Is the word, “kinda-sorta” accepted as a normal word to be used in writing?

Hmm, that's a hard one. Not only are kinda and sorta both slang, and not often used in quality writing (unless to capture dialogue), this is a compound-slang word.

This is going to be an opinion-based answer, no mater who gives it. So I'll state mine.

I think for all but formal writing, it's fine. Most people will recognize the word as a humorous redundancy that quite captures the writer's (or his subject's) complex feelings.

New York Times bloggers have used it (blog in parentheses):

• Pataki Kinda Sorta Not Running in ’08? (The Empire Zone)
• ‘The Simpsons’ Explains Its Kinda-Sorta Feud With Fox News (ArtsBeat)

Other "good" blogsites (journalist, not personal):

• Deep Ellum Is Kinda, Sorta, Maybe Back on Top! (Maybe.) (Dallas Observer)
• Kinda Sorta Impeaching the President (Washingtom Post)
• 9th Circuit to bloggers: You're all journalists now, kinda sorta (LA Times)

No they should not have been used in that context - it is slang English; and as such only be used if being quoted as speech or if someone was writing an informal note to a friend.

If the article had quoted a player as saying "we kinda-sorta felt that we...." that would be acceptable as a direct quote.

To note normally newspapers/press articles are normally considered to be formal writing.