WATTERSON
“It’s a dream come true because I can’t imagine coaching anywhere else,” he said earlier this month. “I would have been an assistant coach at Watterson until the day I died.”
Kennedy graduated from the school in 1992 and went on to play for Southern Methodist.
He inherits a team with as much tradition as Hartley, DeSales, Hilliard Davidson, Pickerington Central and Dublin Coffman, but one that has experienced mostly hard times since winning a Division III state championship in 2010.
Dan Bjelac was 97-64 in 14 seasons as coach, but he was under fire from parents and alumni after the Eagles finished 3-7 last season.
Kennedy realizes the difficult job at hand.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “Last year we did not meet expectations of the players or coaches. My message to the team was, ‘We’ve all got to be together in this. Here’s the plan, and follow the plan to the best of our ability.’”
Watterson has done away with the wing-T offense, but Kennedy didn’t want to talk about the new scheme other than to say the objective is to “spread out” defenses. The defense will attack more.
Senior receiver Casey Calhoun is excited about the new look.
“I like the offense more than last year’s because we’re using everyone,” Calhoun said. “We’re spreading out and using different people. A lot has been thrown at us, but we’re excited. We’re looking to do some things with it.”
The athletic department used to budget for at least a first-round playoff game that usually was played at home. There have been 23 playoff appearances, including 12 since 2000.
Senior tight end Charlie Spencer said the players see hope that they can be that winning team again.
“I definitely like the energy that Coach has brought to the program,” he said.
Riley Fortkamp, a senior lineman, admitted that the players didn’t always hold their heads up walking the hallways in school.
“It definitely was tough because you hear people talk,” he said. “People didn’t come out to games. That makes you want to put your all into it so people come out to football games again.”
Watterson was not competitive in the Central Catholic League last season, losing to Hartley 42-7, DeSales 32-8 and St. Charles 10-7. It has lost four straight seasons to DeSales.
Kennedy prefers action over talk.
“It starts with winning football games — on the field we have to compete,” he said. “We’ve seen games the last few years where we didn’t compete. There were running clocks and teams were putting us away early. What’s tough to stomach is when you feel you didn’t compete.”