With state tournaments on the line, it’s getting down to crunch time for Kennedy’s Riley Galbraith.

He renews his quest for a state tennis title as the undefeated No. 1 seed in district play Thursday morning at Linn-Mar. Then it’s back to Linn-Mar Thursday night for a soccer match as the Cougars wind down the regular season in hopes of a favorable pairing in the substate tournament.

It’s nothing new for the multi-talented Kennedy senior to juggle the two sports during the same playing season. He’s being doing it since he was six years old. And despite dividing time between the tennis court and the soccer field, he plays both at a very high level.

Galbraith, 18, finished fourth in the state tennis tournament last year but came within two points of making it to the finals. He’ll be a favorite again this year, along with the Des Moines Roosevelt opponent who edged him in an epic rain-delayed five-hour match that started outdoors in the morning and ended indoors at night.

A four-year star center midfielder on the Cougar soccer team, he turned down a chance last year to join the elite Eastern Iowa United club team that takes only the best of the best Cedar Rapids and Iowa City youth soccer players.

“I finally had to make a choice between the sports,” said the personable Galbraith, who is also editor-in-chief of Kennedy’s national award-winning school newspaper. “Playing for United would have been full-time and would have taken too much time away from my tennis.

“And my goal is to win the individual state title. I was on the cusp last year. This year I want to win it.”

Still, he has not neglected the sport he admitted was his first love back when he began both while still a little kid. As he’s done for four years now, he tries to play in every varsity tennis match and every varsity soccer match.

Sometimes, as will be the case on Thursday, he goes from one to the other. Only rarely has there been a schedule conflict, with games at the same time or in different towns.

“When that happens,” he said, “I try to go with the one that will help the team the most.”

A year ago, in fact, he planned to do both almost simultaneously. The state tennis tournament was being held in the morning at the Veterans Memorial Tennis Center in Cedar Rapids while Kennedy’s substate soccer game was in the early afternoon at adjacent Kingston Stadium.

Thoughts of changing uniforms and at least going in for penalty kicks between tennis matches were thwarted when rain halted his semifinal battle with Roosevelt’s Naveen Nath at mid-match. Galbraith ended up watching some of the rain-soaked soccer match from the car with his parents, Shelly and Tom.

Then, after taking a 6-5 lead in the third set with Nath when play later resumed inside at Coe College, he lost a heart-breaker to the eventual state runnerup.

Whatever this season holds on the court or on the field, Galbraith intends to stay close to home and play tennis (and perhaps soccer) next year at Coe. His dad, the tennis pro at the Cedar Rapids Country Club, gives lessons at Coe in the off-season so Galbraith has practically grown up at the Clark Racquet Center.

Galbraith will be attending the same college as his older brother Reid, a soccer player at Coe who was on the Kennedy state championship tennis team in 2008.

“It seems like I’m always following in Reid’s footsteps,”  Galbraith said. “He was editor of the school paper, and I wanted to be the editor.

“Now I’m going to follow him at Coe. But he’s got pretty good footsteps to follow. He’s never let me down.”

If there’s one way the two brothers part, however, it’s in their choice of role models. Reid wants to be a lawyer. Riley wants to be more like tennis superstar Serena Williams.

“I saw her play in person for the first time when I was like nine at the U.S. Open,” he explained. “I thought, 'Wow, she’s just amazing.’ She has a real star aura about her.”

With his tenacious manner and the grunts that accompany many of his shots, Galbraith characterized his own approach to the game as equally “intense.”

“On the court, I  might be considered a hothead,” he admitted. “And this guy from Dubuque tried to get me going by calling me 'superstar’ and asking for my autograph.

“But that’s all right. We won our doubles match against him.”

Galbraith's coach at Kennedy, Craig Bova, said his star player is very competitive but never out of line.

“He’s a good kid. He’s just an exceptional athlete. But very grounded and down to earth," said Bova. "And he drives himself to be successful.”