“They used to call him ‘Brett the Jet,’” Southren said. “He was like a jet plane. You would fire him up, and he would just start running all over the field.”
In the backyard of their Ridgewood home, Kennedy and his two brothers, Thomas and Jack, would sprint out to the lacrosse net nestled on their paved basketball court. They’d select a goalie and pepper tennis balls toward the net. Sometimes they’d miss and break a basement window, other times they’d go one-on-one and practice dodges.
When he started high school, though, Kennedy switched to long pole. It played right into his physicality, a perfect fit for the “hyper-active kid,” his uncle and brother agreed. There were still offensive flashes, like in a Braveheart overtime — where each team uses one player and a goalie — when Kennedy won the one-on-one battle and scored the game-winner at a North Carolina tournament.
But defense became his specialty. Shortly after Kennedy tore his ACL for the first time, defensive coach Sean Kelly left Don Bosco Prep and joined the Ridgewood staff. He studied film on every player leading into the summer, including Kennedy. His potential didn’t need uncovering, just fine-tuning: on-ball defense, point of attack — little things that needed to become muscle-memory before Syracuse.
Still, Kennedy couldn’t start right away. He was on crutches. In between his physical therapy sessions at Excel Training, Kennedy and Kelly talked on the sideline at practices and tournaments. For Kennedy’s defense inside the 10-yard line to become consistent for longer than a few minutes, his stick needed to initiate contact from his hands. He couldn’t react to the attackmen and midfielders. He needed to dictate them.
As Kennedy’s senior season neared, they used the umbrella drill to hone defensive approaches and break-downs from the left, top left, center, top right and right side of the net. Every angle needed to be closed off against top attackmen, Kelly told him. His instincts within the restraining box were sound, and now a complete defensive game formed.
“The one-on-one is a violent confrontation,” Kelly said, “and if you watch Brett play, Brett plays violently and he plays full speed.”
Kelly and Ridgewood head coach Mike Pounds helped turn Brett into the player that was second on the Orange with 42 ground balls and earned All-ACC honors during his redshirt freshman year in 2018. That came one year after Kennedy had suffered his second ACL tear on the same knee during SU’s annual alumni scrimmage, though.
In that Sept. 2016 exhibition, Kennedy again came across the middle of the field, tracking Sergio Salcido, he said. This time, Kennedy knew it was the ACL when he fell. Tom and Kennedy’s uncle Bernie Jensen, sitting in the Carrier Dome stands, feared that too. And trainer Troy Gerlt confirmed in the training room less than a half hour after the scrimmage ended.
