Warren's Kennedy: Full speed ahead

Greg Kennedy already had the digit 4 shaved into each side of his head, just below his tightly cropped black Mohawk.

Four, you see, represents his new jersey number and a new start, as well. Greg Kennedy is a new man, truth be told.

But then Warren assistant football coach Cameron Campbell popped into a room next to the O'Plaine Campus gym, where Kennedy and teammate Tom Lindal were talking to a visitor last week. Campbell tossed them their brand-new, brand-name, Blue-Devil blue game jerseys that were fresh from a box.

The sure-handed running backs stabbed them confidently, as if grabbing a pitchout.

Kennedy smiled a toothy smile and surveyed his new thread, which featured a giant white numeral 4 that stretched nearly the length of his compact torso. Lindal admired his No. 22.

"It's great," Kennedy said softly. "Back in blue. A Blue Devil again."

There might not be a Warren football player who appreciates that more than No. 4.

Last summer, Kennedy was preparing for his junior season of high school football. He had emerged as one of the top offensive weapons in Lake County as a sophomore. The Blue Devils' No. 31 rushed for 1,144 yards (6.9 per carry) and 13 touchdowns and scored, in total, 15 TDs.

Never mind that he stood just 5 feet 5. On the football field, he was a giant. He zipped past defenders, shook them and left them swiping at air.

There was no catchin' Kennedy.

His junior year promised to be just as spectacular, if not better. But with the official start of football practice just days away, he was involved in an off-the-field incident that not only got him kicked off the football team but booted from high school.

He chooses not to discuss the details, but tells you contritely that he is sorry for what happened and has accepted his punishment.

"Big mistake," Kennedy said. "That's all I can say. I had to accept my mistake and learn from it."

He attended an alternative school, Connections Day School in Libertyville. He went to some Warren football games to support his old teammates. Most of all, he kept his nose clean.

He focused on school and made it a point to avoid people who might lead him down a bad path, one that would surely steer him away from the football field forever.

"Everybody was just telling me to get my head back right, come back my senior year and try to make it a real good one," Kennedy said. "My mom helped me get through it. She was like, 'Well, you messed up this year. Come back your senior year and just have a good year.'

"I just had to think about my senior year, my football coaches and my teammates that I would be playing with. I had to think about those people, and that's what really helped me get through it."

If the perception is that Greg Kennedy is a bad kid who didn't appreciate his status as a star prep athlete, the perception is wrong.

He's a kid who messed up. Instead of making excuses, he accepted accountability for his actions.

"This is a very likable kid," Warren head coach Dave Mohapp said. "He's a heck of a teammate. He's a young man that had success as a sophomore and it didn't go to his head at all."

Lindal couldn't agree more.

"He's a nice teammate," Lindal said of Kennedy. "He's just an all-around good guy. He's always helping somebody out, teaching them."

Kennedy and Lindal realize that they're going to have to help each other out if Warren is going to have success similar to last season, when the Blue Devils went 9-2 and won the tough North Suburban Lake Division with a 6-0 mark.

Just as Kennedy did, Lindal emerged as a great running back his sophomore year, earning all-conference and all-area honors.

Lindal replaced Kennedy in the Warren backfield and put up the numbers the Blue Devils hoped to receive from Kennedy. Lindal rushed for 1,308 yards (8.5 per carry) and 18 touchdowns.

"I was a little nervous (about replacing Kennedy)," Lindal said. "It just kind of came into play after the first game when Coach (Mohapp) started giving me the ball in one-back sets and when we were in 'rips' and 'lips' (a power formation with tight ends on both sides). He saw that I could do the job, so that's when he started giving me the ball a little more."

This year, Lindal and Kennedy look to complement each other, and it might be a good fit. Lindal, who's well put together at 6 feet and 195, played a lot of fullback last year.

At 5-6 and 160 pounds, the shifty-and-fast Kennedy is more suited to play halfback.

"Short yardage," Kennedy said, "Tom is going to be the one that gets it."

All Lindal wants are "W's."

"I'm just hoping we win,"the junior said. "It doesn't matter how we win. We can pass the ball all game. I don't really care, as long as we win. I just want to go far in the playoffs - farther than we did last year (second round)."

Kennedy has come a long way. He says he's changed and grown in the last year. What he's been through will do that to a young man.

"We're happy he's back with us," Mohapp said. "It was a heck of a loss for everyone not having him last year. I think he's hungry to play football again."

And champing at the bit to prove that the new No. 4 is just as good as the old No. 31.

"If I wore 31 again," Kennedy said, "everyone would be like, 'He's back.' "

Responded Lindal: "They already know you're back."

They'll know it for sure soon enough.