It was just a mere two years ago that an article titled McCoy’s girls was published in the Torch. A couple years later the program has totally changed. After three straight state runner-up finishes, all to West Des Moines Valley, Sean McCoy resigned from the position as girls’ head soccer coach.
Since that time, the Kennedy girls’ soccer program hired Homer Screws, who lead the team to the state championship in 2009, and Sean McCoy moved to the head coaching position at cross-town rival Washington High School. Now two years since McCoy has last coached the Cougar girls’ soccer team, the Cougars will now face their former head coach for the first time in a highly anticipated match-up between eighth ranked Kennedy and ninth ranked Washington.
“It, [having him there] will definitely increase the rivalry. We just want to beat them even more now,” Kimmy Journot, sr., said. “It was already a big game but now with him there it’s even bigger.”
But the Cougars will not let this change their mindset on the game. “We’re not going to let it distract us from the game. We will just play how we always do,” Journot said.
McCoy agrees that the game shouldn’t be much different than any other game. “It’s not that different from any other games. It’s an inner city rivalry game so it’s going to be a big game. The [Washington] girls are focused on Kennedy, not on me. We’re just excited to play Kennedy because they are a great team and great legacy,” McCoy said.
Assistant Kennedy coach Jason Cochrane agrees that although it will make a small difference, the game will still be just like any others. “The coaching staff really doesn’t make a difference. There will be a mental connection, but it will be fairly insignificant. And the freshmen and sophomore classes have never even had him as a coach, so there won’t be a big difference,” Cochrane said.
Although McCoy does know many of the girls on the Kennedy roster fairly well from coaching the them in his years at Kennedy, he believes that it will not give Washington a major advantage in the game.
“Homer coaches totally different than the way I coached when I was there. The way they play is totally different. I know a lot of kids over there, but Homer is a smart guy and knows most of the girls over here as well so it really is not a big difference,” McCoy said.
Although there has been much hype for the game, it is clear to both the teams and coaching staffs that the game will not play out any differently than other ones, even though there are some unusual circumstances.
In the end the Cougars were able to come away with a hard fought win, with the score of 1-0 in a thrilling penalty kick shootout. The Kennedy girls raised their record to a solid 9-4 with three games away from the start of sub state play, while the Washington Warriors record will fall to 8-4.
RILEY GALBRAITH
