Baker laying foundation of Huskies program
Despite growing up, going to school and coaching for several years in Georgia, Jeff Baker is no stranger to the Birmingham area.
Baker often visited his grandparents in the city during his childhood and spent a recent coaching stint (2012-15) at the Restoration Academy in Fairfield, so the opportunity to be the head boys basketball coach at Hewitt-Trussville High School didn’t seem too far-fetched of an idea.
“So glad to be back in Birmingham,” said Baker, who is in his first season with the Huskies. “I love Alabama. I love the challenge of being in a tough basketball region. This is about as good as it [gets] in high school basketball in this state.”
Baker won two state championships at the AISA level while at Restoration and hopes to build the same type of successful program at Hewitt-Trussville. He believes the school is set up for success, as evidenced by the success several other teams at the school have enjoyed.
“This community is awesome. It’s a winning culture,” he said. “Baseball’s got a rich history here, football has won at a high level. It’s good to have that positive pressure. You want to win and you’ve got people around you doing it, and we obviously want to do the same thing. But we realize also, it’s not going to happen overnight.”
In order to do that, the first step for Baker is to provide stability for the program. He is the fourth head coach in the last four years and takes over for Marcus Thomas, who served three years as the head coach.
“The day after I got the job, we met with our seniors and talked about for them, it’s really about laying a foundation,” Baker said. “They’ve done a good job of that.”
The Huskies boast a relatively inexperienced squad but got off to a solid start. They fell to Ramsay by one point in their season opener but followed that up with wins over Center Point, Gardendale and Oak Mountain.
Baker believes one of the team’s strengths will be its speed, despite not having the tallest team or the most depth.
“We want to make people play a speed they’re not used to playing at,” he said. “I think we can play fast. That doesn’t mean out of control and undisciplined, but we want to get up and down the court, we want to man-press people. Everyone says they want to play fast, but it’s one of those things you really have to commit to.”
Veterans Jaxon Hunter and Sam Cork return the most experience from a season ago. BJ Hill is the third senior on the roster. Brandan Copeland played on the junior varsity team last year but has proved to be one of the top options so far this season. Baker also mentioned Cameron Glover and Jacolby Thomas’ improvement as well.
Colin Glover, Tyler Payne, J’Vahn Durgan and Mike Edwards will also contribute for the Huskies this winter.
And Baker wants those guys to live up to their moniker, “Hustleville.”
“We want a team that when our fans come to the game, they’re proud to watch us,” he said.