Twin brothers Gregg and Scott Kennedy began playing baseball for the same reason a lot of other kids do: to burn off an abundance of adolescent energy.
"It was two twins running around the house with my mom at home," Scott said. "She just wanted to find a way for us to use our energy in a constructive way and get us out. And my dad always encouraged us to go outside and not sit in front of the TV and play video games."
For a lot of kids, that's not only where the story begins but also where it ends. But the Kennedy brothers kept on playing, first at Kirkwood High, then at Washington University. With their junior seasons under way, they have become key members of a Bears team that is battling to make the NCAA Division III tournament for the fourth consecutive season.
Gregg is Washington U.'s center fielder, where he has replaced graduated All-American Andy Shields. Heading into a doubleheader Friday against Benedictine, he was hitting .514 and was second on the team with eight RBIs. Scott starts at third base and was batting .474 after homering Thursday in an 11-4 loss to Webster.
Washington U. coach Ric Lessmann goes way back with both brothers. He's known the Kennedy family for years and coached Gregg and Scott until they got to high school.
The twins were drawn to Washington U. partly because their father's status as a university employee -- Bo Kennedy is associate professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine -- afforded them a significant tuition break. But it was also because they had serious academic ambitions.
Scott has two majors: mechanical engineering and German. Last summer he took a tour of a German firm that develops prosthetics for Paralympic athletes. Now he's considering a career in the field.
"It was really cool for me to see the way they design machines, whether it's wheelchairs or prosthetics or braces, to help their athletes perform and be active and retain some kind of normalcy in their lives," he said. "That really got me interested in the biomechanical side of mechanical engineering."
Gregg, after taking some time to sort through potential majors, has settled on pre-med with an emphasis on physical anthropology.
"As an athlete, I'm really interested in orthopedics and sports medicine," he said. "I don't really know yet what it's going to entail, so we'll see where med school takes me."
While postgraduate life awaits, the Kennedys have got their hands full trying to help lift Washington U. to the NCAA tournament after a 4-5 start. The big problem so far has been the weather. The Bears have had 14 games postponed, and Lessmann figures they'll only make up about half of those games. That's a major concern for an independent team like Washington U. Independents usually need 30 victories to receive at-large tournament consideration, and the Bears might not even play 30 games.
"We're at a point where we can't get rained out anymore," Lessmann said. "Sometimes that happens. It's the chance you take. The last four or five years we were OK, but this year we just got a completely different weather pattern and it really hurt us."
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Copyright 2008 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
| • | Twin engines power Washington U.
Area Notebook St. Louis Post-Disaptch, Saturday, March 22, 2008 Byline: Matt Herb, SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH |
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