Kennedy up to the challenge

THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE POST-TRIBUNE OF NORTHWEST INDIANA

Kennedy up to the challenge in Bloomington
April 2, 2010
BY MARK LAZERUS
Think of the Duneland Conference and what comes to mind? Pristine artificial turf fields, flashy spread offenses, 280-pound linemen and Division I recruits dotting the field.
Think of the Northwest Crossroads Conference and what comes to mind? Mud-soaked uniforms and dirt painted green, grinding I-formation offenses and 180-pound linemen getting by on technique and quickness.
The look of determination: Kirk Kennedy never had trouble getting his point across to players and referees alike. post-tribune file photo
This is the difference between Class 5A football and Class 4A football in Indiana. This is the jump Kirk Kennedy is making as he leaves the smashouth security of Lowell for the great unknown of Bloomington South.
Bloomington South has only 371 more students than Lowell. It would be by far the smallest school in the Duneland Conference. But it will compete against megaschools such as Warren Central and Ben Davis for a state championship. It's in the same conference as Columbus North and Pike.
IT'S A BRAVE, DAUNTING, somewhat horrifying new world for Kennedy. He won't take the Panthers -- wow, Kirk Kennedy a Panther; what would Griffith think? -- to the semistate every year, like he did Lowell. He won't be a fixture in the state championship game, like he was at Lowell. He won't be a conference champion year in and year out, like he was at Lowell.
He's taking over a small 5A program that went 3-7 last year (its first losing season since 1988, to be fair), and none of his terrific assistants are coming with him. And he's giving up maybe the most secure job in Indiana in a lousy economic climate, especially for educators.
"It's going to be a challenge, no question," Kennedy said. "But that's part of the appeal, I think."
Nobody accepts a challenge quite like Kennedy. He took an indescribably bad program at Lowell and turned it into one of the two or three best programs in all of Class 4A -- and the model for all region teams. He fought through four surgeries and four months of hospitalization due to a life-threatening bout of advanced pancreatitis in his second year at Lowell -- and was back running laps around the school before the next season began.
HE TOOK ONE -- 34 iso, a simple run off tackle -- and turned it into a legend, an attitude, a rallying cry, Red Devil Pride.
There's a running theme around the Post-Tribune newsroom that pops up every football postseason. When we're all making our weekly staff picks, the mantra is "Don't Bet Against Kirk Kennedy." And when someone does, they're promptly ridiculed, because they're almost always wrong.
Well, I'm not about to start picking against him now.
But like every other person who's watched a Lowell game at the Inferno, I have my doubts. How can the Lowell offense work at the 5A level? If the next Rex Grossman shows up at Bloomington South practice one day, is Kennedy going to have him hand off the ball 50 times per game, and maybe roll out for two short screen passes?
Kennedy laughed at the question.
"OUR STYLE IS the style that worked at Lowell," he said. "We do have a rather large playbook. It's just that we only use a small part of it. I like to think I'm smart enough to go down there and evaluate the talent and tweak things to suit whatever talent they may have. That's not to suggest by any means that we'll sell out to the spread offense or anything like that. You can throw the ball very effectively out of the I formation. I'm not worrying about going down there and ram-rodding anything down their throats."
And that's why Kennedy will succeed. He's never been all about Xs and Os. As he likes to say, he's all the players executing those Xs and Os. Give him the reins of a Pop Warner team, and you'll have the toughest, smartest, best-conditioned and best-prepared Pop Warner team around.
Kennedy's less a football coach than he is an attitude coach. He makes kids tougher. He makes kids stronger. He makes kids believe in themselves and in something greater than themselves. He makes them fiercely devoted to his teammates -- past, present and future. He makes them dedicated to the idea of not letting down everyone who came before them.
HE MAKES THEM little Kirk Kennedys.
And that's why Lowell -- with a bunch of 170-pound offensive lineman -- can dominate the line of scrimmage against bigger, more talented teams. That's why Lowell -- with that tiny corner of the playbook -- can run the same play eight straight times and get 5 or 6 yards every time. That's why Lowell -- with two-way players at nearly every position -- can outlast deeper, one-way teams and pull away in the fouth quarter.
And that's why Bloomington South wanted Kennedy. The Panthers might lack the depth, the size, the speed and the talent that some of the 5A powers in the Indianapolis area have. But they now have something those other schools don't.
They have Kirk Kennedy.
And you just don't bet against Kirk Kennedy.