DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709100185

SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS     PAGE: 10   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   54 lines

KENNEDY EXCITED ABOUT HIS NEW DUTIES AS WILSON AD

JACK ``PORK CHOP'' Kennedy insists his strong football background won't induce him to meddle in the affairs of Wilson football coach Jensen Baker.

``He doesn't need my help,'' the Presidents' new athletic director said.

Wrestling coaches Tony and Gaskins Reynolds, on the other hand, could wind up seeing Kennedy more than their wrestlers, whether they need his help or not.

``I'm sure I'll have something to say to the Reynolds brothers,'' he said with a laugh about the duo who comprised part of the 1979 Kennedy-coach Maury state championship wrestling team. ``I'll still be ol' coach to them.''

Then again, ol' coach also realizes it may be time to learn a new trick. The increasing demands of coaching and running a high school athletic department were one of the reasons Wilson basketball/football coach Terence Green resigned as the school's AD last spring. So as much as the former Maury, Wilson and Churchland wrestling coach would like to be a third set of eyes during the Presidents workouts, Kennedy said he realizes that's not his gig this time around.

``My job is to handle the administrative side of it,'' he said. ``I consider this a great opportunity.''

Kennedy, who was dubbed ``Pork Chop'' by a coach at Cradock because ``I was a pretty fat eighth-grader,'' is a former three-time CIAA heavyweight wrestling champion at Elizabeth City State. He also played linebacker at ECSU under the late Thomas Caldwell, ``by far the fairest man I've ever met.''

``I'm the only white guy in the Elizabeth City Hall of Fame,'' Kennedy said. ``But there's an old saying that good clothes come in all colors, and so do people.''

After graduating from ECSU, Kennedy led Maury football teams to two Eastern Region playoff appearances and one state final. He also coached the Little Creek Amphibious Base football team to four East Coast titles and a 42-0 record.

In 1980, Kennedy became the athletic director for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he coached the Navy World Wrestling Team. Three years later, he was selected to head the largest sports program in the Pacific in Okinawa, Japan. In 1988, he was named Athletic Director of the Year for the military worldwide.

Since returning to Virginia, Kennedy has coached football and wrestling at Wilson and Churchland. He returns to Wilson after a stint as the physical education department chair at Hunt-Mapp Middle School.

``I don't want to come in here and say I'll turn the program around, because I think there's some really good things going on here already,'' Kennedy said. ``But hopefully, you'll be having a lot to write about these kids. My thing is, if you want to go to college, let's get somebody else to pay for it besides mom and dad.'' ILLUSTRATION: Jack Kennedy, Wilson AD

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