Stephanie Kennedy (Martin) has worked toward this moment for a number of years.
A standout athlete for Southmont, a four-year soccer career at DePauw University, followed by a number of coaching opportunities.
Now the 2012 Southmont graduate will take over the Mounties’ boys soccer program, marking her first varsity head coaching experience.
“This opportunity to be a varsity head coach is incredible, especially to be at my alma mater,” she said. “I feel like I was ready to take on the next step and challenge myself beyond being an assistant. I have also told my family for many years now that I wanted to coach soccer at South and to be able to be back with my Mountie family, it is definitely a blessing for my family and I to be able to continue coaching at South.”
Kennedy was approved as the new coach at a Southmont Schools monthly board meeting last week. She replaces Brandon Rash, who resigned following a 2-12-1 season in 2019.
Kennedy will enter her third year this fall as a fifth-grade teacher at Wea Ridge Elementary in Lafayette, and has been an assistant for the Southmont girls basketball program the last four seasons. She has also spent time coaching middle school soccer at Crawfordsville, assisted the Mounties’ girls soccer team, and most recently was an assistant at DePauw last fall.
Kennedy says she is not worried about making the move from coaching girls to boys.
“I believe there isn’t any difference to coaching boys,” she said. “I have had many years of experience coaching girls, but they are all athletes to me. Coaching in general has its own challenges that are presented with each team, each year, etc. One of those challenges I think I will find this year will be the mentality of the boys.”
Southmont has struggled over the last several seasons, with their best season coming in 2017 when they posted a 5-11 record.
“It is a struggling program, and as athletes they know and feel that,” Kennedy said. “It is hard to have a losing season so trying to get them to trust in their abilities and to trust in my coaching will be the biggest challenge.”
The best thing I can do for these boys is start with fundamentals and work ethic. I would love to help these boys grow in ways that are beyond the field and I know work ethic is something that helped push me in my athletic and teaching career.”
Kennedy takes over the program amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but had a call out meeting via Zoom last week.
High school teams will not be allowed to convene for summer workouts until at least July 1, and Kennedy realizes that will mean lost time to improve in the offseason.
“As soon as school is over, we are usually having lifting and conditioning workouts along with open fields and such that we aren’t able to have right now,” she said. “I loved having summer workouts and I believe they are beneficial to all athletes especially for fall sport athletes because they would lead right up to our season.”
