Sense of Community

Kinney Baughman, 67, High Country Senior Games

Kinney Baughman has been participating in North Carolina Senior Games for 10 years, and is an Ambassador for High Country Senior Games. He plays in the Basketball Tournament, and participates in the basketball shooting and 5K events.

Basketball has always been part of Kinney’s life. He was recruited to play basketball for Appalachian State University, where he played all four years. He almost followed his college coach, Press Maravich, to Sweden to play, but the plan fell through. Three years later, he was in graduate school for architecture when an agent contacted him and asked if he was still interested in playing ball in Europe. He already knew that architecture wasn’t right for him, and jumped at the chance. He went to Belgium and played for a year.

His time playing basketball is just one of the many skills and stories Kinney has acquired over the years. After his year in Europe, Kinney came back to the States, and got his Master’s in Philosophy from the University of Georgia. He then invented an upside-down fermentation system for home-brewing, started a home-brewing equipment business, and is credited with brewing the first commercial sour beer in America since prohibition. He says his time in Belgium is what started his interest in beer brewing, “Belgium is a beer-drinking country and they still use old-world brewing techniques for brewing their beer. In Belgium [I was] confronted with some of the best beer in the world that have Traditions going back hundreds of years.” During this time, he also helped build the Profile Trail at Grandfather Mountain State Park, along with his friend Jim Morton, and taught philosophy and interdisciplinary studies at his Appalachian State University. Kinney was also an early advocate for the internet, and now does online programming and desktop support for ASU. 

Kinney got involved with Senior Games because he was looking for a way to compete at a national level, but he found something else he wasn’t expecting. “It's just the sense of community that you can get within the games that means so much to me,” he says, “After every game, you usually stand around and talk with the players of the other team. So after every game, I've met 6 new friends, and if you play five or six teams in the course of a weekend, I've made 30 new friends! Some of the best friends I have made in the latter part of my life I've made through Senior Games.” 

Kinney didn’t forget about his goal to go to Nationals. He has been to Nationals twice, once with the High Country Mountaineers, and once with another North Carolina team, the Wazee. It was in Birmingham, AL with the Wazee team where Kinney won a gold medal. “I had been playing against the Wazee team for four years, and I had gotten to know these guys. It's the fact that while we were fierce competitors when we're on the court playing in the North Carolina games, they still thought enough of me to ask me to join their team to go play in the Nationals. I think it exemplifies all that is good about Senior Games.” Kinney also holds two State records in the basketball shooting competition for the 55-59 and the 60-64 age groups. His goal is to add his name to the list again for the 65-69 age groups.

Kinney has many favorite memories from his time in Senior Games, but one, in particular, stands out. “It's hard to beat my first experience at the State Finals three-on-three basketball tournament,” he says. Kinney and the High Country Mountaineers were playing against the basketball team from Greenville-Pitt County Senior Games. The two teams played well, and the game went into overtime, then another overtime, then another. In the third overtime, Kinney dove for a ball, trying to keep it from going out of bounds, just as another player was doing the same. Kinney hit his head and immediately started bleeding, but he had a game to finish. “By the time they finished cleaning up the court they were able to stop the bleeding and bandage me up. I put a kerchief around my head and went into our fourth overtime, then into the fifth and final overtime. By the time we finished it one is the biggest crowds I think we've ever seen for a single game at Senior Games”, he says. After a trip to the hospital, twelve stitches, and very little sleep, Kinney and his team showed up for their second day of games, only to have to battle for the bronze medal with the same team. “That was Bobby Thompson's team, and Bobby and I are just the best of friends now and we have laughed about that game. All those guys are good buddies of mine,” Kinney says of the Greenville team.

“I came for the competition, but I keep coming back because of the friendships I make. It's as big as a social event for me down there now as it is a competitive event.”