Going back to the time when he was a ball of vibrant, curious, preschool energy, Cameron Kinley had questions. Lots of them, typically including follow-up inquiries that challenged the adults to explain things in his young life. The boy was not yet equipped to care about making his elders squirm. He wanted answers.


Candace Kinley, the mother of Navy's senior cornerback and tri-captain, who at age 21 juggles so many responsibilities deftly at the Naval Academy, looks back at those early years and sees a driven young leader beginning to form.


"When Cameron was five, he asked me where babies come from," says Kinley's mother, giggling at the memory of what became one of many interesting exchanges with her precocious child.

"The [story of the] stork wasn't sufficient," she continues. "Just telling him that it takes a Mom and Dad wasn't sufficient. So I had to really get creative and age-appropriate to explain it."

Candace Kinley laughs some more as she recalls her son's first-grade teacher, fielding barrages of questions from the young Kinley that would temporarily turn a full class into a one-on-one chat. Like the time the math class learned addition with single numerals, and Kinley raised his hand to ask what was next. When told the class would tackle adding double-digit numbers later, Kinley requested his teacher show him now.  


"So his teacher started him on double digits. She used to tell me she'd spend much of her planning period trying to figure out what to do with him," Candace says.

"All four of my kid are special. There is something great about each of them," she adds. "Cameron was a different kid. He was insightful and inquisitive. He asked questions and didn't want little-kid, yes-and-no answers. He would probe until he was satisfied with the explanation he got. He was quite a talker."

Cameron Kinley has grown into quite a tireless young man of words and action, at a demanding school that provides ample room for both within its goal-oriented, leader-focused student body.

When you talk with the people in Kinley's world, from his current teammates and coaches to his loved ones back in Memphis, Tennessee, you hear of a future U.S. Navy officer with the unusual ability to juggle an array of passionate pursuits.

"I didn't want to be seen as a one-dimensional football player when I came here," says Kinley, who considered offers by half a dozen Ivy League schools and Air Force, who offered him after Navy did. In the end, Kinley picked Navy over Air Force, Yale and Princeton.

"[Navy] was the total package," he continues. "It was going to develop me as a man and a leader. It would challenge me academically. On top of all of that, football was top-notch here. Then I'd get to give back by serving my country. I really couldn't see a way to lose.


"When I first got onto the campus for my visit, the brotherhood was so real. It felt like a home away from home," he adds. "But this is not a normal college experience. I can't say [coming to the academy] is something I wanted to do. It was something I needed to do. I don't regret my decision at all."

Kinley, who plans to be commissioned as a Navy intelligence officer, will graduate in May with a degree in political science. He entered his senior year carrying a 3.34 GPA, and began his final football season — under the life-altering and game-changing conditions of Covid-19 — as a second-year starter at cornerback.

There's more, much more.  

Kinley, who had gotten into high school politics by becoming Secretary of his class as a junior at Lausanne Collegiate School, before serving as co-President as a senior, jumped into the race late as a sophomore at Navy for Vice President of his Class of '21. His biography sheet propelled him barely into the top five finalists — out of an original list of 22 candidates.

His speech, which centered on class unity, clinched the winning votes. And when the Class Presidency was vacated during his junior year, Kinley moved into that role, which he has held since.

As a man of deep Christian faith, Kinley shows it with another leadership role, as Secretary of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Another role that Kinley treasures is his place on the Midshipman Diversity Team. One of six Navy football players represented on the team, Kinley chairs an outreach group that seeks to educate about cultural awareness.

"Cam is outspoken. A friend of mine goes to a church in Memphis and knew about him and his family before I'd even had a chance to meet him. He was recognized as a leader before he came here," says Captain Tamika Lindsay, a 1992 Naval Academy graduate who has been the academy's Chief Diversity Officer since August 2017. She also spent two years with the football program as its Officer Representative, before assuming the same role with men's basketball.

"[Kinley] sees the glass ceiling, the way society puts barriers around people to limit them. He is determined to break through it," adds Lindsay, who can see Kinley applying his passion in the realm of politics. "He sees a problem, tangible or intangible, he attacks it, whether it's on the field, in the classroom or in the Brigade. It's in his daily walk. I think he'll go far in the military and beyond."

Like many of his teammates, Kinley was moved and deeply disturbed by the killing of George Floyd on May 25 at the hands of Minneapolis police. That incident, following a string of others dating back years, sparked continuous, nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice throughout the summer.

The Floyd killing occurred while Navy students were home taking classes online for several months, following the Covid-19 pandemic's spread to America in March.

"When all of these events were going on this summer, I really struggled with my focus on my online classes," Kinley says. "I had my Mom crying because she has three African-American sons [including Jonathan, the oldest, and Richard, Jr., the youngest] and any one of us could have been [Floyd]. Just seeing a police car can make you nervous [as a black man]. If you hear a siren, you flinch, even though you've done nothing wrong."

The racial unrest that ensued in late May had another effect on the social conscience on the Yard. Navy head football coach Ken Nuimatalolo formed the Navy Football Players Council for Racial Equality. He appointed defensive assistant coach Robert Green as the Director of Racial Equality to coordinate the panel, which consists of nine players — three from each returning class.


Niumatalolo was inspired to create the panel after a number of Zoom meetings with players, whose pain, anguish and calls to educate and act in the wake of Floyd's death resonated.

Green says Kinley wanted to be one of three senior representatives on the panel, but he decided Kinley was already spread too thin with his range of extracurricular activity that included the diversity team.

"I could never manage as many balls in the air as [Kinley] does already. He just excels at so many things," says Green, a 1998 Navy graduate who started for three years at defensive back and retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2017 as a Lt. Colonel.  

"[Kinley's] ability to flip the switch from ballplayer to student to mentoring a Boys Club kid to talking to the President at the While House about Navy football, his level of professionalism and maturity, it rivals that of any officers I've been around in the Marines," Green adds. "I was nothing like he is when I went here. So many of us struggled early with the academy. Cam just understood why he was here, very early."

"We're trying to give a face to the Naval Academy that shows we're not military robots. We care about the people of this country, not just our military ordeals and ideals," says senior teammate Chris Pearson, who serves on the diversity team. "I can't even count how many conversations Cam has pushed [regarding racial equality and cultural awareness]. He just stands out as a leader among us."

"When Cam speaks, I can feel his passion for leading people and bringing us together," adds senior teammate Myles Fells, who serves on the players' council and the diversity team. "He's got that command presence, the way he handles being in the spotlight."

Kinley says he is determined to help bridge the cultural divides that cause problems in the nation and the world by promoting the acceptance and appreciation of different backgrounds. And he considers the Brigade, with its more than 4,000 Midshipmen, as an excellent training ground.

He recalls his plebe year, when he got to know a roommate from Colorado who had barely interacted with any people of color before arriving in Annapolis. Kinley set about educating his roommate on his day-to-day life — from his style of hair care to the old, R&B music he preferred to the way Kinley talked. It was illuminating for both freshmen.

"Our diversity team is about opening eyes throughout the student body. We're unique [at Navy], because people come from all over," Kinley says. "We buy into the same military culture here, but we've kind of forgotten to respect each other's life cultures at times. As a military leader, you have to know about the people you're working with, really understand their backgrounds."

Whatever path her son chooses — an extended military career, coaching, minister, activist, politician — Candace Kinley is certain he has the drive and compassion to succeed.


The young Kinley showed that hand with revealing examples.


Kinley overcame a speech impediment as an elementary school student and went on to finish third in a public speaking contest as a sixth-grader. Coincidentally, the speech topic was, "Navy athletes and what makes them unique."


Kinley's fourth-grade friend named Zach suddenly disappeared from the classroom. He'd been diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo treatment at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis.  


Zach's friends were not allowed to visit him in the hospital. So Kinley, with no help, created a comic book called "Zach Attack." It featured Kinley, Zach and several other classmates playing superheroes.  


"The idea of serving others is very important to me," Kinley says. "I want to represent those who aren't represented that well. I want to give back to this country. I want to make it a better place."