BY MATT MACKINDER
Clarkston News Staff Writer

Clarkston High School graduate Roman Kinal has been all over the country.
He spent his senior year of 2016-17 living and playing junior hockey in Texas, then the following year in Iowa. He is now a sophomore at the University of Connecticut, though not playing for the Huskies’ NCAA Division I team this season after a health scare back in the fall.
“It was our first game week of the year and I noticed my arm getting unusually red during a workout,” said Kinal. “After getting admitted to the hospital on Oct. 1, they found out I had thoracic outlet syndrome. My first rib was oddly shaped and was putting pressure on my veins and arteries causing a blood clot in my upper chest and smaller clots in my lungs. Two weeks in the hospital and they got rid of the blood clots and had to take out my first rib.”
He is back to working out and skating with no issues, taking a medical redshirt this year and will not be able to play a game for the remainder of the season.
“Watching your teammates go through huge wins and tough losses without you can be extremely challenging, but I decided to keep a positive mindset and not let this injury define me,” said Kinal, a defenseman. “I chose to use this as a time to learn and get better.”
Last year as a freshman, he posted one goal and six assists for seven points in 34 games. Playing NCAA hockey had been a dream of his for as long as he could remember.
“During my recruiting process, UConn stood out to me the most because they play in Hockey East, which is the same league my dad (also Roman) played in when he was at Northeastern University,” Kinal said. “Hockey East is arguably the best division in college hockey. I wanted to go to a school where I can get the most opportunity to play and develop my game and UConn was the best fit.”
He credits his parents (mom is Cheryl) for being major influences on him and putting him in skates at the age of 2. His younger sister, Sonia, a 2019 CHS graduate, has also been a huge source of support over the years.
“We live on Lake Oakland, so it started with us shoveling a rink when the lake froze,” Roman Kinal said. “I would be out there for hours at a time and bringing a light out when the sun would go down. I remember watching recordings of my dad’s old games, playing all the same teams I play now.”
Moving to Clarkston for the start of sixth grade in 2010, Kinal said he still spends most of his time in Clarkston in the summers.
“I absolutely love it,” he said. “I am happy I grew up in Clarkston. The town is filled with things to do, and it has been a great place to go out with friends and family.”
The community is great and feels like everyone is so close, he said.
“I was lucky to have gone to Clarkston High School. They helped prepare me and embedded good habits for college. I made a lot of close friends that I still keep in touch with,” he said. “And I am incredibly thankful Clarkston Principal Gary Kaul gave me the opportunity to finish my senior year online as I moved to Wichita Falls, Tex., to play junior hockey (for the NAHL’s Wichita Falls Wildcats). I took all the classes I needed to graduate and get my diploma from Clarkston High School and was able to walk with my class during the graduation ceremony at DTE. I graduated in June 2017.”
For the 2017-18 season, Kinal moved to Dubuque, Iowa, to skate for the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints.
Hockey wasn’t always Kinal’s top sport, however.
“I played a few different sports growing up,” he said. “I played soccer in Waterford at a young age. I played in Clarkston’s rec baseball league and played for Clarkston High School’s golf team for two years in ninth and tenth grade.”
He also skated for Little Caesars’s and the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies, winning a 16U AAA national championship with the Jr. Grizzlies in 2014.
In the classroom, he is majoring in Economics.
“I am really interested in that and want to pursue that once hockey is over,” he said. “Right now, I am looking forward to getting back on the ice next year to help our team win a national championship. After I finish three more years of college hockey, my goal is to sign professionally and, hopefully, make a career out of hockey.”