Kennedy Football

Coach's wife was right: Hillyer is good player

Cedar Rapids Kennedy football coach Tim Lewis is a shrewd judge of talent. As it turns out, so is his wife.

Shelly Lewis has been convinced for several years that Alex Hillyer would be a good football player for the Cougars. Tim Lewis preferred to take a wait-and-see approach.

Hillyer ran for 208 yards and three touchdowns for Kennedy in its 41-28 upset victory over Washington last Friday, so Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were both happy.

You can't blame Tim Lewis for being cautious. He knew Hillyer was a star athlete at Harding Middle School, but it doesn't count until you perform for the varsity.

"I've heard about him since he was in seventh grade," Lewis said. "The Harding coaches said, 'Just wait until he gets up there.'

"I've heard that a lot in my years here," he said. "What happens a lot with those middle school guys, they mature early and everybody catches up and they end up being OK, but not what everybody thought they would be.

"That's not the case with this kid. In fact," Lewis said, smiling, "my wife just told me the other day, 'I knew at youth camp that Alex Hillyer was going to be a good player.' "

Lewis made Hillyer the featured tailback against Washington, switching Trevor Heitland to flanker and using Heitland as a hybrid receiver and running back. The moves sparked Kennedy after two sluggish outings against Xavier and Linn-Mar.

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Cougars hammer Warriors, 41-28

Kennedy got nailed in its first two football games of the season, but turned the hammer loose Friday night and surprised cross-town rival Washington.

Junior Alex Hillyer ran for 208 yards and three touchdowns and senior Trevor Heitland also scored three touchdowns to lead the Cougars past the Warriors, 41-28, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Kingston Stadium.

Kennedy (1-2) came into the game with just 81 rushing yards after losses to Xavier and Linn-Mar. The performances prompted Kennedy Coach Tim Lewis to make a few personnel changes and challenge his team to play a more physical game.

"I try to pick a different theme each week and this week I talked about us being the hammer and not the nail," Lewis said. "We were definitely the nail the last couple of weeks and I think they showed tonight that we can play that hammer type of football."

The Cougars ran the ball 57 times for 307 yards against Washington (2-1). Heitland, who was switched from running back to flanker at the start of the week when Lewis decided to make Hillyer the feature back, still ran 16 times for 74 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught six passes for 100 yards and a touchdown.

"(Coach) got on us, especially the seniors, about keeping our heads up and come out and keep fighting and working hard because this season will turn around," said Heitland, who rushed for more than 900 yards a year ago. "That's what we did. We just kept fighting."

Kennedy pounded the ball at the Warriors out of a power-I formation that had senior fullback Shane Williams leading the way for Heitland and Hillyer.

"We have two really good running backs," Lewis said. "Last year, with Trevor and R.J. (Adams), we rotated them. We decided we couldn't do that this year with these two guys. Trevor's done a great job of accepting his role. He can catch the ball. He's really dangerous out in space."

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Sievertsen enjoys fast start as UNI kicker

CEDAR FALLS - Tyler Sievertsen grew six inches before his senior year at Kennedy High School, but by then it was too late.

He'd already decided to forget about playing a regular position on the football field.

"That was the reason I started kicking," he said, "because I wasn't big enough to do anything else."

It's turned out OK.

Sievertsen made his debut as Northern Iowa's new place-kicker Saturday night and booted two field goals and an extra point in a 20-19 loss at Iowa State. Based on that, the Missouri Valley Conference named him the Special Teams Player of the Week.

He's off to a good start in college. One game, one award. "Not bad," he agreed.

Sievertsen is a well-built young man now at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, but he stood only 5-foot-8 after his junior year at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School. Then he started growing, rapidly.

He sprouted six inches that summer, outgrowing his clothes in a matter of months. He'd wake up some mornings and seem taller than he was the night before.

"I really kind of had to adjust and grow into my body," he said.

Sievertsen became an all-state kicker at Kennedy in 2008 and was named the Mississippi Valley Conference Kicker of the Year. He set or tied four school records and joined the UNI football program in 2009 as a walk-on.

He was red-shirted in 2009 and got onto the field for one play in 2010, handling a kickoff against Western Illinois. Billy Hallgren graduated as UNI's place-kicker, the job was wide open and Sievertsen won the spot in training camp this summer.

His first attempt at a collegiate field goal came before 54,672 fans at Jack Trice Stadium on Saturday night. He nailed a 42-yarder to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, barely nudging the ball over the crossbar.

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Linn-Mar's dream is nightmare for Cougars, 42-14

Andy Henry had a dream.

In that dream, he grabbed the opening kickoff at new Linn-Mar Stadium and raced for a touchdown to help the Lions christen their $10 million park in style.

Dreams do come true.

Henry sprinted 95 yards with the opening kickoff Friday night and No.8 Linn-Mar squashed Kennedy, 42-14, in the first varsity football game ever played in the Lions' new den.

"Yeah, I definitely dreamed about it," he said. "But I didn't know I was going to return it like that. I don't think anybody got close to me."

Kennedy did not lay a finger on Henry, which is pretty much how it went all night for the struggling Cougars.

Linn-Mar (2-0) led 35-7 at halftime and ignited a continuous clock when it took a 42-7 lead with 5:53 left in the third quarter. This was a Mississippi Valley Conference blowout of major proportions before roughly 5,500 fans.

The Lions held Kennedy (0-2) to 123 yards of total offense and were three times better than the visitors. Linn-Mar finished with three times as many yards (369 to 123) and three times as many points (42 to 14).

"That's about as picture-perfect as you can put it," said Linn-Mar quarterback Mark Atwater. "We were clicking all the time. It was awesome, it was great."

Atwater connected with Zach Martins for a pair of touchdown passes and also ran for a 20-yard score. He finished 12 of 17 for 173 yards before calling it a night on offense with 4:20 left in the third period and the Lions cruising 42-7.

"To get out of here with a score like this, we're pretty happy," said Linn-Mar Coach Bob Forsyth.

The Lions waited impatiently in their locker room for Forsyth to finish a TV interview so they could sing and dance the hokey-pokey, something Forsyth borrowed from former Iowa Coach Hayden Fry after he worked for Fry as a graduate assistant in the early 1990s.

Forsyth emerged from the dance party with a big smile.

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