Strong work ethic sustains record-breaking season for Watterson head football coach, DLA division chief

Most people can point to the moment that defined their lives. For some it was their wedding day, the birth of their first child or a career milestone. For Brian Kennedy, it was football. The sport has woven itself throughout Kennedy's life since he was a teen, thanks to the mentorship of Dan Bjelac, his then offensive line coach at Bishop Watterson High School in north Columbus.

Kennedy, Post Award Division chief for the Strategic Acquisition Programs Directorate at Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime, is also the head football coach at Watterson, his alma mater.

Last month, his team won the Division III State Championship with a score of 19-14 over their rivals, Toledo Central Catholic High School.

Not only did the team win the state championship, but they won the Columbus Catholic League title with a score of 44-7 over their local rival St. Francis DeSales High School and clocked the most wins in a season in school history, going undefeated for the first time since 1993.

"It's truly the best season ever," Kennedy said. "Everything was building up to this moment. There were games during the season when I thought, 'Okay, this one's going to be tough one,' but we persevered."

The record-breaking season was the culmination of several years of hard work by Kennedy and his coaching team, aimed at bringing the program back to its former glory it had under former head coach Bjelac, whose teams made nine playoff appearances and one state championship win in his 14 seasons at the school before stepping down at a low point in the program in late 2016.

"Since taking over the top job in 2017, all the work my staff and I did behind the scenes finally came to fruition in the past three years," Kennedy said. "And despite the challenges posed by COVID-19 a few years before, the resilience of this team shone through."

Accountability is one of the core concepts of the program Kennedy has built over the past eight years as head coach, and that alone has been instrumental in turning the program around.

"I believe our recent successes are a culmination of all that hard work of my coaching staff and leadership by our experienced players," Kennedy said. "Our upperclassmen in the last few years have been instrumental in sustaining a winning culture. And I know we wouldn't be where we are today, if it wasn't for them and their mentorship of their younger teammates."

According to Spectrum News and Sports Illustrated, his coaching team includes three former Ohio State University football players who also spent time in the NFL in various capacities. Kennedy and most of his staff on both sides of the ball, successfully juggle coaching duties with outside responsibilities.

Kennedy said in 2023-24, the program lost 21 seniors to graduation and this school year 15 players will be moving on. "People didn't think we could match the success we had last year when we made it to the championship game and lost, but with all the foundations we have put in place over the years, we were not worried about our chances this season. We knew all along, we had the talent needed to go all the way."

For most of the championship season, the team outscored opponents by more than 30 points with only the state title game being a close contest where they had to rally from behind and win in the last few minutes of the game.

"With this solid foundation of winning under our belts, it's now about maintaining and building on our success," Kennedy said of the turnaround over the last five seasons. "It's challenging to reach the top and even harder to stay there, but we're determined not to be complacent."

Building a winning culture

No matter the level of football team-whether it be college or high school-Kennedy learned incremental change is key to transforming a poor-performing program into a championship-caliber team. And that kind of change takes determination, commitment to the process and most importantly, time.

From the start of his tenure as head coach, Kennedy's biggest focus was to improve the culture of the program.

"I thought I could fix it immediately," he recalled, noting that when he took over, the team had only experienced one winning season since its last state championship victory in 2010. "And I really wanted to turn things around quickly because I cared about the senior class. I wanted a good experience for them as I had coached them as freshmen, but it was not to be."

Kennedy said the team was getting blown out every week and managed only two wins in 10 games that season.

"It was a very humbling experience," Kennedy remarked, noting that he tried to implement too much, tackling a thousand things at once.

He realized he needed to narrow the scope and get back to basics, concentrating on the fundamentals by gaining proficiency in all three phases of football (offense, defense, special teams) and the intangibles that comes with leading young men toward a common goal.

"I genuinely felt that if we focused on fundamentals and implemented a system of clear expectations and accountability, winning would eventually come," Kennedy explained.

Slowly the tide began to turn, and the team was steadily winning more and more games each season, and the overall caliber and quality of the program was improving with each win and milestone met.

The next year, in 2018, the team went 5-5, beating its biggest local rival, St. Francis DeSales High School, in the last game, which gave them momentum going into the next season.

In 2019, Watterson had a 7-3 record, and the changes started to take hold. Everyone in the league lost momentum in 2020 and 2021 during COVID-19, but the team did qualify for the Division III playoffs both of those years.

Kennedy said those first several seasons were tough, recalling in his second year there were only 45 kids in the varsity program, which was barely enough to field a team for a whole season.

To address these challenges, Kennedy put a few processes in place in terms of recruitment that has done wonders for the football program.

"Our program is inclusive; we don't make cuts," Kennedy said. "Every student who wants to join the team is welcome, provided they are committed to attending practices and meeting program expectations."

Kennedy said this approach means some players choose to leave, often after their freshman year, when the commitment level increases.

"It just doesn't fit for them…which is fine. I want every student to have a positive experience, regardless of their talent level or how much they play," he said.

Since there are no cuts, the program relies heavily on gaining and keeping the interest of younger kids at the parish school level.

During the season, Kennedy said he carves out time in his busy schedule to recruit kids coming up the ranks by attending their evening practices and Sunday games to identify new talent, and he started a youth camp in the summer for grades three through eight aimed at getting more kids interested in joining the program.

"When I first started the summer youth camp, I only had 23 kids sign up but as a comparison, in the last several years, over 120 kids have participated," he said.

At first, getting younger kids to join the team was a hard sell, but now that the program is sitting in a good place and are back to the winning culture that is expected by the school administration, families and fan base, it is a lot easier to pull new talent in, Kennedy explained.

"The number of players lost to attrition between the freshman and varsity programs has gotten smaller, which shows the time we have invested at the lower levels over my tenure is worth it," Kennedy noted.

In addition to focusing on recruitment, little adjustments to the program each year have made a big impact.

Shifting voluntary workouts to the early morning hours from the afternoons to accommodate multi-sport athletes in the summer boosted attendance and making the most out of each practice has resulted in better play on the field during games, he explained.

As a result, in 2022 the team achieved a 12-2 record, winning the Columbus Catholic League title for the first time in over ten years, and reaching the regional final where they lost to Bloom-Carroll High School. In 2023, Watterson went 14-2, were CCL co-champions, and were state runners-up, losing to Toledo Catholic in a close state championship game. In 2024, they won it all.

After the 2023 season, Kennedy was named the Dispatch All-Metro Coach of the Year for football. And the team earned the Boys Team of the Year. Both accolades recognized the resurgence of the football program and credited Kennedy for transforming an underperforming program into a program built on sustained excellence.

However, Kennedy said he measures success as a coach one player at a time.

"Success is a kid who hardly gets an opportunity to play but he sticks with it for four years," he said. "Because of the intangibles he is experiencing, like the value of teamwork, working towards a common goal and learning how to be resilient in the face of challenges."

While acknowledging the importance of winning, Kennedy's priority remains the personal growth and development of his players as he believes that the true measure of success lies in the positive impact he has made on their lives, both on and off the field.

"It's deeply gratifying to see how the lessons we taught continue to resonate with our players long after they've left," he said. "When they return, they come up to me and say, 'Coach, I still carry those lessons with me,' or 'Thank you for what you did for me,' is significant. It means I've done my job well. Winning is great, but it isn't everything. The true measure of success is the lasting impact my coaching team and I have had on their lives."

As to what the future holds for the program, Kennedy expressed his eagerness to build upon recent achievements in the upcoming season.

"I'm just pleased the program is back to where we're supposed to be and all the changes I've implemented are working as intended," he said.

A 20-year coaching journey

Kennedy, who has balanced coaching around his full-time DLA responsibilities since 2004, said the time spent is well worth it because he is passionate about preparing young men to not only be successful at football but more importantly, in life.

"Losing is a lesson in resilience and winning is a lesson in perseverance, dedication and focus," he said. "I think we've done a good job of establishing that base, that positive culture that I wanted when I first took over the program. But it takes time, buy-in from all involved and the ability to trust the process to achieve great things."

Kennedy said he couldn't have pursued his passion for 20 years without the support of his wife, Stephnie, and co-workers.

"As parents we know how hard it is to get our kids to follow our lead at times," said Coleen McCormick, deputy director, Strategic Acquisitions Program Directorate. "Imagine the leadership shown to lead those teen boys to accomplish what they did. We see that leadership every day in our organization, and we are grateful to have him as a teammate."

Kennedy began his coaching journey by working with the Coppell High School football team in Dallas, Texas, for a few years after graduating from Southern Methodist University (also in Dallas), where he played football for three seasons.

"I got into coaching because I wanted to give back to the sport that has done so much for me," he said of his desire to work with high school players after college.

But a move back to Columbus due to losing his Dallas roommates to out-of-town jobs, forced a break in coaching for several years.

The move home was meant to be temporary, as Kennedy planned to move back to Texas at some point, but he ended up staying permanently after meeting his wife and joining DLA in 2001 as an intern in the Pathways to Career Excellence program.

Soon after he settled into his new life in Columbus, he realized he missed coaching, so he reached out to Djelac, asking to keep him in mind for any future openings. Djelac thought of him right away when a volunteer position opened up in 2004 coaching the offensive and defensive lines on the freshman team.

"The opportunity to go back to my alma mater to coach for my mentor was a dream come true for me," he said.

Kennedy rose through the ranks, taking on more responsibilities when he thought the time was right.

"As the first several seasons went by, I learned how to manage my time well. I juggled work, coaching and family, ensuring I was present, no matter the capacity," he said.

Of the positions he held as part of the freshman team, Kennedy said being the head coach was the most enjoyable.

"I really liked being the head freshman coach," he recalled. "Because it was a time where I could freely focus on player development as there is not a lot of pressure to win at that level."

After seven seasons as the freshman head coach, Kennedy felt it was time to move up to the next level and joined Djelac's varsity staff, working with the offensive and defensive linemen for about four years until he moved up to the head coach position.

"I couldn't imagine doing anything else," he said noting that he will continue coaching as long as he enjoys it. "When the day comes when I realize I'm not having fun anymore, then it will be time to step away - and I'm not there yet."