Nolan Grawe began his baseball career when he was just five years old, playing t-ball in Wisconsin where he grew up. He began playing baseball with Kennedy as soon as he moved to Iowa, around fourth grade, with the Junior Cougar League. He lost a little bit of motivation in his underclassman years, pushing through to become the athlete he is today and rediscovering his passion for the sport. Grawe’s family were his biggest cheerleaders, baseball being a sport passed down throughout the generations of his family—from his grandpa to his dad and his dad to him. South Dakota State University is where Grawe is headed next. He committed his sophomore year and stuck to the college, falling in love with it as he got older. South Dakota is a D1 program with a higher level of play than he’s used to, a challenge Grawe eagerly awaits.

Favorite Memory: “My favorite memory was definitely my sophomore year, substate semifinals versus Dubuque Hempstead and hitting two home runs to move onto the substate final,” Grawe said.

Isabel Poggenklass dove for the first time her sophomore year, making improvement so rapidly that by the time she graduates at the end of 2024, she will have elevated herself to the caliber of a D1 athlete, a feat not many people can claim. During her freshman year, she saw the Instagram reels of Audrey Leno, one of Kennedy’s divers. Intrigued by the sport and figuring it couldn’t be that hard, as she had seven years of gymnastics experience under her belt, Poggenklass decided to give it a try. While not nearly as easy as she thought, it became a sport she would dedicate a significant amount of time to. The hardest parts for her surrounded the mental blocks that come with certain dives and the overwhelming fear that she couldn’t do it, even though physically, she could. That, and the morning practice. The people are what have made the sport what it is for Poggenklass and she is excited to continue her diving career at Illinois State University.

Favorite Kennedy Memory: “We would bond by tie dying our chamois, the clothes we use to dry off before we dive, at one of the seniors houses and end up gossiping while tie dying these little towels. It was a really good team building thing and we’d use them for the rest of the season,” Poggenklass said.