Hammond Central senior Kennedy Blakely suggested she may start wearing sunglasses at school.
That’s because she has a visible reminder of her dedication to basketball under her right eye.
“We were down by 11 with two minutes left, but you play to the end,” Blakely said. “So I dove for a ball, and another girl dove with me, and I think her shoulder went into my eye.
“Because of the adrenaline, I didn’t feel it. But I woke up the next morning and rubbed my eye and thought, ‘Ow, that hurts.'”
The physical discomfort Blakely has felt after Hammond Central’s loss to Crown Point on Saturday will subside, but it reflects the attitude the 5-foot-8 guard brought with her after transferring from Bishop Noll.
Blakely, a Kirkwood Community College commit, is averaging 21.0 points and 7.0 assists early in her first season for the Wolves (2-1), who are benefiting from her experience and leadership too. She led Bishop Noll in points (13.5), rebounds (6.7), steals (3.5) and assists (2.9) last season.
“It’s good to have a seasoned veteran like her on the team because we have a young team,” Hammond Central coach Okeisha Howard said. “She’s like another coach on the floor, and she should be because of the position she plays.”
Sophomore forward Indiah Hutchinson, who is averaging a team-high 24.0 points, offered rave reviews about her new teammate.
“She’s always talking to us, always letting us know on the court that it’s going to be OK,” Hutchinson said. “We feed off her energy. Whenever she’s up, we’re all up — and she’s never down.”
Blakely embraced that leadership role, using what she learned while playing with her older sister, Courtney, a 2021 Bishop Noll graduate who has transferred from Middle Tennessee State to Arizona.
“She’d outwork every single person in the gym, so you had no choice but to listen to her,” Kennedy Blakely said. “So when I’m at practice, I’m working as hard as I can so that when I say something to you, you’re receptive to it.”
Blakely said her older sister has been a huge influence in her career, although that’s difficult to admit.
“I’d never tell her to her face,” she said. “But she is my biggest role model.”
Blakely then glanced in the direction of her parents, smirked and said to them, “And you better not tell her that, either.”
But Blakley has been establishing herself as a different kind of player, more of a facilitator than a scorer.
“Courtney is a scoring point guard,” she said. “I’m more of a passer, and if I get the ball back, then I’ll go score.”
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Their mother, Hammond Central assistant Angela Hamblin-Blakely, has always told her to find the style of basketball that best suits her skills.
Hamblin-Blakely believes Kennedy has done that.
“She’s been more of herself,” Hamblin-Blakely said. “One of the things we’ve told both of our girls is, we didn’t want Kennedy to be Courtney, and we didn’t want Courtney to be Kennedy. They have two completely different games. I’m happy to see Kennedy playing her game.”
That game isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. Blakely said she’s feeling more energetic than at any other point in her career.
“I feel different with my conditioning,” she said. “I’ve been trying to get to the gym early or stay after and put up shots. I don’t know if it’s because this is my senior year and I’m thinking that I have to go, go, go. But I feel more in shape now, more than I did in my junior year.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.