Radnor Senior Holds Special Roots And Connection To Penn

The conversation was first broached in a car, one of those visceral tender moments between a father and son. middle linebacker Paul Somboonsong might have been about nine or ten years old, that perfect age when a parent can hold the rapt attention of their child. Driving along one day, Paul’s father, Win, felt compelled to tell him a special story about someone who had nothing that turned into someone special.

Win proceeded to regale his son about a young man growing up in the hinterlands of Bangkok, Thailand. The boy, then a teenager, grew frustrated about his family’s lot in life, working the fields and farming, toiling under the oppressive Thailand sun. Until one day, the boy, then around 13, decided to change everything and run away. He left the farmlands and the only community his family knew to set out on his own for Bangkok to get an education. He found a job, lived in a Buddhist temple, and self-taught himself before eventually heading off and graduating college.

There, the boy, now a young man, took a standardized test and finished number-one—in the country! As a reward, the king of Thailand awarded the young man a scholarship to attend any school he wanted to in the world. Boontam Somboonsong chose the prestigious Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After graduating, Boontam wound up going back to Thailand for a time to open a college for the poor.

Boontam Somboonsong wasn’t just any man. He was Paul’s grandfather.

It’s a persuasive, deeply-rooted, blood reason why Paul, Radnor’s muscular 6-foot, 200-pound senior two-way starter, wants to attend Penn, like his grandfather. It’s certainly going to be make one heck of an essay on Paul’s Penn application.

“You can call it a blood connection,” says Paul, whose parents have a thriving restaurant business, which includes , located in Villanova. “I know my grandfather, who passed away a year ago, was about service to the community. I saw in looking over Penn’s booklet that it’s a school about service and being involved. It’s why I’m thinking about becoming a doctor.”

Aside from his power on the football field, Paul may be more of a powerhouse in the classroom. He carries a weighted 3.98 GPA with high-curriculum classes, and has scored a 2,160 on the 2,400 SAT, which he just recently took again.

“I’ve been coaching for 18 years at the high school and college level, and Paul is by far the hardest-working kid I ever had,” Radnor coach Tom Ryan said. “His work ethic is second to none, and I think that comes from his family. He carries over whatever he does in the classroom onto the football field. Paul is simply one of those kids that’s a success in everything he does, and you can see by his humility and work ethic that he’ll continue being a success.”

When Paul first told Ryan about the special reason why he wanted to attend Penn, Ryan had Paul share the story with the rest of the Radnor coaching staff. A three-year starter on both sides of the ball, Paul also captains the Radnor lacrosse team in the spring. But it’s football, where he’s played center, guard and tackle on the offensive line, fullback, and defensive tackle and this year linebacker, that Paul wants to focus on in college—hopefully Penn.

“It’s my ultimate goal, I would love to play football at Penn,” Paul said. “Even if I don’t play football there, I still want to go for the life experience of it.”

The blood line is certainly there. As is the iron-willed genetics that never denied a farmhand named Boontam Somboonsong.