Alderson had some truly outstanding and courageous football players over the decades of coach Mc- Laughlin. Today, I want to mention one who really did a great job for their coach, their town, and their alma mater. He was a big hard nosed country boy right off of muddy creek mountain. Kenny Baker had raw determination to achieve and was also blessed with huge strong powerful bone crushing hands that had enormous force against our enemies. He had a great instinct to block and tackle low, when he hit A running back or blocked A lineman or a linebacker they went down and they felt the force. 

I was uniquely privileged to play beside Kenny on the defense. I played defensive left end and Kenny played right beside me as defensive left tackle. Kenny was agile, quick, and he could move laterally along the line with skill. I remember once we played against our nemesis Rainelle .I told Kenny they are going to try to run between you and I on the next play. They called a verbal at the line of scrimmage and Marvin Viers ,the Rainelle running back got in between Kenny and me, he ran about 78 yards for a touchdown. As I reached for Viers, I missed him by inches and the offensive end blocked Kenny to the inside. Anyway, that was very atypical as about 99 percent of the time Kenny and I kept the opposing team's offense on our side of the line shut down. Kenny was a really outstanding lineman, he made all state in his senior year and was a great team mate and a one hundred percent contributor and competitor.

Now, the sad part Kenny is no longer with us for he died prematurely. God took him from us and throughout my entire life, I and all off his classmates have missed him. He was a great competitor, and a great guy. He made an enormous contribution to Alderson football.