First Person
Sometimes life has its ups and downs. And on Wednesday night the Kennedy Lady Eagles’ basketball team got a big dose of down in an 85-21 loss to nationally ranked powerhouse Bishop O’Dowd of Oakland. But all was not lost for the Lady Eagles—the upside of the lopsided loss was that they still qualified for next week’s loser-goes-home NorCal state basketball tournament. “It’s time to get back in the lab and practice hard,” Lady Eagles’ assistant coach Dajuan Alexander told…
The Kennedy Eagles track and field team traveled to Pleasant Hill Saturday to compete in the Joe Stocking Super Seven Invitational at Diablo Valley College. Out of 18 schools, the boy’s team finished just north of the middle-of-the-pack, while the the girl’s squad finished right in the middle of 14 schools. Eagles head coach Carl Sumler said everyone that competed in an event, except for the shot put and discuss, came home with a medal. That didn’t seem to bother…
The energy prior to the Lady Eagles’ tip off against Hercules High Friday night didn’t seem like a winner-take-all atmosphere.
The legend of Takkarist “Takk” McKinley began his sophomore year. That’s when Kennedy High’s track coach, Carl Sumler, saw the young Eagles defensive end rush a Piedmont High quarterback, turn around, race 15 yards up field and catch a wide receiver trying to break loose with the ball. But that’s not what impressed Sumler the most about McKinley’s great hustle play. What impressed Sumler the most was McKinley outran Kenneth Walker, Kennedy High’s former number one state track hurdler and…
Lady Eagles head coach Rae Jackson has had enough. And even though his squad battled to a 74-64 victory over Analy High Tuesday night to advance to the second round of the North Coast Section Division 3 Bracket, he wasn’t happy. Soft third quarter play has been a deep thorn the coaching staff’s side all season, and for whatever reason the Lady Eagles can’t put teams away in the second half. Again the Tri-County Stone League champions let an 18-point…
As the clock struck 2:20 p.m. on Friday, 800 Kennedy High students filled the gym to celebrate Black History Month and begin their weeklong President’s Day vacation. The pep rally was full of balloon races, tug-of-war contests, dance moves, catwalks and cheer. Phillip Johnson, the school’s principal, even wore a blue Hawaiian shirt to accent the mood of the day. Toward the end of the celebration, Johnson took a microphone and addressed the student body. As a not-so-perfect hush fell…
Richmond native Anthony Green spent 13 years in the Air Force – first as an Aerospace Ground Equipment mechanic, then as a loadmaster for the C-5 airplane, which he told me was one of the best jobs he ever had. “I still got to fly around everywhere,” he said. “I just wasn’t flying the plane.” The Air Force took him from battlegrounds in Iraq and Afghanistan to training grounds at Travis Air Force Base, as well as to Washington, Texas,…
Kennedy High girls volleyball team walked into the gym for their first game of the season clad in brand new bright red jerseys, that arrived an hour before the game. The team’s new coach has never played volleyball and many on the team were still untested, but in spirit they were well prepared to face their cross-town rivals Richmond High. Gathered on the court just before the game, the cry rang out through the gym, “Eagles! Eagles! You know!” The…
“It will be a great experience,” said my fellow reporter after he suggested I go on a ridealong with a Richmond police officer. “They’ll strap you in a bulletproof vest, take you for a spin at night, and you’ll see some crazy stuff.” For a visiting reporter from the Netherlands, this sounds promising.