Bob Kennedy, left, jokes with John Duett during a reception in Kennedy’s honor Saturday at Warren Central.(The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[06/18/02]Bob Kennedy had given 25 years helping to build Warren County into a soccer hotbed.

That was long enough.

The founder of the Cannon Soccer Club a Division I competitive team under the Vicksburg Soccer Organization’s umbrella and instrumental figure in the growth of of soccer in Warren County, bid farewell Saturday at a reception in his honor at Warren Central.

Kennedy, who started coaching soccer fzor the Vicksburg Soccer Organization in 1977 is moving to London where he will continue to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“There are some mixed emotions,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been here many years and been involved in a lot of activities. It’s a nice time in our lives and will give us a chance to experience some new things.”

Former players and VSO pioneers including co-founders Bama Keeley and Don Rathburn spun tales of Kennedy and his role in the development of soccer in the county.

“I remember one of the first times I walked onto the soccer fields here,” Kennedy told a group of about 30 that gathered in the WC cafeteria. “(John) Keeley was wearing a cowboy hat and (John) Boa had on boots. I didn’t know you could play soccer in boots.”

The Vicksburg Soccer Organization, founded in 1974, was the first organization of its kind in Mississippi. For some time, the VSO and a group on the Gulf Coast were the only soccer organizations.

Rathburn, a retired WES worker, said he met Kennedy, a Massachusetts native, and the two instantly started talking soccer. From the first moment on the field, Rathburn could tell the league would flourish.

“He made the kids, especially the older age groups, competitive and they were very successful,” Rathburn said. “He was a major force.”

In 1982, Kennedy took the Division I Vipers’ team coached by John Keeley and Boa and created the Cannon Soccer Club. The Vipers, an under-14 team, played for one season on a competitive level and opened the doors for the first Cannon team, made up of players from the Vipers. The name came from a patch on the uniforms, Kennedy said.

“Cannon was the first club in the state associated with a local organization,” Kennedy said. “A lot of people use names from existing clubs, but we wanted something unique to this area.”

Cannon started with one competitive boys team and now fields teams in both boys and girls in seven age groups combined.

Warren Central boys soccer coach Jay Harrison has run Cannon for the past three seasons and said between Cannon and VSO, there are between 600 and 700 players.

The numbers have seen declines since hitting its zenith in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Bama Keeley, the VSO’s original secretary, said she doesn’t know why the numbers are down.

“Soccer isn’t at the level in Vicksburg as it once was,” said Bama Keeley, who was also a VSO vice president for several years. “I just don’t know why.”

Harrison played for and coached with Kennedy, and the WC coach said Kennedy is the driving force behind him being in coaching today.

“I owe him so much as far as me becoming a soccer coach,” Harrison said. “He has influenced so much of what I have done (in coaching).”

Kennedy took a team on a tour of England, Scotland and Wales for games in a European tournament in 1988 and finished third. He’s also taken his teams to the former Soviet Union, New Zealand and Austria.

During the 1988 Europe trip, he earned the Manager’s Trophy at the Ian Rush International Tournament. He’s also won the 1993 Mississippi Youth Soccer Association Western District Coach of the Year.

Most recently, Kennedy tried to attract Futsal, an indoor soccer league, to Warren County. The Futsal Association finished its first season last year and Kennedy has been working at the Kings Community Center trying to introduce kids there to the game.

Hunt Boa, one of his former players and son of John Boa, has been helping Kennedy at Kings and is trying to get Futsal into the Delta as well.

Kennedy, whose son Drew is preparing for his first season as the Vicksburg High boys coach, said he will be a few minutes’ walk from the soccer stadium in Chelsea, England.