Grabbing a chance
When Gonzaga Prep football coach Dave Carson sat down at the end of last football season, looked at the players he would have returning and began filling in positions, Brandon Kennedy’s name was penciled in.
As a starting defensive back.
“I didn’t see him being a receiver,” Carson said.
Then came summer.
“At the WSU camp, I knew (quarterback ) Billy (Karwacki) could throw it and me and Brad (Parker) could catch it, so I thought I would at least try playing both ways,” Kennedy said. “Then we had seven-on-seven and we were throwing it great so I thought, ‘OK, this is my senior year, I might as well try both ways.’
“I didn’t play (receiver) last year, but last year I didn’t think I was physically ready to do it. But this year there is something different.”
Carson saw the same thing.
“Late in the summer, Billy was throwing and (Brandon) was catching every ball thrown to him and I said to someone, ‘We’ve got to play him at receiver,’ ” Carson said. “It was then that I made up my mind he was going to play there.”
In the season opener against Bellarmine Prep, the Pups trailed 6-0 early in the fourth quarter. Then Karwacki, making his first start under center, connected with Kennedy for 63 yards and the game-breaking score.
An anomaly or a foreshadowing?
The next week against East Valley, which would end the year with the Greater Spokane League’s best pass defense, he had two catches, one for 33 yards and a score, the other for 48 yards.
Then came a game at Eastern Washington University against Cheney.
“He gave us a great performance, with an interception and a fumble return for a touchdown, and a really nice touchdown catch,” Carson said of Kennedy’s three-score performance. “That night, I said, ‘We’ve got the real deal.’ So we’ve been trying to get the ball to him every time, but if you look at his stats, he doesn’t have that many catches, but his yards per catch, they’re phenomenal.”
How good? Kennedy finished the GSL regular season with a 32.7 yards per catch average, having teamed with Karwacki for six touchdowns out of 13 catches. The playoffs? More of the same, with five catches (and a touchdown) for 91 yards against Kennewick and one catch for 98 yards and a score against Southridge.
“It caught me off guard that we did throw it,” Kennedy said of the decision to go deep from so far inside G-Prep territory. “I thought we would throw an out or a combination route. I just took off … and I didn’t even know the ball was thrown to me until (the Southridge) sideline yelled ‘ball,’ then I looked up and the ball was right there in my hands.”
Karwacki has been instrumental in Kennedy’s success as a receiver, dropping the ball in his hands more than once, oftentimes, according to Kennedy, “throwing on the run or off his back foot.”
Adjusting to Karwacki’s arm strength was part of the learning curve Kennedy went through as a receiver. It showed especially against Bellarmine, when, Carson said, Kennedy and Parker, the other wide receiver, underestimated how far the ball would travel.
No more.
Kennedy’s success isn’t bad for a guy who entered G-Prep with visions of leading the Bullpups to the state playoffs … the state basketball playoffs.
“My freshman year I played (football), and my sophomore year I wasn’t even going to play and I ended up joining halfway through the year,” Kennedy said. “I was all basketball, hard-nosed basketball. A lot of my relatives ask me about football or basketball now, and when they hear football, they too get surprised.”
He will still take the hardwood as soon as football is over, but the 5-foot-9 senior, who plays guard in basketball, hopes that’s not for a couple more weeks.
Saturday, Prep faces its toughest test, a Kentwood team that has won nine consecutive games and features a running attack that has worn down its South Puget Sound League foes.
Kennedy, in his role as defensive back, knows the game may hinge on stopping the Conquerors’ ground game, something the G-Prep defense takes pride in.
“That’s one of the things I love about (defensive) coach Mac (Dave McKenna) and what he’s been preaching like togetherness and 11 men flying to the ball,” Kennedy said. “That’s really brought our defense together and we play team defense.”
No matter the outcome, this football season has been everything Kennedy has hoped for – and more.
“Our senior class, we’ve been preaching never be satisfied, in our little powwows or whatever before the games,” Kennedy said. “It’s something that’s been said every single game, never be satisfied, just keep playing hard.”