“I had never seen snow before, and it was pretty rough at first,” Kamau said of his time at the school. “But it was also very fun, and I made friends for life there.”

Beyond the cold, the school was a very different experience from schools in Kenya. Kamau describes the Kenyan system as more test-oriented, a system that he said is very good at preparing students for careers and college. “I went from a rigid system to a fully expressive creative system,” he said. “The Waldorf schools teach mainly through art.”

At High Mowing, he enjoyed expressing his creative side but never lost sight of his goals, continuing to build on his soccer skills and enhance his reputation in this country by playing for the school during the season and a club team in the off-season. He was talented enough to quickly get the attention of college coaches, and the offers came rolling in.

“I did have some Division I interest, but in terms of coaches and personal interest, I align myself with the coaches who want to talk to me the most,” he said. After weighing up his options, he verbally committed to a small liberal arts college similar to Washington.

In the spring of 2023, however, Ryan Shera, Washington’s assistant men’s coach, spotted him playing in a tournament and reached out to him via email. Shera said he thought he would be a good fit at Washington and asked if he could speak to him. Kamau was tired of the recruitment process and didn’t want to talk to another coach. His aunt, once again, had a better idea. She told him to get on a call with the Washington coaches, as much out of politeness as anything else because they had gone to the trouble of reaching out to him. Kamau reluctantly agreed. He and his aunt got on a call with Shera and Roy Dunshee, Washington’s head coach.

The two coaches impressed Kamau enormously. “It was a really good call, and the coaches answered all my questions,” he said. “They did a great job of being themselves and showing their personalities. I knew these were stand-up guys.”

But he was conflicted. He had already verbally committed to another school, and he’d never visited Washington’s campus and knew little about the College. He talked with his aunt about the conundrum. She told him that, in her opinion, he should go to Washington because they both got such good vibes from the coaches.

What’s interesting about Kamau’s decision, and it says a lot about the player and his belief in himself, is that Coach Dunshee did not tell him he would be a starter on the team. In fact, he was told he would have to earn his place just like every other player. Kamau appreciated the honesty and clarity and was determined to earn a spot.

During pre-season of his first year, it became clear to Kamau that it would be difficult to play in his preferred position as a creative midfielder who runs the show. The team was stacked with excellent and experienced midfielders, many in their fifth year, an extra year some college athletes qualified for because of the COVID year, when many sports were suspended.

“The 2023 Washington College squad was the best team I've been a part of because everyone was talented from the first name on the list to the last,” Kamau said.

Dunshee approached him and asked if he would consider playing at left back. He jumped at the chance to get minutes on the field, and that’s how he spent his first year and established himself with the team. He has since moved into his preferred midfield position, where he completed the ’25-’26 season. He expects to recover from his surgery in time for pre-season this summer and establish himself once again as the creative leader for his senior year.

If his soccer career has gone pretty much according to plan, his social and academic experiences have been just as good, albeit with a slower start. When Kamau first came to the country, besides missing his family, he missed the easy friendships and conversations back home. He said that it was normal to talk to people on the streets of Nairobi and easy to make friends because people were outgoing and friendly, whereas he found Americans to be more guarded, even a little standoffish, especially on first meeting.

He also missed the food, especially the wide range of spicy stews from home. In particular, he missed Kienyeji chicken. He explained that the meat is much more flavorful because the chickens roam free and eat what they like instead of being fed processed feed. And then there is the chapati bread, which is somewhat similar to Indian naan bread but tends to be layered and deep-fried.

“When I was growing up, I wanted to eat food that was American,” he recalled. “But when I came here, I realized that I took the food back home for granted. Now, every day I miss Kenyan food because it was pure and made from the best ingredients straight from the farm to the table.”

Although he hasn’t been back home for four years, he does get to savor the tastes of home when he stays with his aunt during school breaks. There is a large Kenyan population where she lives, and he can find many of the foods and spices he craves.

Kamau hasn’t seen his mother since he came to this country, but he is looking forward to her visiting this summer. He puts his self-belief and confidence down to his mother’s example. She raised him as a single parent, and he grew up admiring how hard she worked to provide for them. “She always said to me, ‘I want you to be someone who always finds a way to make things happen.’ I watched her work every day to provide for me, and that’s the type of person I aspire to be.”

Although living far from family can be a challenge, Chestertown has changed Kamau’s initial opinion of Americans and their friendliness.

“Chestertown is my second home and has a sort of family feeling to it that I’ve never seen before,” he said. “As much as we are friendly back home in Kenya, Chestertown has kind of skewed my opinion of how friendly people actually are here.”

Kamau got a job at the Evergrain bakery downtown, and he estimates that through that job he has met half the town. He learned that the relationships he’s built here, while maybe not quite as immediate or spontaneous as friendships you can make in Kenya, are deeper. He is continuously surprised by the generosity and offers of help he’s been given by “random” people in the town.

“There’s something to seeing the same people every day that I love. I’m happy I chose a small school in a small town.”

Just as the relationships he’s built in town feel permanent and deep, his bonds with teammates and peers are equally profound. When Kamau elected to have surgery on a troublesome knee, surgery that should resolve the issue without affecting his ability to play at the highest levels, it did make him incapacitated in the short term—he literally would not be able to put any weight on his leg for the first couple of months. That’s not easy for anyone, but when you’re living on the second floor in student accommodation, and your closest relative is a continent away, life could be quite complicated. Not so for Kamau. As soon as they heard about his operation, teammate Tucker Sprano ’27 and his family insisted on taking him into their home and looking after him until he was fully recovered. If Chestertown is like his extended family, the Spranos are like close family.

Dunshee and Shera have imparted many lessons to the Shoremen as part of the team’s ethos that Kamau has internalized, most prominently a strong work ethic and positive attitude.

“We have this saying on the team. We say, ‘Next task,’ meaning you make a mistake, you move on, it's over,” he explained. “I take that approach and apply it to my life. I’m always moving onto the next task. I like relaxing, but I also like doing something hard. Going to the gym, then going to class, then going to work, doing things like that brings me joy. I’m always moving onto the next task.”

When asked what the future holds for him, Kamau said that he hopes to get into sports marketing. He’s unsure if it will be in this country or back home, but either way, he is convinced he will succeed. 

—Darrach Dolan