Its also in the news forum, but it deserves to be here where fans can comment on it.... http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2014/12/no_matter_the_challenge_lsus_k.html St. Mary Parish residents know the story of how Kenny literally did not know how to read when he entered PHS. To see him graduate from LSU now....what a great example of a disadvantaged kid getting the most out of an athletic scholarship! I'm sure there are many on the team with better GPA's, but this is what being a student-athlete is all about. It would be poetic justice now for him to light up Notre Dame for about 150 yards and 3 TDs on 25 carries tomorrow. Won't happen, I know, but in his last game as a Tiger, he's earned one opportunity to be the go-to guy for 60 minutes. Congrats to The Beast!
Good article!! Kudos to Kenny for sticking with his dreams and reaching that goal. Thanks for being a Tiger!
Hope he lands on an NFL team. What would be poetic justice is for the Saints to dump the gump, and sign Kenny as an UDFA. He exemplifies what it is to be a teammate and an LSU Tiger.
Great article. Hopefully Kenny ends his senior year with the same bang as he started it. Will be rooting hard for he & Magee to make it at the next level. The success of Hill & Blue this year can only help.
Thanks for sharing such a great article. I hope that Kenny has a great game today and that he makes a pro roster. He's got the skill set to make it in the NFL, and now he has a college degree, in case the pros don't work out for him. I wonder if Kenny has a learning disability of some sort? Not being able to read in 9th grade is often times more of an indicator of something like dyslexia, rather than apathy--especially for a kid who showed character always at LSU (and who was willing to sit in a class with 3rd graders to learn to read as a high schooler.) I'm sure he told his mom he didn't "like" school, but there was probably a reason he was struggling to learn, apart from a challenging socio-economic situation. I had a feeling my 10-year-old was dyslexic from the time she was three. At the same age, my older daughter had taught herself all of her letters and was learning to read. My younger daughter couldn't do that at all. We spent night after night in kindergarten on flashcards, and she just couldn't remember the letters at all, not from one minute to the next. First grade was horrible, and eventually, I had her tested at Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, which has one of the premier dyslexia testing centers in the nation. After she started getting help at school, there was an almost immediate improvement, and this year, as a 4th grader, she is finally seeing real success at school. She'll probably carry that success forward now. Kenny likely didn't have anyone that could have recognized a disability in him. And make no mistake, dyslexic people are usually highly motivated and intelligent (Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, George Patton, Richard Branson, etc.)--so we call it her "gift" because she truly thinks outside the box. Kenny's persistence in getting a degree is an amazing story in college football.
My son is dyslexic and ambidextrous, Stacey. He is very intelligent and we wondered why a boy so bright and creative had trouble with school. Once tested and skills were taught to him to deal with it, he did really well. He does not like traditional learning either due to the struggle of overcoming the disability, but he is a visual learner. I got the feeling when I talked to Kenny earlier this year that he was very intelligent and would have never guessed he had issues before coming to LSU. He was very articulate and engaging, I wish him the best.
Then, you know exactly what I'm talking about with a dyslexic kid. As a 4th grader, she is already saying that she doesn't want to go to a traditional college, but rather, an art school. (I hope she can get a scholarship.) There isn't a corner of my house that isn't filled with art supplies/projects.
