From deck to turf, Kennedy is in motion
Friday, September 26, 2008 ( updated 8:21 am)
By Tom Keller
Staff Writer
www.news-record.com/content/2008/09/26/article/from_deck_to_turf_kennedy_is_in_motionChris Kennedy's friends and family had watched him skateboard long enough to know he'd be able to hold his own on a football field. Just give it a try, they told him.
Uh, yeah, Kennedy thought, but what about all those people trying to tackle you? Sure, skateboarding's a contact sport, but it's all self-inflicted. Try adding a few 300-pound guys to the X Games and see who shows up.
Kennedy held off the masses until four years ago, when they took up a collection and offered him $50 to try out for Northwest Guilford's freshman football team.
"I was just going to see if I got cut," he said. "I didn't know there were no cuts."
Four years later, the dreadlocked senior has become the Vikings' most dangerous weapon, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound running back whose pinball style of navigating the field has forced more than one defender to face plant.
"He's our emotional leader, our physical leader," Vikings coach Joe Woodruff said. "Toughness is not an issue with this kid."
It's been an amazing turn for Kennedy, who "hated" football growing up even though his older brother, Levon Kennedy II, starred at Page and played at Alabama A&M.
Chris Kennedy was more of a thrill-seeker. He took up trick bikes at age 6 and quickly moved on to skateboarding, where he won several statewide contests and became sponsored.
But "skateboarding won't get you a scholarship," said his mother, Reba. So she and his father, Levon Kennedy I, tried to push Chris toward football.
It was a natural choice. Four of his relatives have played in the East-West All-Star Game, and his brother-in-law, Tito Wooten, played six seasons in the NFL.
Once Chris Kennedy got on the field, those bloodlines quickly became apparent. He was initially a wide receiver, but once his coaches saw how he handles the ball, they moved him to running back.
His only question: "Am I going to get hit a lot?"
"But being scared to get hit made me good," he said. "I knew a touchdown was a safe place."
It took him a while to overcome his anxiety on the field. Before every game, he would write out Phillipians 4:13 -- "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" -- on his hand. After the season, he convinced his parents to let him tattoo the phrase on his right biceps beneath a pair of folded hands.
By that point, defenders needed to pray more than he did.
"He's always had good speed," Woodruff said, "but in the last year and a half, he's really become a power runner. He's figured out how to dish out punishment instead of take it."
So much of football reminds Kennedy of skateboarding. The adrenaline rush. The feel of danger. The persistence you need to survive.
"You fall on a skateboard, you get right up," he said. "Same thing if you get tackled -- you get up and do it again."
That shared risk of danger makes it hard for the two sports to coexist. He broke his ankle skateboarding in 8th grade, and three screws remain there. He hasn't ridden in three years to avoid another injury.
That was a tough sacrifice. Kennedy still rides his board down the driveway to pick up the mail every now and then, just to remember how it feels.
But that street toughness remains. Early last season, he fractured a bone in his foot and tore ligaments in his right hand. There was really no hesitation about what to do. He played through it.
Against Southeast last week, he sprained his ankle early in the game but still ran for 157 yards, "about par for the course this year," Woodruff said. Kennedy has been hobbled by the injury all week, but it would take an act of God to keep him off the field when the Vikings host Mt. Tabor tonight.
"Once you let him know he can achieve something," Reba Kennedy said, "he's going to work his hardest to go for it."
That kind of grit has caught the eye of Duke, Wofford, East Carolina and Elon, which are all considering Kennedy for a scholarship.
That would be a pretty good return on $50.
Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com