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Feb 25, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 7 min read

Bob Kennedy was a 1,000-point scorer as a player at Beth-Center and now he’s a 200-game winner as a boys basketball coach at Bentworth.

Kennedy guided the Bearcats to a 64-40 win over South Side on Feb. 13 in the preliminary round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs to notch the milestone win which was also the Bearcats’ first postseason victory since 2008.

Bentworth fell in its next game to Sewickley Academy, which was slated to play Jeannette in the WPIAL semifinals Monday night, to end the season with an 11-11 overall record.

No fuss was made about win No. 200 after the game although Bentworth athletic director Brian Malecki notified local media members of his accomplishment.

“I really don’t know how Brian got a hold of it but he figured it out,” said Kennedy who didn’t seek out attention for the accomplishment.

“To be honest it was kind of a personal goal, not one I made public,” Kennedy said. “When I got my 100th, George Linck was the athletic director here. He made an announcement at the game and I looked around and said 100? He knew but I didn’t. At that time I had said I’d like to get to 200. It just sounds good,” Kennedy added with a laugh.

“But it really wasn’t something that I kept track of constantly. I did see at the beginning of the year people ask me for preview information and when I checked my coaching record I said, oh, wow, I need 11.”

It didn’t seem Kennedy would get to 200 wins when his team was sitting at 3-8 after a loss at Clairton on Jan. 7, but the Bearcats won seven of their last nine games to close the regular season at 10-10 and finished 7-7 in Section 1-2A to tie Springdale for fourth place.

“We were happy to make the playoffs but our kids wanted more,” Kennedy said. “We had a good game plan going in against South Side and the kids went out and executed it. I’ve got to give kudos to them.”

Kennedy deflected credit for the team’s success to his players which included a starting five of seniors Ross Skerbetz and Lucas Burt and juniors Ryan Moessner, Ben Hays and Chris Harper.

“Ryan, my assistant coach’s son, was our point guard. Somebody referred to him as the maestro. He’s the guy that makes the whole thing go,” Kennedy said. “He’s a phenomenal athlete with good court awareness. And Ben Hays and Chris Harper are going to be one of the best one-two punches to ever come out of Bentworth. I saw that in them as freshmen because I was getting them in games a little bit just to see how they could do and they went in and competed. They’re going to be tough to contend with next year.

“I’m losing Lucas and Ross. Burt played three years. He’s an outstanding basketball player and football player. Basketball is a distant third but he’s good at it because he’s such a good athlete.

Ross, the poor guy has been hampered by injuries. He wears a knee brace because he tore up his knee last year. I didn’t think he was going to make it back after he had surgery over the summer.

“But he has played and managed to get through the season. He has the heart of a lion and always gave me what he could give me on a daily basis.”

Kennedy likened his current team to his 2008 squad that included his twin sons, Joe and Jon Kennedy.

“This team reminds a lot of that team just in that they play together and they really like each other,” Kennedy said. “The 2008 team referred to themselves as The Family. They went to the state quarterfinals. Serra Catholic was in our section. They won the WPIAL championship and knocked us out of the state tournament and went on to win that, too. They were undefeated that year. We just couldn’t beat Serra Catholic.”

The 2008 Bentworth team went 19-9 with three of its losses coming against Serra Catholic.

Kennedy was a three-year starter at Beth-Center who scored 1,038 points, although he doesn’t recall point No. 1,000.

“It wasn’t something that was celebrated when it happened,” said Kennedy, who didn’t even realize he had scored 1,000 career points until after the fact. “It just showed up on the wall at Beth-Center.

“I was one of the first to start there as a sophomore,” said Kennedy who was on Waynesburg University’s team for one year before ending his playing days.

Kennedy began his coaching career at his alma mater.

“I moved to Bentleyville in 1990 and I was an assistant coach at Beth-Center for a couple years when Billy Minerd was the head coach,” Kennedy said. “I came here as an assistant coach under Barry Niemec who was another Beth-Center grad. We played together in high school. Then he went back to Beth-Center and I decided to stay since I lived here and I had kids growing up here. My boys were young at the time.”

Kennedy, who is 63, just completed his 23rd season at Bentworth.

“They’re very supportive of me here,” Kennedy said. “They’ve never given me a problem and, hopefully, I’ve never given them any. I love it here and love the people here.

“When you walk into a store and someone says nice game last night coach, that makes you feel good. I’ve been accepted here with any issues or concerns.”

Kennedy admitted it was strange to coach against the Bulldogs at first.

“It used to be awkward when I’d walk into Beth-Center as the Bentworth coach but it’s commonplace now,” he said.

Kennedy pointed out the popularity of the 3-point shot as the biggest change since he began coaching.

“I came from an era where the big man played in the post and you didn’t shoot 3-balls, you pounded it inside and got high-percentage shots,” Kennedy said. “Now that has changed. You can’t even teach boxing out now in the traditional fashion because with the increased use of the 3-point shot your rebounds are coming off further.

“But I still love the game, always have. I’ve been obsessed with basketball since I was eight or 10 years old. I always had a basketball in my hand and I played until I couldn’t play anymore.”

Kennedy and his wife Nancy also had a daughter, Amanda in addition to their twin sons.

“Amanda was a great athlete, too, who went to Marshall on a track scholarship,” Kennedy said. “She played volleyball, basketball, ran track, softball. She played everything.”

Kennedy has no intentions of quitting coaching.

“I’m going to keep coaching until they tell me not to or my health doesn’t allow me,” he said. “Eventually I would like to end up as a middle school coach. I would like to be in a position where the emphasis would be on fundamentals, teaching kids how to dribble, pass and shoot and getting them ready for high school.”

Kennedy is thrilled with the way his career has turned out.

“For me to go from playing the game to coaching the game and being blessed enough to coach her as long as I have, it’s like a dream come true,” Kennedy said. “I couldn’t have written a better script.”