Kent Baggett, who was Watson Chapel High School's head football coach in the late 1990s and early 2000s, died last week. He was 62.
John Hayden, the executive director of support services for the Watson Chapel School District, announced Baggett's death during a school board meeting Monday. The cause of death was not announced.
"He came in here and left his mark," said Hayden, who was promoted to defensive coordinator when Baggett became head coach after the 1997 season. "He brought defense to Watson Chapel. It was wild-eyed and crazy, it was zip-and-zoom, it was get-in-your-face and get-aggressive, and he instilled a defense at Watson Chapel that dominated people. He taught me how to run that defense."
Hayden was a junior high coach when Lonnie Sutton hired Baggett, a Pine Bluff native, to be the Wildcats' defensive coordinator in the 1990s. Baggett held the role at Monticello High and helped the Wildcats win the AAA state title in 1996 later with a 4-3, cover-2 scheme. Baggett was most recently defensive coordinator at Rison, coming out of retirement and returning to a school where he was principal. The Rison football team served as honorary pallbearers at his graveside service Tuesday, where head Coach Clay Totty was one of the officiants.
Former Pine Bluff and White Hall Coach Bobby Bolding faced off against Baggett in the early 2000s while helming Stuttgart. Their teams were conference opponents and met in the 2001 AAAA semifinals, with Bolding's Ricebirds winning.
"He was a fierce competitor," Bolding said. "He was gone when I was a graduate assistant at Ouachita Baptist University, but I heard stories about how he was a fierce competitor at OBU. His teams were very physical and well-disciplined. They took after him. They were physical and well-coached. It was a war when we played them."
Mike Vaughn had taken over as White Hall's coach in 2003, during the middle of Baggett's run at Watson Chapel, and the two men were key figures in a longtime Jefferson County rivalry.
"He was a good guy, a nice guy," the now-retired Vaughn said. "He was a good coach. He did a good job. I knew him through Coach Sutton, who's one of my closest friends. I hate to hear we lost [Baggett]."
Baggett retired from the Arkansas Army National Guard as a captain and spent 33 years in education, according to his obituary. After McMurry succeeded him as the Wildcats' head coach in the mid-2000s, Baggett was a principal at Edgewood Elementary, Watson Chapel's K-1 school and took on the same role at Rison High.
According to Hayden, Baggett also filled in as a principal and physical education teacher in the White Hall School District.
"He was a great guy to work with on a daily basis," said Hayden, who became an athletic director and principal after his coaching days. "We laughed all the time. He was funny. That was part of our day. You knew when you came to work, you were going to spend part of your day laughing. There are funny things about football that happen, and you need to laugh about it.
He was really a guy that wanted to help people, and he sure helped the assistant coaches on staff. He wouldn't hold anyone back. Of course, the kids loved him. He was a player's coach. They would do anything for him. They responded to him. He was a great man, a great coach and great friend, and it just really hurts to lose him. He was 62 years old."
Baggett left behind his wife of 41 years, Annette; a son and daughter, two siblings and his parents Roy and Shirley Baggett, among others.