The high school football season for Kennedale High School begins Friday night, August 26, in Waco, Texas with the Wildcats playing the La Vega Pirates. The game time is 7:30 PM.
This year the Cats come into the new season ranked #10 in Class 4A Division preseason rankings according to Dave Campbell’s Texas Football while MaxPreps has Kennedale at #24. Both have the Wildcats as a repeat district champ.
For starters …
Kennedale returns 17 varsity members from last year’s 10-2 team including 5 offensive and 6 defensive starters.
Kennedale plays in District 6-4A dominated by Fort Worth ISD teams including the Dunbar Wildcats, the Eastern Hills Highlanders, the Western Hills Cougars, the Carter-Riverside Eagles, and the Diamond Hill-Jarvis Eagles. Non-FWISD teams in the district besides Kennedale are the Castleberry Lions and the Lake Worth Bullfrogs. Enrollment sizes last year ranged from a high of 1,223 students at Eastern High School to a low of 903 at Dunbar High School. Kennedale High had reported an enrollment of 997 students, the third lowest. Last year FWISD Benbrook played in the district finishing in 2nd place before moving over to District 4/4A this year. Lake Worth fills the spot left by Benbrook.
Last year …
During the regular season, the Cats lost only to Midlothian Heritage 22-7 in pre-district play. (This year Heritage has made the move to Class 5A). The Cats went on to win the district championship, a bi-district UIL first-round playoff game against Brownwood 37-7 before losing the area round match-up with Argyle 27-3.
This year …
Over the next three Fridays in pre-district games, Kennedale will travel to Waco to take on the 4A La Vega Pirates. The Pirates finished 9-4 last year. The Cats return the following week to play the 4A Alvarado Indians who finished 2-8 in 2021. Kennedale then plays their final non-district game back on the road against the 5A Denison Yellow Jackets. The Jackets closed out their season last year at 7-4. All three games are set for 7:30 PM.
In district play, Kennedale can expect challenges from Western Hills (6-5, 5-2) and Dunbar (6-5,4-3), teams who finished third and fourth respectively in the district last year. Perhaps, the biggest challenge to the District 6-4A title, which Kennedale has owned for the last four years, will be from newcomer Lake Worth (10-3, 4-2). Lake Worth finished 2nd in District 4-4A last season and went two deep into the playoffs.
Note: You have to go all the way back to the 2011-12 school year before you can find a year that the Wildcats didn’t claim a district title. In that year they finished 8-4 and 3-2 in district play. Kennedale has gone 56-0 in district play since (this includes play in several different districts).
Article has been updated. Originally the article had stated that Melissa won the state 4A championship last year. Stephenville won the title.
