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.

Hillyer and Heitland both enjoyed big games against the Warriors with three touchdowns apiece. Heitland is a senior who rushed for more than 900 yards last season for the varsity, while Hillyer is a junior who played for the sophomore team a year ago.

Lewis used Hillyer primarily as a fullback during the first two weeks of the season, then decided to make the changes last week in practice. The Cougars had been using Hillyer as a fullback on dive plays and off-tackle plays, but that wasn't working.

"That wasn't his strength," Lewis said. "He can't see (the holes) when he's right there at the line of scrimmage. So we found that out.

"He's got unbelieveable vision. He can see something and just accelerate through a gap, just like that. He's just got a huge motor, runs every single play 100 percent and has great speed."

Kennedy collected a total of 81 yards on the ground in the first two games against Xavier and Linn-Mar, then rambled for 307 yards on 57 carries against Washington. Hillyer got 208 of those yards himself on 36 attempts.

"Our O-line was doing really good," Hillyer said. "They were blocking everybody and making big holes. And Heitland did a good job with his fakes. I just followed blocks and everything happened to work out."

Heitland caught six passes for 100 yards and carried the ball 16 times for 74 yards, so he had a very productive game as well.

Kennedy began the season with two straight losses before breaking into the win column against Washington.

"I wasn't real concerned," Hillyer said. "I thought we'd pick it up eventually. It was just a matter of when. We grew up and got to game speed."

On the other hand, Lewis was deeply concerned after the Cougars got two "butt-whippings" against Xavier and Linn-Mar. He questioned whether his team was physically tough enough this year, and he made numerous personnel changes on defense before facing Washington.

Lewis saw a glimmer of hope when the Cougars reported to practice on Monday, Sept. 5. It was Labor Day, with no school, and Lewis wondered what would happen in practice that day.

"That's always a struggle, when you don't have school," he said. "You still bring them in at 3 o'clock, so they always sleep too long and eat too much for lunch and come in sluggish, but they didn't.

"We probably had the best practice of the year that Monday. So that was a good start. We challenged them to try and do that all week."

The Cougars responded with the victory over Washington. Lewis said the coaches did not have to whip the players into shape after two lopsided defeats. The players did it themselves.

"They responded really well," he said. "They have a lot shorter memories than we have. The coaches were still pouting on Monday morning (from the loss to Linn-Mar) until the kids came in."

Hillyer said the Cougars had a "great week" of practice before facing Washington. "Everyone was hitting and flying around," he said, "and it showed on the field Friday night."

Kennedy visits Dubuque Senior Friday night, trying to square its record at 2-2. "There's no doubt Dubuque Senior is a beatable team," Lewis remarked, "but what group is going to show up?"

He hopes it's the same group that whipped Washington last week.