By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Two Burlington Christian Academy baseball teammates will head to college teams next fall that compete in the same Division III conference.
Lofton Gonzalez will play for North Carolina Wesleyan, and Cohen Payne is joining Greensboro College. Those are USA South Conference programs.
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They confirmed their intentions at a signing ceremony Friday in the school’s gym along with golfer Kenan Kim, who’s going to Montreat.
Lofton Gonzalez
Cohen Payne
Kenan Kim
Gonzalez and Payne played for BCA’s state championship team last year in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association’s Class 2-A. Both players have been at BCA since elementary school.
Gonzalez is a middle infielder and catcher. He said he prefers playing shortstop.
“I knew Wesleyan was the right choice because they put Christ first,” he said.
Payne is a left-handed pitcher and center fielder, also spending time in the past with the Burlington-based Dirtbags travel team. He said he’s hoping to experience special moments again this spring like the Royals had last year. Payne provided the winning hit in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the finals and was the winning pitcher in the clinching Game 2.
He credited BCA coach Justin Brown for putting him on the college path. “The way he developed me as a player,” Payne said.
Kim said he didn’t know much about golf until he was a teenager and returned from South Korea, where he lived from age 5-13 because of his father’s job. He has been at BCA ever since eighth grade.
The idea of competing collegiately took hold “a year ago when I really started considering that (option).”
Kim, 18, said he averages in the low 70s for 18 holes and he competes on various youth tours outside of the school season. His home course is The Challenge Golf Club in Graham.
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