The Doctor is in: Baker takes over J-M football
It’s doubtful that any other football team in Western Pennsylvania has a head coach who works on a government-supported team that studies regenerative medicine, exercise physiology and aging.
Meet Brent Baker, the new head football coach at Jefferson-Morgan High School. He was hired at last month’s school board meeting.
“I affectionately call him Dr. Baker,” said Jefferson-Morgan athletic director Scot Moore
Baker was an assistant on Aaron Giorgi’s staff. Giorgi was hired at Waynesburg to replace Chad Coss, who died unexpectedly. That left the Jefferson-Morgan job open.
Baker also coached on Mike Bosnic’s staff when Bosnic was head coach at Carmichaels, and at Waynesburg under Joe Kuhns.
“My whole life has been about not just learning but educating, serving, giving and empowering people,” said the 42-year-old Baker. “I’ve always been a competitive person. I played baseball in college. As I finished my education, just giving back in that capacity and empowering young athletes to be the best version of themselves, whether that be as people, students, athletes and in this particular case, football players, was important.”
Baker said his work centers on offsetting the aging process.
“Brent is a hard-working individual,” said Moore. “He’s into their physical makeup. He wants them to be prepared. We think he’s a good fit for us.”
Baker wants the team to play aggressively.
“I have this fundamental understanding of how to develop athletes,” said Baker. “We don’t get to recruit obviously because this is high school, so we’ll take our athletes and try to be the best version of ourselves. A lot of people use the term ‘science driven approach’ but we have utilized this every where I’ve been.
Baker is a graduate of Albert Gallatin and did his undergraduate work at Marietta and Waynesburg before heading to West Virginia University for post graduate studies.
“We have a good group of kids, a tremendous group of underclassmen,” said Baker. “Our undergraduate pipeline is outstanding.”
Jefferson-Morgan participates in the Tri-County South Conference and finished with a 3-4 record last season. Other teams include California, Avella, West Greene, Bentworthm Mapletown and Monesen.