FACES OF SPRING: Margaretta's Tallen Kennedy ready to get to work

CASTALIA — Tallen Kennedy didn't play baseball his freshman season at Margaretta High School. He was focusing on weight training after tearing a meniscus during football season. But he could still swing a bat. Kennedy, a sturdy 6-foot-2, 245-pound senior at Margaretta, opted to play for his dad's adult softball team that year. He was pretty good, and powerful. "I hit four out in a row and the fifth at-bat I got intentionally walked," Kennedy said about one memorable game at Lions Park. The plate umpire was Chris Cullen, an assistant baseball coach for the Polar Bears. "I remember him coming up to me and he said, 'You're gonna play baseball' and then he introduced himself," Kennedy said. "Skipping a year made me come in with a better mindset (as a sophomore). I missed it. The first swing was like 'wow,' hitting that first fastball." Kennedy, who grew up watching his dad Andy swing for the fences, excelled at his favorite sport and was a first-team All-Sandusky Bay Conference selection as a sophomore and junior. He batted .365 as a sophomore with 20 runs batted in. Last year the big outfielder batted .391 with 29 RBI — seven of them coming on two home runs in one magical inning at Oak Harbor early in the season. He hit a grand slam and three-run shot in a nine-run seventh inning to break open a close game. Assistant coach Trey Gluth had some words of wisdom before Kennedy stepped to the plate. "Coach Gluth said 'nothing but line drives, I know the wind's blowing out.' The first one goes out and I'm excited. It was my first high school home run," Kennedy recalled. "I get up to the plate again and he tells me the exact same thing. The pitcher throws another high inside fastball and I crush this ball. "I remember running around the bases thinking that this feeling was everything I wanted playing high school baseball, hearing my teammates going crazy and making jokes about it to this day. It was an amazing experience." Those were Kennedy's only two homers as a Polar Bear, but he kept hitting line drives. "Coach (Gregg) Hedden came up to me and shook my hand and told me great game, but he wanted me to stay humble — stay that same line-drive hitter," Kennedy said. "What he said worked. I never hit a home run again but I got the RBIs and that's what mattered to me." He didn't get the home runs balls, either: "I saw a couple little Oak Harbor kids run out there and take them." Kennedy, who bats right and throws left, wears No. 5 in honor of his favorite player, Albert Pujols. He says some of his favorite baseball memories involved his years playing travel ball with the Castalia Crunch. "I remember traveling to places like Strongsville and everyone having fun in the pool and coming out the next day playing ball," he said. "It was so much fun." Kennedy also had plenty of fun playing football. He lettered all four years, although he wasn't so imposing as a ninth-grader. "I wasn't too big," he said. "I could barely get 135 (pounds on the bench press) as a freshman." He grew into a standout lineman and tight end and was an All-SBC performer his last three seasons, but baseball was his first love. In fact, before the coronavirus hit he was considering his college baseball options. Kennedy caught the eye of the Bowling Green State University staff last fall. "I was strongly shooting for BG before the virus," he said. "I actually went to a baseball camp for BG and I got an email saying they'd come to a couple games and check me out. I was so excited for the season to come. "Then the coronavirus took that away then they got rid of their baseball program (last week)." Kennedy considered some NCAA Division III options before coming up with a new plan. He decided to bypass college and go to work for Barnhart Builders after he graduates. His mom, Manda Higham, helped him line up the construction job. "As soon as the coronavirus hit I was like, 'I gotta change my course and stick to the trade rout.' I don't know if I'd be doing the trade rout if the 'rona didn't hit, but I honestly don't regret making that decision. "I'm kind of happy retiring as a Polar Bear, but it's sad that I didn't get to play three years (of high school ball)." Kennedy is excited to learn what he can about carpentry and start earning a paycheck. "I'm always that workhorse," he said. "If you give me a job I have the determination to get it done." Kennedy, who enjoys fishing and hiking, also was a standout on Post 83's American Legion team. He was second on the team with a .364 batting average last year and was looking forward to playing his third season of Legion ball this summer, but the virus wiped that out, too. "Some of those kids I grew up with in Bellevue," he said about his Legion teammates. "Everyone was great. If you hit a grounder or struck out, it was a team that would help you and tell what you did wrong. I loved it." Kennedy, who entered the Margaretta school system in the fifth grade, still goes to Lions Park and crushes softballs now and then. He also challenges younger brother Carson at golf. Carson will be a senior in the fall at Margaretta and is one of the best high school golfers in the region. But that doesn't mean that Tallen will back down when he tees it up. "We actually went out a couple days ago to Green Hills," Kennedy said. "I had him in the first five holes, I had him. I saw him getting frustrated and I was coaching him and telling him to calm down. His drives were terrible and I told him to smack the ball and let your hands go. "Then he outdrove me. I drive the ball like 350 and he it hit where my ball was then it rolled. If I really wanted to beat him I shouldn't have said that."