Kennedy finds her focus on the court

Thinking about the streets of West Oakland, Calif., it isn’t a pretty picture that is drawn.

“It wasn’t such a good neighborhood,” said 5-foot-7 Pepperdine senior guard Daphanie Kennedy. “It was a rough neighborhood and the kind of neighborhood where sometimes it wasn’t safe to go outside. There would be drug dealers on the corners ever now and again, but they were usually nice to us.”

Fortunately for Kennedy, staying away from the drug scene outside her front door was rather easy thanks to her love of basketball.

“I really couldn’t tell you, but my granny used to tell me that where ever I went I had a ball with me, so I probably even had a ball with me when I was still in a crib,” said Kennedy. “I was probably either seven or eight when I started playing. I loved playing with the other kids and going out there and showing off. I didn’t start thinking about playing basketball in college until my sophomore year of high school. Before that I did it just because I loved to play.”

Pursuing this love for basketball was not always easy. As one of two girls being raised by a single mom and living in a rough neighborhood, it took some creativity to chase her basketball dreams.

“I remember just playing in the backyard with the neighborhood kids,” said Kennedy. “We didn’t have a court, so we would use the monkey bars. We would use a section of the monkey bars and decided that whenever the ball went through, that’s when a point counted. If the ball fell anywhere else, it didn’t count.”

In addition to the support she had from her extended family of her granny and uncles, Kennedy also found support from an unlikely source.

“A lot of the guys used to hang out on the corner would not let me hang out there,” said Kennedy. “They called me ‘Baby Jordan’ and made sure I was in the back playing basketball. They actually built us a basketball court and that’s how we finally got a hoop. We used to lower it so we could dunk on it.”

After her family relocated to the San Diego area for her high school years, it was Kennedy’s focus on basketball that has enabled her to pursue her hoop dreams at the picturesque campus of Pepperdine University.

 “She is vibrant and a hard worker,” said Pepperdine coach Julie Rousseau. “She came in as a freshman and I’ve never had a problem with her as she is focused, knows what she wants and what she needs to do to get it whether she is on or off the court. She will out-work people to get what she needs. She has a great work ethic that comes from the very fabric of her family – her mother and grandmother – and others who have continued to encourage her when she has been in an environment that hasn’t always been one where it’s a lot of role models and people doing well.”

Now this senior is a role model of her own. She leads her team – who will face off against regular season conference champion Gonzaga in the first round of the West Coast Conference (WCC) tournament – and the WCC with a 22.2 ppg average, is No. 3 in the WCC for 3-point field goals made with 1.83 per game and holds the No. 3 spot in the WCC with her 8.33 free throw percentage. Yet it is a special occasion that is taking place off the court that is proves that a picture-perfect ending is possible, no matter where you come from.

“I’m proud, but time flew by so fast, that it doesn’t really feel like I’ve been in college for four years already,” said Kennedy, who will be the first person in her family to graduate from college. “They are so proud of me and just waiting for me to walk across that stage.”

“It hasn’t hit me yet, but I think it will when I show up in my cap and gown and walk across that stage. Right now I am just making sure I pass all of my classes and I get there. I am taking it a step at a time.”