Kenneth Livengood! Posted on Tue, Jan. 31, 2006
Wrestling life is great for Livengood
BV North senior is a giant at 5 feet tall as he gets ready to claim the Kansas record for career wins
By CANDACE BUCKNER
The Kansas City Star
Kenneth Livengood shows all the symptoms.
He speaks softly. He folds his short arms, breaks away from uncomfortable eye contact and esteems others over himself. He has trouble chatting up the ladies and admittedly doesn't have much of a life right now.
Classic shyness. That's why Livengood needs his wrestling mat so badly. It's his crutch, comforting like a childhood teddy bear and at the same time, strengthening like Popeye's spinach.
“I feel like I belong there,” said Livengood, a 17-year-old Blue Valley North senior. “I can't speak in front of crowds. If I were to go in this gym and walk out in the center, talk to them, talk to the crowd, I'd lock up.
“But if I was going to go out there and wrestle, I wouldn't think twice.”
Livengood lacks height, something bullies used to remind him of daily. And Livengood's inner voice, the one that says, “You're good enough,” doesn't speak up some days.
So, he needs his mat. There, he leaves behind the smallest boy in school who had to transfer out of Gardner.
Rather, he's the broad-shouldered giant standing 5 feet tall, weighing 119 pounds. On the mat, he is about to become the biggest winner the state has ever seen.
“He has Superman strength,” BV North coach Dylan Hitchcock said. “He's the face of North wrestling.”
Today, Livengood can tie the Kansas high school wrestling career wins record. In 1999, former BV Northwest standout Zach Roberson sealed his undefeated career with four individual state championships and 153 victories.
“(Wrestling) was a lot of his freedom,” father Mark Livengood said. “He was really pushed down ... but he beat that system.”
At a Buddhist temple in Los Angeles in 1986, Yoriko Kinjo met Mark Livengood. She was originally from Okinawa, Japan, taking psychology classes at a local community college. He was a dropout from Kansas City, Kan., working odd jobs. On that day, he was building an altar for the temple.
After marrying and Kenneth's birth, the Livengoods couldn't swing the pricey California cost of living. So, with the addition of Anthony — born 18 months after Kenneth — the family moved to Mark's home in Kansas City, Kan. Then in 1994, the Livengoods settled in Gardner.
In many ways, Gardner was the alternative to big-city living. Leave your windows unlocked and doors open because everyone's a neighbor.
“You could just tell that this was a town that had the small-town atmosphere,” said Robert Hess, who moved to Gardner in 1996 and presided over the community’s after-school Kid's Club, where he coached Kenneth. “It's a good place to raise a family.”
But no place is perfect, especially when you're different like the Livengoods.
“They're fabulous people, they really are. (But) they were very misread when they lived here in Gardner,” Hess said. “It really got kinda ugly here.
“Gardner used to be a very set-in-their-own-way community, and when people like the (Livengoods) come in, I don't know, some of the older types just ...,” Hess said, ending his thoughts.
“I just never understood it.”
Still, Livengood loved his small-town upbringing, riding bikes around town with friends and catching turtles. He felt he belonged, but also realized he was different.
“In Kenny’s case, he's not just short,” Yoriko described. “He’s very short.”
As a result, Livengood got picked on sometimes.
“I just dealt with it,” he said.
Yoriko noticed her son's personality turning quiet and shy. Mark picked up on his son's developing nervous eye twitch. But middle school gym teacher Matt Yeamans also noticed Kenneth, thinking that he had natural wrestling moves.
Livengood went out for the seventh-grade wrestling team for one purpose.
“I'm going to get girls,” he thought until his first match, when he realized that they didn't go for wrestlers. Besides he would've been embarrassed if a girl watched his first match.
“I went out there and got stuck pretty fast. That didn't feel good at all because I was kicking butt in practice,” Livengood said. “Then the second match I did the same thing to some other kid. I pinned him pretty fast.”
Livengood felt like he belonged again.
"When I got my hand raised, it was like being on top of the world. It was the most amazing feeling," Livengood said. "Finally, I was good at something. I achieved what I wanted to achieve. I wrestled, I won and the guy says, 'This kid right here won.' "
"I always had low self-esteem socially because of my height. But on the mat, the only pressure that's there is winning the match. That might seem like a big deal, but off the mat, you have pressures of grades, friends, drugs, alcohol. You have pressure from 50 different areas, but once you step on that mat, there’s that one focus — and that’s winning the match.”
The family decided to leave Gardner and moved to Overland Park for the start of Livengood’s high school days at BV North. As a freshman, Livengood’s new classmates called him “Ken Doll” because of his size, but Livengood wasn’t bothered. He made straight A’s and finished 41-7 while placing fifth at the state tournament as a 103-pounder.
In the new era of Kansas high school wrestling, top prospects such as Livengood can have nearly 50 matches a year. With more matches, Livengood perceived early that he could capture Roberson’s wins record.
Livengood’s freshman year seemed to be a nice beginning for a successful career. However, the next year, Livengood qualified for state again but got pinned into third place, finishing 43-5.
“I started to get kinda scared,” Livengood said. “There was a mental block. I looked at these people like they were unbeatable. I just kinda crumbled.”
In his junior year, he gained 16 pounds and faced two-time defending champ Tommy Edgmon in the title match.
“I looked at him as a god; he was unbeatable,” Livengood said. “I didn’t really realize I could beat him until the second period when he was exhausted and I started going at him in the third period.”
The realization came too late, and Edgmon won. Livengood, 39-7, finished with the fewest wins of his career to date.
Currently, Livengood is 152-21 in his high school career. Still, without an individual title, there’s something missing. After he breaks the new state wins record, Livengood will still strive for that elusive state championship.
“This year I’ve been more confident,” Livengood said. “The other three years I was really humbled, and part of it, I think, was low self-esteem. But this year I boosted my self-esteem, and I’ve been telling myself I’m better.”
Livengood believes this is his season. He currently ranks third statewide at 29-2 in his 119-pound weight class and already has won five individual tournament championships.
Off the mat, Livengood has settled into his own. He claims he “went easy” for senior year, only taking AP calculus, anatomy and psychology. Livengood holds a 4.2 GPA and wants to major in chemical engineering at Cornell next semester.
No longer is he mistaken for younger brother Anthony, also a wrestler. Kenneth bleached his hair blond last October to be different. Besides the hair, classmates recognize Livengood for his work on the mat.
He gets calls at home from the school newspaper, and he’s been interviewed by the BV North broadcast team. He hates to admit it, but the attention makes him feel good.
“I like it when people think about me, which sounds conceited,” Livengood said, looking down. “I want to excel in something. I do want that spotlight. It’s kinda embarrassing sometimes, but I do love the feeling of the spotlight.”
Today, Livengood will own the spotlight.
He will be back on the mat, where he belongs.
“It’s about wanting to be better than everybody else, wanting to dominate at something,” Livengood said “There’s nobody that can make me flinch. Nobody can look down on me there. I guess I’m fearless.”
Livengood’s record
■ 2003: 41-7, finished fifth in Kansas 6A state tournament at 103 pounds
■ 2004: 43-5, third overall
■ 2005: 39-7, second overall in 119
■ 2006: 29-2, broke the BV North career wins record (Tyler McCormick, 142 wins)