Battle Through Adversity: Coach Kennedy on Family and Mindset

Battle through adversity was the motto you picked, and surprisingly, it was pretty fitting for me. I had some pretty major medical issues over the summer. Some of you guys know at Trine, I missed some practices and things weren't great. But when I got back, I went to the emergency room and I was admitted to the hospital.

Is what it was, and you know, got out of the hospital the next day. Didn't know if I was going to be able to continue coaching. Didn't know if I was going to be able to start the school year. Had a lot of doubt creep in. I had to change my mindset quite a bit in order to get back here to to where we are now.

People to Rely On

Luckily, I had people to rely on—my wife and my daughters. I wouldn't have made it without them. My brothers, the coaching staff, were able to pick me up, take some things off my plate. So, thank you guys.

Even offering to mow my lawn, do some of that stuff. I'm like, that's, you know, you gotta find the people that will do that for you in your life, and I was able to find that.

Why We Break on Family

Sorry, we break on family all the time, and it's not just in passing. It's because you're brothers. You're here for each other.

You should be.

That's that's where we're at.

You need family.

And that's why we have the brotherhood that we have.

I Wanted to Come Back

I cried on my way to school the day of the Penn game because I didn't know if I was going to make it to that point. Still figuring out what's going on. Have some tests next week that I'm doing to to see what actually happened. If they can they can find out. I had a lot of people ask me, you know, are you going to.

Teach this year? You're gonna coach this year? I'm like, yeah, I am. People that were surprised that that was gonna happen. I sat around at home and didn't do a whole lot over the summer. That was not good for me, mentally or physically. I like to help people. I wanted to come back to be with you guys. You know, still battling through some adversity.

Don't take things for granted.

Part of Something Bigger

You got a lot of your your teammates that had some injuries, and they're done for the year. You have some other guys that decided they they didn't want to be with with us anymore, and they're not here with us.

But you know, you're you're a part of something bigger than just you. I hope you know that as part of this family.

It takes a lot of work to be part of a family. It takes effort to be a good parent, brother, son, friend, teammate. Luckily, I still get to work at being a parent to my children, a husband to my wife, and a coach to all of you.

Anything worth doing, doing right, it's not always easy. The past two weeks, we played some good teams. Things didn't go our way in those games, but life doesn't either.

Football Is a Microcosm of Life

You have to come to terms with things. You have to put things aside. In football, you got to do that very quickly. You have to process that and realize what you can do in different situations. You can have a bad practice or a game, but you have to move on.

Changing your mindset. If a coach is getting all over you, trying to make you better, trying to make you a better person, better teammate, better on the field.

Call it grit or perseverance, whatever you want to call it. Coach is trying to get your results.

All right, you'll likely work for someone that will look for you to give them results. It may not always be the nicest way either. It really is amazing how football is a microcosm of life. There were a handful of plays in each of the last two games that made the difference, even though we were down. Games were out of reach toward the end, you kept playing hard. You kept battling through adversity.

That's a trait of a solid football team. We're going to have things that don't go our way, but you can't give up. And you haven't the last couple weeks. You fought till the end.

Take It On Together

We'll likely see one of the the three teams that we lost to so far this year. And all of those were in the games. We were not out of those by any means.

Change your mindset when you make mistakes. Don't dwell on them. Be able to play the next play.

What are we going to do when we see those teams again? I don't know. That's up to you.

Will definitely be some adversity. We have to take on, take this on together as a team and as a family. Take it on with courage. Take it on together. Rely on your brothers. You know, be ready for, for guys to trust that they're going to do their jobs.

As we take the field tomorrow night, keep in mind you're you are part of something greater than yourself. Go and play for each other. Go and play to the standard.

Let's go get them.

Photos courtesy of Palmer Photography.