This year’s annual Statesboro High School Alumni baseball game is centered on helping a fellow teammate in need, and former SHS baseball coach Kenny Tucker could not be more proud.
    The event is scheduled for March 14 and is usually held as a foundraiser to help the baseball team. However, this year the alumni game will be a benefit to help a current SHS baseball player.
    For the second year in a row in the event’s four-year history, the proceeds from the alumni game will go to helping a member of the SHS baseball family. The proceeds will go to benefit current Blue Devil Baseball Player Nolan Berry, who has experienced recent medical complications, Tucker said.
    “It’s great being able to help. We do all we can to be there emotionally, but the financial support helps those families out. It’s just another way we can help,” Tucker said.
    Tucker said Berry is expected to attend Saturday’s alumni game and looks forward to seeing him.
    Last year the alumni benefit helped A.J. Scott, the son of former SHS baseball player Gerald Scott, who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.
    The event raised 1,000 to go towards helping the Scott family and Tucker said he hopes to raise just as much for the Berry family.
    “It’s just a way to give back and it’s good to see the guys come back. This program has been good to
me and I just want to help out folks that need help….it makes me feel good,” Tucker said.
    Tucker spent his entire coaching tenure at Statesboro High and coached baseball from 1983 to 1998, 12 of those years were spent as the head coach.
    The festivities for the alumni weekend will start on Friday with a friendly golf match at Forest Heights at noon on March 13. A family social will be held at the clubhouse at 7 p.m. on Friday as well.
    On Saturday, a father-son-daughter game will be played at Mill Creek shortly before at 10 a.m., shortly before the start of the Alumni game. The alumni game is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
    Coach Tucker said the various events surrounding the alumni game is a great way to bond with some of his former players.
    “I look forward to playing golf with the guys and seeing where they are in their life and just getting out on the field again. Everybody talks about how good they were and it seems like every year they are away from the game that get better so I have to set them straight,” said Tucker, laughing.
    Due to a poor weather forecast, Tucker said the time and location of the alumni game is subject to change. Hot dogs and hamburgers will be served at 12:30 p.m. following the game.