Kennedy High School - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Martin excited about joining Cougars

Morgan Martin has big dreams.

She wants to play college basketball and is interested in attending one of the military service academies for the Army, Navy or Air Force.

She wants to take Advanced Placement classes in high school and might enter the medical profession some day.

For all those reasons and more, Martin is transferring from Quincy Notre Dame High School in Illinois to Cedar Rapids Kennedy for her junior year in high school.

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Hayden, Jacobus, Stolley named IHSBCA all-stars

Alex Hayden of Kennedy, Devon Jacobus of Kennedy and Jake Stolley of Linn-Mar have been selected to play in the 2012 IHSBCA All-Star Series in Clinton on Aug. 2-5 as members of the Large Schools East Squad.

Hayden compiled an 11-2 record as Kennedy's top pitcher. He hit .400 and was also the team's starting second baseman.

Jacobus hit cleanup most of the season for the Cougars as they compiled a 33-7 record and reached the semifinals of the Class 4A state tournament. He was Kennedy's top third baseman and played second base when Hayden was pitching.

Stolley compiled a 7-2 record for Linn-Mar and helped the Lions reach the state tournament. He also played first base.

The IHSBCA all-star games will be played in Clinton at the Ashford University Field, home of the Midwest League's Clinton LumberKings.

Jahlas, Cougars finish state tourney in tears

DES MOINES - Josh Jahlas broke a pair of school records this year and set the tone for the Kennedy baseball team all season with his diving catches in enter field and aggressive baserunning that sparked the Cougars to victory after victory en route to the state tournament.

Unfortunately for Jahlas and the Cougars, the final play of his high school career will haunt him for a long, long time to come. As it turned out, he was aggressive once too often at the worst possible time.

Jahlas tried to take an extra base with two outs in the seventh inning and was thrown out at third by a healthy margin as Kennedy lost to Fort Dodge, 4-2, in the semifinals of the Class 4A state tournament at Principal Park Friday night.

It was the second straight year that Fort Dodge eliminated Kennedy from the state tournament and now the Dodgers will face Ankeny for the title Saturday night.

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Cougars want revenge against Fort Dodge

It's been exactly one year since Kennedy lost to Fort Dodge in the opening round of the 2011 state baseball tournament.

Fort Dodge lefthander Will Kenny pitched a no-hitter for 6 2/3 innings and the Dodgers trimmed the Cougars, 2-1, on a brutally hot day at Principal Park in Des Moines.

The date was July 27, 2011 -- exactly one year ago.

Kennedy and Fort Dodge will meet again Friday night at the Class 4A state tournament, this time in the semifinals with a berth in the championship game at stake.

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Kennedy strolls by Linn-Mar at state, 13-1

DES MOINES - The expected pitcher's duel between Alex Hayden and Jake Stolley turned into an unexpected victory parade for the Kennedy Cougars Wednesday night.

The Cougars took advantage of 10 walks and drubbed Linn-Mar, 13-1, in the quarterfinals of the Class 4A state baseball tournament on a warm night at Principal Park in Des Moines.

Hayden and Stolley, two of the best pitchers in the state, matched zeroes for three innings as fans settled back for a low-scoring game, but Kennedy reached Stolley for two runs in the fourth inning and tacked on three more runs in the fifth for a fat 5-0 lead.

It got out of hand from there as the second-ranked Cougars (33-6) advanced to the semifinals Friday night. Linn-Mar retired with a 29-12 mark.

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Cougars, Lions feature premier pitchers

The Kennedy Cougars and Linn-Mar Lions have two of the deepest pitching staffs in the state, a talent pool that would lend itself to an intriguing five-game series to determine the Metro champion or perhaps even the state champ.

Imagine that. A five-game series between the Cougars and Lions, on five straight days, with the first two games at second-ranked Kennedy, the next two games at ninth-ranked Linn-Mar and perhaps the fifth and final game (if necessary) at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

It will never happen, of course. The IHSAA state tournament is a single-elimination event, beginning with the quarterfinals Wednesday when Kennedy and Linn-Mar collide at Principal Park in Des Moines at 6 p.m.

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Waddle helps Cougars make the right call

Jake Waddle played in the Class 1A state tournament in 2001 as an eighth grader when he got into a first-round game against Lansing Kee as a courtesy runner for his father's team at Coon Rapids-Bayard High School.

Coon Rapids lost that game and Waddle never made it back to the state tournament as a player during his varsity career, but he'll make his third straight trip to the state tournament this week as an assistant coach at Kennedy.

Waddle, 25, works primarily with the catchers and hitters at Kennedy and calls the pitches for Kennedy catcher Chico Lizarraga. The Cougars have compiled a gaudy 95-25 record the last three years with Waddle on the staff and captured the Class 4A state title in 2010.

"It's just been awesome," he said of his experiences with Coach Bret Hoyer and the Cougars.

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Hayden named MVC's top baseball athlete

Alex Hayden of Cedar Rapids Kennedy has been named the Mississippi Division Athlete of the Year on the 2012 Mississippi Valley Conference honor squad in baseball.

Hayden was joined on the Mississippi Division first team by batterymate Jimmy Lizarraga and outfielder Josh Jahlas.

Linn-Mar had three first team picks: pitcher Jake Stolley, outfielder Michael Redmond and pitcher/outfielder Nate Greve, who was selected to a utility position.

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Hayden tops all-Metro baseball team

Alex Hayden of Kennedy has been named the Athlete of the Year on the 2012 All-Metro Baseball Team, as selected by the Metro coaches.

Hayden excelled for the Cougars this season as a pitcher, second baseman and hitter as Kennedy compiled a 32-6 record and qualified for the Class 4A state tournament.

Cody Bell and Chico Lizarraga from Kennedy joined Hayden on the first team.

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