The girl’s record so far this year is 5-3, compared to last year’s total record of 17-4.

“I think we are better than we were at the start of the season, we had six new freshman on our team so it took a while to get a flow going,” Jessica Wagner, so., said.

The team came into the season without five seniors from last year and six new freshmen. It might have called for a leadership adjustment.

“I don’t think this season and last are very comparable. We lost five seniors last year and we had really good leadership,” Wagner said.

To get to where they want to be, practice will be a key part in reaching success.

“In practices we do a lot of work with the ball. I think the practices are pretty productive, some are better than others,” Wagner said.

The goal for this team is still to go to state and be successful. For the last seven years, the Kennedy girls’ soccer team has made a state appearance. The goal for this year is to make their eighth run. In the last seven years the team has brought home two championships.

“To do better we need to talk, work as a team, and pass the ball. I think if we work really hard we can go back to state,” Wagner said.

The battle of 42^nd Street, Kennedy vs. Xavier, is one of those games students from both Kennedy and Xavier high school look forward too. Kennedy and Xavier will be competing in all sports this school yaer, however they will not compete in the post season. In many other sports like football, and volleyball Kennedy and Xavier will compete in the post season. However, many other sports like boys’ basketball and both boys’ and girls’ soccer at Xavier will be playing in a lower class than Kennedy in the post season.

These class rankings are determined by the Iowa High School Athletic Association and the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. The class rankings are based on high school enrollment for current grades 9-11 from the 2012-2013 school year.

“The top 48 schools in the state are class 4a, next year we are predicted 52^nd largest so we would be considered a bigger 3a school,” Mike Winker, Xavier Activities Director, said.

Xavier is currently the 48^th largest high school in the state of Iowa.Winker predicts Xavier will be the 52^nd largest school in the state of Iowa for the 2013-2014 school year. Kennedy will be ranked 10th in the state.

“I think this is a positive for us, it benefits us in the post season, playing class 3a as opposed to 4a creates a better opportunity for us to qualify in the post season,” Winker said.

“The post season competition will be difficult with or without Xavier,” Aaron Stecker, Kennedy Activities Director, said.

Kennedy will be competing in class 4a due to being a higher ranked school. The battle for 42^nd Street will still continue.

For the game Kennedy will be wearing Carolina blue warm-up shirts that say “Kennedy’s Kickin’ Cancer” on the front along with Appleget on the back. These T-shirts are avaible to the public for $10-12. E-mail croak92@msn.com or khellweg@cr.k12.ia.us if you are interested in buying a shirt. Students will need to place their order for the T-shirt by this Monday and pay for it by Wednesday.

The regular season will run through the middle of May, and will go until June 1 if the team makes it to the state tournament.

“I would expect that if we gain some early experience, we can be as competitive as we normally are,” Head Coach Joe Benedict said. “Which means competing for the state tournament.”

The team has less people returning this year than previous years, but they also have some returning players who were in the Top 12 last season. One returning player is Sarah Lasecki, sr., who has played all four of her years at Kennedy.

“This will be the hardest year that we’ve had [since I started playing], because we’ve had a lot of people graduate from past years that were pretty good,” Lasecki said. “We have some work to do, but I think if the girls keep working we can do well.”

These rules were made to protect football players from the heat. The rules are to prevent heat exhaustion and heat related injuries and illnesses.

“I’m a big two hour practice guy and I normally never go over two hours, but now I’m almost forced too,” Tim Lewis, head football coach and Physical Education teacher, said.

These changes can make it difficult for teams and coaches to be as prepared as they could be with more practice time.

“It’s going to force a lot of coaches to change the way they do things,” Lewis said.

For the players, summer two a-days present bonding time and unite them all as a team. The extra practice also pushes their limits as athletes.

“I feel like two a-days are the best part about football because it makes you work harder than usual,” Jacob Shannon, jr., said.

With the lost practice time, coaches and players are hoping it won’t have negative side effects to the team’s performance.

“We just might look back and think what could have been better if we had that extra practice time to get ready for the season,” Austin Holzer, jr., said.

The limits in the pre-season practice time could also be seen as a good thing for the team. “This could help things; new changes to the pre-season routine could be a good change for us,” Lewis said.

The limitations on summer football practices are just a part in the plan for the whole season. Teams are still looking forward to improving and going forward.

“State championship is always the number one goal, but getting off to a better start this year will be our main focus,” Lewis said.

The first girl’s meet is scheduled for Tuesday, April 2. With the current weather status, the course may not be open in time.

“We haven’t been able to be outside. Our golf course isn’t open and as of right now, there’s no date projected for it to be open. So we are not sure when we can go outside for practice,” Julie Bush, head women’s golf coach and science teacher said.

The team has been making due with practicing inside, for the time being. However, the players are limited to their practicing activities when they are inside a classroom or gym.

“We have two indoor putting greens, that we’ve been working with and we are working on the basics of our swing and learning the rules and lessons on how to play the game,” Bush said.

With meets coming up, the players are anticipating on how well they will do.

“If we get outside, I think we should be okay because the other schools who we will be playing are also practicing inside,” Ali Lindo, sr., said.

For the freshman on the team, they may not have time to get used to the course before their first meet.

“I just wish there was more that we could do to prepare,” Avery Haefner, fr., said.

The team is still hopeful that their season will be successful, even without the help of good weather.

“I think they are going to be a good group, we have a solid group from last year so I just want to see them improve and I definitely think they have a chance to qualify for the state meet,” Bush said.

“Iowa City West got first, then Cedar Falls, then us and that is pretty big for us, because Iowa City West already won, Cedar Falls already won, the fact that we are up there able to compete, and were doing so well, is great,” Marisa Estelle, sr., said.

Estelle personally has had many injuries throughout her track career at Kennedy. Estelle’s sophomore and junior year was difficult due to hip problems, as well as shin splints.

“It get’s on my nerves,” Estelle said, “You just have to strengthen and stretch and ice, you have to get in there and work.”

Estelle had a great first meet, placing second in shuttle hurdle, first in the 60 meter hurdles and first in the 200 meter hurdles.

Overall, the team placed well in all of their events.

“It went so well, all of our relays placed. Every one was there and ready to run, and every one was in good moods so that was really good,” Estelle said.

The Girls’ ultimate goal is to make it to state.

“State, every year, you got to go back,” Estelle said, “That’s every ones goal, I wouldn’t say it’s hard to qualify for state but to actually place at state, that’s a whole other ball park,” Estelle said.

Iowa Western is a community college in Council Bluffs where Hillyer will play tailback, and will return punts and kicks as he did here at Kennedy.

Hillyer was also considering Drake and St. Paul Concordia,

“I decided to go there because financially it was the best option and my parents really like that,” Hillyer said.

Low financial cost was also good for Hillyer since most of the school’s scholarships are being used for future linemen in order to revamp their offensive line.

Hillyer is also going because it will be a good way for him to get a better feel for college and that level of football so he can advance farther. After his two years, Hillyer plans to transfer to a D1 or a D2 school, but has no idea which school yet. He hopes to receive a scholarship to a school because the financial cost is much higher compared to a community college.

Iowa Western has more D1 football transfers compared to any other community college in Iowa which will help Hillyer in the next leg of his football journey.“Iowa Western is nationally ranked number one in their division and have only been around football for 4 years, so they’re pretty much the real deal,” Hillyer said.

This new season also brings a new workout to the baseball players at Kennedy.

“Right now we’re doing more work with medicine balls and some other things to help with their shoulders and elbows,”  Coach Bret Hoyer, said.

Practices cannot be at Kennedy because there is no room due to the other activities going on around the school. For now, Arthur Elementary has been working out well for the players.

“It’s different but it’s not bad. It’s smaller but there are fewer kids in there. It’s pretty much the same as anywhere we go; we can still get a workout in,” Tony Maiers, sr., said.

All the players come together to practice around Feb. 17. The selected group of players will already know the new workouts and will be expected to help coach them to the other players.

“We have a handful of guys right now learning some new exercises so they can help me teach all the 8^th and 9^th graders that are coming in this year,” Hoyer said.

The group that has been doing offseason work now has been practicing four days a week for an hour and a half.  The days are normally Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The workouts are made to get the players arms healthy and in shape. This will hopefully prevent injuries during the season.

“I like doing it because last year our arms were in better shape and stronger and I think it will be even better for us this year,” Maiers said.