by ROBBIE McCOMMAS
PHOTOS PROVIDED Pictured, both fathers and their sons coached and played for the Stroud team.
Take me out to the ball game!
Springtime, breezy weather, cool rains and longer days are indications baseball season is underway. Take me out to the ball game! Springtime, breezy weather, cool rains and longer days are indications baseball season is underway. Daily practice has started, tournaments take over a family’s calendar and game days are several times per week. Along the Corridor, from Oklahoma City to Tulsa, fields are groomed for hundreds of players to shine like stars. If we head east a little, in the town of Stroud, where a high school coach of 10 years handed his baton to his son and nephew, we’ll find more lessons are being taught than a grand slam! Decades of experience give the Gooch family an edge when it comes to coaching. Generations have inspired the next until there is a dynasty of ballplayers.
12 THE CORRIDOR MAGAZINE / APRIL 2021
Kenneth Gooch, Kenneth Gooch Jr., Kenneth Gooch III, Randy Plunkett, his son Rance Plunkett and his nineyear-old son, Lawyer Plunkett, all love the sport! And, it should be noted Kenneth Gooch IV is three years old! (I’m sure he wears a ball cap too!) Kenneth Gooch Jr. coached his son Kenneth III and his nephew Rance in little league, then later, finished his teaching degree, enabling him to obtain a teaching and coaching job. He was hired by Stroud about the time the boys were in middle school in 1998. The cousins, who had played together for years, were going to be back under the guidance of a great mentor by the time they would play high school ball. “I learned a lot of baseball from him,” says his son,
