The Cedar Rapids Kennedy baseball team has a night to enjoy and will never stop doing so

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Kennedy High School baseball players will carry Friday night with them forever.

The Cougars capped a sensational 36-4 season with a stunning finale Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, a 7-3 victory in the Class 4A championship game against West Des Moines Dowling before a crowd of 3,051.

Wherever these Cougars go and whatever they do in life, they will never forget the night they stood on top of each other on the stadium pitcher’s mound as their schoolmates and families cheered wildly in the stands.

The players from the 2010 Kennedy team, which won the school’s other state baseball title, can tell the new champion that the joy and pride of winning will stay with them forever.

“Watching those guys play so hard after winning the substate final last week brought back all kinds of memories and feelings,” Ryan Dusil, a key player for the 2010 Cougars, said Friday afternoon.

“Several players and parents from our championship team watched closely and will be there tonight. We’ve been thinking about our own dog poop, those long bus rides to (Des Moines’) Principal Park and all the hard work that went into it.

“There is no coaching staff that deserves a new state title more.”

Austin Christensen is one of Iowa’s best high school players of the last 25 years. He hit 42 home runs in his Kennedy career and was a junior on the 2010 team. He went on to play baseball at Nebraska.

“Winning a state championship was one of my favorite, if not my favorite, baseball memories,” said Christensen, an assistant baseball coach at Cedar Rapids Washington.

“Nothing beats that moment with your childhood friends and teammates that you grew up with and worked so hard with for years. Winning in 2010 is still something we talk about all the time.

“I am so proud of this 2024 group. No one deserves it more than Coach Hoyer and I am so happy for this team and the way they have represented Kennedy baseball.”

In addition to head coach Bret Hoyer, a longtime Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer, there’s another connection to both teams: David Yancey, a key player in 2010 and now an assistant coach for the Cougars.

“Coach Yancey talks about (the 2010 crown) almost every day,” said Kennedy’s Colton Duerling, who pitched a strong, complete game Friday on a night his team really needed him to hang in there.

“I know I’m going to tell my kids about this,” Duerling said.

“I might have enjoyed this more,” Yancey said. “I had to sit back and enjoy it. I outlasted the guys on this one. I’ll tell you, this was more than fun.”

That 36-4 record tells you that Kennedy’s players never quit, never fell. Why would they when Yancey was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis late in last year’s baseball season and hasn’t let it rob him of his spirit or purpose? He sees his most important role as a coach as being a positive influence.

“I try to keep a good attitude about everything,” Yancey said. “That’s my main thing. I don’t yell or anything, but they know when I’m mad. But I don’t raise my voice. I just try to cheer them up as much as I can, tell them to have fun.

“I’ve had my fair share of adversity. They see it and they push through, just like I do. I try to lead by example, try to be nice to everyone. It’s pretty easy with these guys. They’re just as nice, or nicer.”

Those boys will be men soon enough. Hoyer said they will remain “baseball brothers.”

“You still see them together when they’re 30, 40, 50 years old,” he said. “Our 2014 team didn’t win the state title, but they were conference champions and made it to the state tournament. That class was very similar. Their parents still get together and travel together.”

Hoyer worked his way off the field after the game and into the stadium hallway, where he celebrated with many Kennedy alumni, parents and friends. Fourteen years apart, his consistently good program has won two state titles.

“This is surreal,” he said, beaming. “The other one too.”

And the best part: they last forever.

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