Kenrick Hutson

Kenrick Hutson came to LaGrange College almost four years ago to become an accountant, not realizing he’d pick up a college career in basketball along the way.

“I never touched a basketball until ninth grade, and I didn’t play high school basketball,” Kenrick says. “Actually, LaGrange is the first team I played for.”

When he first visited campus as a prospective student in 2009, he by chance met the college’s previous basketball coach, who encouraged him to give the sport a try. When new Head Coach Kendal Wallace took over the reins of the program in fall 2011, he “was kind enough to keep me on the roster,” Kenrick says.

“People have asked what my biggest accomplishment on the team has been,” says the senior accounting major. “I laugh and say, ‘The biggest highlight of my career was making the team in the first place.’ It was one giant stroke of luck for me. I’m thankful I decided to do that.”

Coach Wallace was so impressed by Kenrick’s athletic and leadership abilities that he asked him to serve as the team’s student assistant coach his senior year.

“Since I’ve become a part of the coaching staff, I’ve gotten an inside look at all Coach Wallace does when it comes to recruiting, how he handles practice and game situations, and his other work on campus. He does so much; he’s a great guy,” Kenrick says.

As the men’s student assistant coach, Kenrick helps his former teammates get ready for practice and also provides film exchange for other coaches.

“I do a lot of preparing and downloading film so Coach Wallace can watch it, and I upload our own games so we can exchange film with other coaches to be prepared for our next game,” he says.

During basketball season, Kenrick has a schedule most college students wouldn’t envy: He’s returned from away games at 4 a.m., only to rise at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for his accounting job at 8 a.m. He serves as an intern at Abbott Jordan & Koon, Certified Public Accountants, in LaGrange along with his academic studies.

“It’s been invaluable to me because I get 3 hours of college credit for the internship, and I get to see what it’s like in the working world,” he says. “I know what I’ll be doing in my job every day because I’m doing it right now.”

Kenrick has known he’s wanted to be an accountant ever since he took an accounting course in ninth grade. He plans to become a certified public accountant and open his own business one day or possibly work for the Internal Revenue Service.

Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he returned to visit his family’s native Guyana this past summer. Kenrick moved there at a young age and lived there until he was 11, when his family moved to Conyers. His dad eventually returned to live in Guyana and owns and manages his own business there.

“I learned a lot about numbers from him, and also from my mom, who helped him manage his books,” Kenrick says. “When I went back to Guyana this summer, I helped my dad with his books because he was a little short on staff.

“I did some bank reconciliations for him; I looked at his financial statements along with what numbers the bank had and compared them side by side. It’s a little different because they don’t have the same standards we have here in the United States, so obviously it was a learning experience for me. But still, I had a lot of fun.”

Kenrick plans to go straight to the workforce after he graduates but hopes to attend graduate school in a few years.

“A lot of accounting firms actually pay for their employees to go to grad school, so if I got an opportunity like that, I wouldn’t turn it down.”