He was one of the most highly recruited high school players in the Class of 2015, and at the gate, he’s the biggest draw in the state since LeBron James played at Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s and O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker led North College Hill to consecutive state titles. All three of them are playing in the NBA.
During the last four seasons, when the Wildcats compiled an 85-9 overall record and 48-0 mark in the Southwestern Buckeye League, they played before sell-out crowds — home and away — and toward the end of the regular season, there were reports that people were scalping tickets outside Franklin High School.
The demand to see Kennard and the Wildcats has generated substantial revenue for the athletic department, peaked interest in the school and city and pumped tens of thousands of dollars into Franklin businesses.
If cash is king, Kennard is royalty.
From 2009-2011 (BK or Before Kennard), the Wildcats averaged about $20,000 in tickets sales for their boys basketball games. Kennard’s freshman year, gross ticket sales increased to $31,358, and peaked this season at $42,592, a jump of 82 percent over the 2009 season, according to the school’s financial records. The attendance would have been higher but the FHS gym only holds 1,200.
When asked if he ever thinks about the money he has generated, Kennard said with a smile, “Not really…until now.”
Instead, he focuses more on what he and his teammates have received: community support.
“Everywhere we go, there are people and that’s great,” he said. “We couldn’t ask for more. I just feel so blessed to be part of this team, part of this city.”
Tim Bales, the father of Brian Bales, the Wildcats head coach, said he was officiating a girls basketball game in Brookville earlier this season when, during a timeout, a fan walked onto the court, but not to complain about a call. Instead, the man wanted Bales to buy him six tickets to the next Franklin home game.
When the game ended, and Bales and the other two officials were leaving the gym, there stood the man, with $36 in his hands. Bales told the stranger that Franklin’s next game wasn’t against Brookville.
The man didn’t care. He just wanted to see Kennard in person.
Then last week, as the Wildcats prepared to play Ponitz in the Division II sectional final, Bales spent most of Friday delivering tickets to the elementary school.
“It’s just amazing what impact Luke and the team have had in Franklin,” Bales said. “I don’t know the dollar value, but about every game has been sold out, regardless of the gym.”
The hype has only increased during this season’s deep tournament run when the Wildcats won their first Division II sectional and district titles in school history. For the first four games of the tournament, crowds totaled 34,500, an average of 8,625, and the first two rounds were moved from smaller high school venues to UD Arena to accommodate the ticket demand, according to the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
Franklin sold 8,200 presale tickets for the first four games at $6 each, and since it keeps 50 percent, the school pocketed $24,600, said Brian Bales, also the school’s athletic director.
“I’m sure the state loves us,” Bales said of the fan support. He called the number of presale tickets “unprecedented” and said some Division II schools sold less than 100 tickets for their sectional games.
At last week’s sectional final at UD, by the time Franklin played the third and final game of the night, the arena was sold out, and fans were turned away because there were no parking spaces, tournament officials said. About 11,000 watched Franklin beat Ponitz, and that number would have been higher but some of the seats in the arena were removed in preparations for the upcoming NCAA men’s basketball tournament games.
Franklin’s first-round game against Monroe drew 7,500 and the second-round game against Bellbrook, played when a snow storm was forecast, attracted 6,000, and there were about 10,000 there for the district finals Friday night when Franklin beat Springfield Shawnee 62-55 as Kennard, who was in foul trouble, scored 35 points.
Franklin will face Bellefontaine (16-9) in a regional semifinal at 8 p.m. Thursday at Fairmont’s Trent Arena, which holds 4,000. Now that game may have to be moved to accommodate the crowd, said Rob Durkle, tournament director.
Typically during the basketball tournament, fans leave following each game, but when Centerville beat Xenia in a Division I game last week, more people entered the arena than exited.
One woman was heard saying: “I’m rooting for Centerville, but I’m here to see Luke.”
In preparation for Friday night’s district game against Springfield Shawnee, Franklin sold 1,012 tickets in just three hours Monday afternoon, Bales said. That’s nearly one ticket every 10 seconds. Bales expected the school to sell its allotment of 3,000 tickets, meaning the athletic department made $9,000.
That’s nearly $25,000 in four games.
Add that to the sale of $42,592 in tickets during the regular season, increased concession revenue, waiting lists at local restaurants on game nights, commemorative T-shirt demand and you see why Kennard is the toast of the town.
Peggy Darragh-Jeromos, executive director of the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce, said the positive attention for the city has been “wonderful” and reaffirms what residents already know: It’s a great place to live, work, and play.
“While there has always been a lot of community and Wildcat pride, this year’s team has been the vehicle for others to catch a glimpse of Franklin’s true community pride and support,” she said. “It’s given people unfamiliar with us the chance to see how much we support our schools and students, and to visit and support our local businesses. There is a vocal awakening of pride that everyone has for the team, school, and city of Franklin that we are eager to share, and now, people are willing to listen and learn.”
Franklin’s small-town businesses have cashed in on Lukemania.
Cheryl Roberts, owner of Area Athletics, 173 E. 6th St., said the four-time Southwestern Buckeye League championship T-shirts have been a popular item, and the sales are coming during the typical slow season for her business. Roberts said she’s also taking special orders for Duke T-shirts where the D has been replaced with an L.
“He’s driving everybody’s bottom line up right now,” she said of Kennard’s popularity. “He has taken the team and the city to another level.”
She said Kennard is “a great kid” and that makes cheering for him easy. She has seen Kennard play basketball with elementary students.
“He’s never too busy for the people who have known him his whole life,” Roberts said.
Molly Bicknell, owner of A&G Pizza, 44 Millard Drive, said the restaurant recently expanded from seven tables to 20 tables and added a full bar. She said the entire high school sports program is having “a huge impact” on businesses throughout the community.
When the McDonald’s All-American Team was announced live on ESPN, the boys basketball team and Franklin fans gathered at A&G.
As the owner of a downtown insurance business and the city’s former mayor, Jim Mears appreciates what Kennard has brought to the city. Out-of-towners are spending money in Franklin, and people are talking positively about the city.
You can’t buy that advertising, he said.
“He has had such a positive impact and that’s very important, especially in a small community,” said Mears, owner of Mears Insurance and a 1957 FHS graduate. “It’s the talk all over. I don’t know how you put a price tag on something like that, the excitement he has created.”
Every time the Wildcats take the court, that excitement is evident. Mears remembers one of the final Franklin home basketball games. He was caring for his wife and arrived at FHS by 6:30 p.m., one hour before tip-off, but after the game was sold out.
The woman at the door told Mears no passes were accepted. He understood. So he went home.
“I’m no different than anybody else,” said Mears. “It’s a wild time in Franklin.”
When Brian McFee, who lives in Lawrenceburg, Ind., was hired as Franklin’s principal four years ago, he was told about a special basketball player named Luke Kennard, a freshman at the time. Over the years, McFee has come to appreciate the way Kennard handles himself on the court and in the classroom.
“To see him walk down the hallway, you think he could be a basketball player because he’s tall,” McFee said of the 6-foot-6 Kennard. “But he doesn’t act like a kid with all this attention. He does a great job of representing our community. He personifies what we want our students to be. He’s a fine young man, just a great kid.”
After Kennard was named to the McDonald’s All-American team, his father, Mark Kennard met with McFee. He was concerned about his son missing too many days of school to participate in the basketball showcase for the country’s best prep players. Kennard carries a 4.3 grade point average and is third in his class.
“That’s a testament to his parents,” McFee said. “They know what’s important.”
Brian Bales said Kennard is humble and does everything the right way. Bales remembered a meeting he had with Kennard in his office. When Kennard realized he was going to be late to his next class, he asked for a slip to show his teacher.
“He doesn’t want to be treated special,” Bales said. “He has what I call the ‘it factor.’ When he’s outside, he picks up trash, he’s the first and last guy at practice, and he always makes sure everyone has a seat before he sits down.”
Bales realizes he probably won’t coach another player of Kennard’s caliber. Few coaches do.
“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime player,” Bales said. “You couldn’t ask for a better ambassador for the school, the district and the community.”
There was speculation that before he ever played a game at Franklin, Kennard was recruited by Cincinnati Catholic and prep schools. Bales said Kennard never considered transferring, a move that would have dealt a blow to Franklin’s psyche and finances.
“He’s homegrown and his roots run deep,” said Bales, who added Kennard’s grandfather and parents are FHS graduates.
Kennard added: “This is home. There is where I live.”
Franklin councilman Mike Aldridge, a 1995 FHS graduate, said it’s hard to measure the financial impact of Kennard, but there is no denying what he has brought to the community. He said Franklin — through its car shows, murals and summer festivals — wants to be considered “a destination,” but nothing compares to what the basketball team has brought to the city.
“We can’t do anything this big,” he said. “Community pride is at an all-time high. We are just riding the waves and enjoying it.”
Aldridge travels extensively around the region as a medical salesman. When he tells people he’s from Franklin, the reaction is the same: That’s where Luke Kennard is from.
“We are all witnessing something special,” he said.
Kennard isn’t the first high school player to lift a city on his shoulders and drop loads of cash at its feet.
James, Mayo and Walker, and before them, Jerry Lucas in Middletown, had similar impacts on their communities.
Back in the height of Middie Madness, when Lucas led MHS to consecutive state titles, the school held a raffle for those interested in purchasing basketball season tickets, said Don “Woody” Withrow, 79, a 1953 MHS graduate. The capacity of Wade E. Miller Gym is listed at 3,800, but more than 4,000 fans crowded into the gym for every home game, he said.
The business community was vibrant with Armco and numerous paper mills driving the local economy.
“Money never was an issue,” Withrow said. “Money was no object. Period. We had the best of everything. The best uniforms, the best travel.”
Unlike Kennard, it’s hard to gauge the financial impact Lucas had in Middletown. While Lucas led the Middies to a 76-game winning steak and state championships in 1956-57, the school won five state championships (1944, 1946, 1947, 1952, 1953) before he arrived.
There also was no ESPN, no McDonald’s All-American team, or Internet when Lucas played. Word of this athletic accomplishments was spread over the airways of WPFB radio and on the pages of The Middletown Journal.
Still, Lucas was “known instantly a few games into his sophomore season,” Withrow said.
Many still relate Middletown with Lucas and Lucas with Middletown.
Fans in Franklin and Middletown have argued who was better, Lucas or Kennard. Withrow, who has remained close friends with Lucas, said Kennard’s supporters can’t win that debate until he accomplishes more on the court. Lucas won championships in high school, college, the Olympics and the NBA.
“He is their Jerry Lucas, though he’s not Jerry Lucas,” Withrow said. “But Kennard has done 1,000 times more than Lucas when you think of money. It was just a different time back then compared to today. There wasn’t all this stuff.”
Lucas agreed. Back then, he said, media wasn’t every where like it is today. Still, he said, the Middies’ winning streak drew national attention. Instead of considering his financial impact, Lucas was too busy concentrating on winning the next game, just like Kennard today.
“It never crossed my mind,” he said Friday afternoon. “I have no clue how much money.”
Lucas said when Middletown and Hamilton played back then, the games were moved off site to the Cincinnati Gardens. The games typically drew 13,000.
“I do know that made money for the schools,” he said. “But everything is just different today than when I played. Totally different.”
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