Triway at Alumni Stadium (kickoff is at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28), and will do so with a kicker who — prior to this fall — only watched football on television.
"I never played football, just a little volleyball and basketball," the 6-foot-4, 195-pound 16-year-old said before a recent practice at Perry. "But I HAVE been doing karate for eight years."
Boy, has he ever.
Before coming to America as an exchange student, Oryniak won a national championship in his age group in karate. Participating in a tournament in Limanowa, Poland, that brought the best karate athletes from around the country, Oryniak bested the competition with his repertoire of punches and kicks.
That kicking part is what has made the transition to football in America a relatively smooth one, though he admitted he is still learning and improving day by day.
"I had a lot of experience with kicks in karate, obviously, but this was my first time kicking a football," he said. "In karate, you aim for everything when you kick — the head, the upper body and the lower body. I just had to learn to kick a football here."
Oryniak arrived in America a few weeks before the Pirates' season opener against Riverside. Perry's defensive coordinator Scott Niedzwiecki and his family are Oryniak's host family.
"If you ask me, it's pretty gutsy just to get on a plane and come over," Niedzwiecki said of Oryniak's exchange student journey. "It's something I would have never done, but he's adapting and doing a great job. Playing football has helped him meet other kids, too."
Once Oryniak arrived in the U.S., he was eager to get involved.
"I always wanted to try football," he said. "I always watched American movies back home that had football, but the sport is not real popular in Poland. We have rugby. That's bigger there. Soccer is really popular, too."
Perry assistant Jeff Perry convinced Oryniak to give football a shot.
"I was like, 'They play soccer in Poland, right? Can you kick a football?' " Perry said with a laugh. "The next thing you knew he was booting it better than anyone we had this year, so he became our kicker."
More often than not, Perry attempts two-point conversions after touchdowns, but Oryniak gets his kickoffs and frequent conversion kicks as well.
"We feel like we can line up and kick extra points now, and that wasn't the case at the beginning of the year," Perry said.
Niedzwiecki noted Oryniak's athleticism and strength from his karate background help him on the gridiron.
"He's naturally strong and focused on what he does, whether it's in school or in athletics," the coach/host father said. "He adapted quickly. I think being a karate expert helps him kick. It's not a foreign motion to him."
The only child of Ewa and Marcin Oryniak, Hubert said he misses his parents and friends back in his hometown of Busko-Zdroj, but added his schoolmates and teammates have been supportive and friendly. He talks to his parents every day, and they watch their son play on Perry's streaming service on Friday nights, though the time difference makes that tough.
"It's like a seven-hour difference," Oryniak said. "They stay up like, like 4 in the morning, to watch me play."
As with any teenager, Oryniak wants to be part of everything. He loves going out to eat — Pizza Hut is a favorite he mentioned — and is looking forward to wrestling for Coach Dave Rowan's Pirates, while also finding some time to play volleyball and hit the ski slopes.
He's like every other 16-year-old. He's just doing all those things in a whole new country.
"I know it's not the really best conditions here for skiing and snowboarding," he noted. "There aren't any real big mountains."
Oryniak's voice quickens when he talks about how far he has come since his first practice to where he is now. He said he is anxiously awaiting his first taste of high school playoff football, American style.
He'll find out what that's like Oct. 28 when the Pirates host Wooster Triway in the first round of the Division V, Region 21 loop.
"I was very nervous my first game," he said. "But with every game, I'm getting better. I'm excited to play and I'm grateful for this opportunity."
