Isaac Bunyun: A Wonderful Journey

At just seven to eight years old, Isaac Bunyun was gifted with the book Around the World in 80 Days and that was all it took for him to be sold on his dream of becoming a pilot one day. 

Approximately a year after that, in 2008, that dream grew even more when Bunyun flew to America for the first time from his hometown of Accra, Ghana. The Bunyun family landed at the JFK airport in New York to help move his father to the United States and the pilot invited them up to the cockpit to see how everything worked. 

Bunyun couldn’t get enough of it. 

“I was just thinking about how cool it all was, how cool all the little buttons were and everything,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘I would like to be here one day.’”

Bunyun continued dreaming about being a pilot which then led to him declaring a major in aerospace engineering. And despite eventually switching his major to public policy, Bunyun’s dreams have not wavered. This past summer, his girlfriend gifted him a Discovery Flight in Gaithersburg, an introductory flight for people interested in taking the first step toward earning their pilot’s license.

“I definitely want to get my pilot’s license one day,” Bunyun said. “In a way, the end goal is to fly around the world in 80 days like the book. That’s not always a super realistic goal but I like to dream big.”

In fact, dreaming big has been a defining theme in Bunyun’s entire journey—and is a quality that has helped me accomplish things that may seem improbable to most, especially on the football field where his path to the sport has been untraditional to say the least.

Growing up in Ghana, he played soccer—like all his friends did there. However, he was never truly sold on the sport. 

“It was a fun sport to play, but I knew it wasn’t for me. But it was helpful; it built that understanding of teamwork and how to understand my role and play my role. I still watch the World Cup every time and always root for Ghana.”

Fortunately for Bunyun, he was presented with an opportunity to play a new sport when he moved to the United States in 2015 to join his dad in Beltsville, MD. 

On his first day at High Point High School, Wilbert Brinson, the AP computer science and head football coach, saw Bunyun walking in the hallway. Taking notice of his big frame, he immediately told Bunyun to try out. 

“I just said, ‘You know, why not?’ I just went for it even though I didn’t really know anything about it.”

Bunyun joined the team, but didn’t play in any games as a freshman, instead taking everything in about the unfamiliar sport.

With each passing day, Bunyun learned more and more—a feat made easier by the fact that he had always been a star in the classroom as well.

“It was an interesting sport to me. It just seemed like basic math work in terms of understanding the gap techniques and how you line up. That’s how I got it to make sense to me.”

The following year, Bunyun played in his first official football game.

“That first time, I had no idea what the hell I was doing out there,” he recalled. 

“But I just tried to take my training from home just in terms of listening and doing what you’re told. So I went out and just tried to listen and execute the techniques.”

That methodology quickly paid off for the football newbie. By the time he was an upperclassman, Bunyan had impressed enough to garner some college interest. 

And from the beginning of his recruiting process, he knew he wanted to play for what had become his hometown school. For Bunyun, that mindset had begun back in 2008, since the first moment his family helped his dad move to Beltsville and they drove around the community for the first time. 

“We decided that we were going to be a family where, regardless of what we did, we were going to support the local community and give back to the community that was going to pour into us. So, I went to the local middle school, the local high school, and it was a no-brainer that I wanted to go to the University of Maryland.”

“I could’ve chosen to go elsewhere, but the biggest thing for me was choosing to go where I could support the home school and be proud of where I’m from. I wasn’t in Ghana anymore so Maryland had become my home.”

For Bunyun, who also cited the school’s academic prowess as a major contributing factor to his decision, the only minor setback of going to Maryland was that he would have to come as a walk-on. But while Bunyun wished he had the full financial benefit of a scholarship, he never wavered in his belief that he was an integral part of the team, giving special props to Director of Player Development Kevin Glover for being a guiding presence for him.

“I knew I was going to get a scholarship one day, the biggest question was just when it would come.”

According to Bunyun, he barely spoke to anyone his first year, instead soaking in every bit of knowledge he could about a game that was still only a few years familiar to him. As a sophomore, Bunyun appeared in 10 of 13 games, taking steps in his progression.

And just before Bunyun was about to start his third season in College Park, he was rewarded with a scholarship—-something that meant a great deal to him and eased some financial burdens. 

Bunyun wasn’t satisfied there, however. He built himself into a key rotational player and a leader on the team. In six games this season, he has tallied his first two career sacks along with three tackles for a loss. 

But for Bunyun, he’s never been surprised by the fact that the same kid who has dreams of flying a plane around the world in 80 days has gone from a walk-on to a key cog of the team. And he wouldn’t do any of it differently. 

“It’s been a wonderful, wonderful journey. I wouldn’t trade it.”