The last time Stanford fans saw Simi Fehoko he was catching a touchdown pass in the Army All-America game in January of 2016. Fehoko went on an LDS mission to Seoul, South Korea after graduating from Brighton in Salt Lake City.
Fehoko returned home April 15 a little taller, wiser and ready to shake the rust off the football skills that made him a coveted recruit who broke state receiving records. Less than a month later he flew out to see his second family -- the Cardinal coaches and former 2016 recruiting classmates. He got to Stanford May 11 for the same weekend of a junior day with 2019 and 2020 recruits.
"It was everything that I remembered it to be," he said. "It’s still the same beautiful campus. There are still amazes coaches and really cool guys on the team. I overall was just happy. This is my home and I’m excited to be here.
"It was super cool that as soon as I got back all the boys hit me back up, whether it was KJ (Costello), Donald (Stewart), Kaden (Smith) or Curtis (Robinson). We were able to get really close in 2016. It was cool to see when I went back out there that they’re still that tight with each other."
Stanford doesn't have a lot of coaching turnover and only Mike Bloomgren is gone from the offensive staff that recruited Fehoko. But there are a couple new faces and Fehoko was eager to get to know wide receiver coach Bobby Kennedy.
"He’s a great guy and I’m excited to work with him soon," Fehoko said.
Kennedy first met Fehoko May 2 while he was recruiting in Utah. Kennedy called Fehoko and asked if he could stop by his work and they had their first face to face conversation.
Their time together on campus left a strong impression on Kennedy.
"I was really excited to spend time with and get to know Simi and his parents," Kennedy said in a statement to Cardinal Sports Report. "He’s really mature and will be a great addition to our group. What impressed me most about him was his excitement to learn the offense and become a part of our unit. I was blown away by how physically impressive he was. He will be a great addition to our team."
Fehoko got a crash course of what he has been missing from Costello and Stewart. Fehoko watched film with his future quarterback and Stewart walked him through some of the routes.
Despite playing football for most of his life, it was a shock to the system to see everything he would need to learn after not doing anything football related for two years.
"It was weird at first," he said of the film study. "I was a little off, especially because I’m still focused on what I knew in high school. KJ was talking film with me and he was throwing out a bunch of things and I was like, ‘Yo, KJ, I don’t know what you’re saying. I’m going to need you to dumb it down a little bit.’ It was good. It was super helpful to be able to sit down with KJ. I’m ready to learn and start back from ground zero. The only way I can go is up."
Fehoko's work ethic isn't in question. He didn't waste any time getting to work to return to the form that earned him scholarship offers from coast to coast.
"It has been grind, for sure," he said. "I got home on a Sunday night. That next Monday morning I started up with my trainer. From there I’ve kept the ball rolling and I’ve been trying to get better and try to get back to where I was. It took some time, but being back for about five weeks now I feel like I’m slowly getting back.
"That’s just with a trainer. I’m excited to get on campus and let Coach (Shannon) Turley help me out there and all the other coaches. I’m sure I’ll get back to normal, plus some."
While Fehoko has some catching up to do on the football front -- and no returning missionary recruit has played his true freshman season at Stanford under Shaw -- he is advanced in several other ways.
His experiences in South Korea were invaluable and taught him a range of skills from as simple as how to eat properly with chopsticks to learning a new language.
Fehoko woke up every morning at 6:30 with his fellow missionaries. The first thing they would all do is plan for the day and then take time to study scripture or other church publications. From 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. they would fill the day with various responsibilities, such as studying the Korean language, companionship study or going to meet someone to teach them about their religion.
If there were no scheduled meetings they would hit the streets to try to have conversations with strangers about what they believed in and why.
"It’s kind of weird seeing a 6-4 American dude walking around. They’re all staring and when I start speaking Korean they’re shocked," Fehoko laughed.
"Especially with the Korean people, religion is really important to them. Being as young as I am, going up to anyone over 30 and trying to tell them about what I believe, obviously it was humbling to say the least. I learned a lot. I was rejected a lot, of course. I was able to learn how to deal with rejection and how to have a conversation about something that means a lot to me without being offensive toward them.
"It was really awesome … the Korean people are so nice. They’re very gracious and humble. It was very nice to see them react to someone who is from America trying to learn their language and culture and share something that is so intimate with them. I was taught a lot while I was there and it was a great experience."
It was a chapter of his life that Fehoko wouldn't trade and he came back ready for the next one.
