WOODBURN, Ind. - Woodlan High School has hired John Baker as its new boys basketball coach, athletic director Dave Boyce tells ParkviewSportsMedicine.com.
Baker returns to the coaching ranks after a one-year hiatus to reenergize and refocus, he says.
Baker was the head coach for his alma mater, Bellmont High School, for 6 years; and he served as an assistant coach and junior varsity coach for 3 years before that. His coaching battles in the Northeast 8 and now-defunct Northeast Hoosier conferences have prepared him for his new coaching stint.
“I’ve been preaching its a fresh start for everybody,” Baker says. “It’s wide open for playing time. You have the opportunity to show me what you can do.”
Baker replaces Dave Randall, who stepped down as coach after last season. While the Warriors finished 9-14 overall, Woodlan has a solid group of 4 juniors-to-be who scored valuable varsity experience as sophomores, he adds.
Baker has already met with each player and their parents to share his coaching philosophies of motion offense and man-to-man defense—shaped by his high school coach Shaun Busick, and his time as part of Matt Painter’s staff while a student at Purdue University. The Warriors started workouts earlier this week.
Baker teaches fourth grade at Prince Chapman Academy in the East Allen County Schools district.
Woodlan is one of 25 high schools in the region that partners with Parkview Sports Medicine’s integrated sports medicine team to provide athletic training, nutrition, athletic rehabilitation, orthopedic and other services to student-athletes.