Eagles Sign Washington’s Aaa Player Of The Year
Eastern Washington University parlayed last fall’s modest six-win football season into a recruiting bonanza Wednesday by signing 19 top-notch high school prospects - including running back Elijah Baker, the state’s AAA Player of the Year to national letters of intent.
Baker led Tacoma’s Curtis High School to back-to-back AAA state championships and rushed for 1,022 yards and 16 touchdowns last fall. The 5-foot-8, 180-pounder ran for 153 yards and three TDs in the state title game against Richland.
“We’ve never, at Eastern, signed a player with more notoriety,” third-year Eagles coach Mike Kramer said of the Curtis all-stater. “He’s really going to unfurl some banners when he plops down here to start fall camp in August.
“His reputation precedes him, that’s for sure. But what I like is that he puts two state championship rings to bed each night.”
Baker, according to Kramer, is the plum of a recruiting class that also includes quarterback Scott Mitchell from Kennewick’s Kamiakin High School, three all-state offensive linemen and a lightning-quick running back/ defensive back from Lompoc, Calif., the home of former University of Washington running back Napoleon Kaufman.
“I think it’s an exceptional year for us in recruiting at the skill spots,” said Kramer, who expects to sign four or five more junior-college recruits in the next couple of days.
Mitchell, a 6-3-1/2, 195-pounder, threw for 22 touchdowns as a junior and led Kamiakin to the 1995 AAA state title game, which it lost to Curtis. Last fall he threw for 1,987 yards and 23 touchdowns, and was intercepted only six times.
During his high school career, Mitchell had a 20-4 record as a starter and threw for nearly 3,500 yards. He also carries a 3.94 grade-point average.
“His performance, like Elijah Baker’s, speaks for itself,” Kramer said of Mitchell, who was heavily recruited by Boise State. “A lot of times we recruit guys believing that they’re going to become players. But these two guys have already proven at the state’s highest level that they are two of the finest this state has to offer.”
Among the other notable signees are tight end Dan Curley of Anacortes, Wash., a 6-4, 215-pounder who caught 56 passes for 1,082 yards and eight touchdowns, and Jovan Griffith, a 5-9, 170-pounder from Lompoc. Griffith, who has been electronically clocked at 4.38 seconds in the 40-yard dash, averaged more than 6 yards per carry last fall.
Kramer said Griffith’s high school coach puts the 22-foot long jumper in the same class as Kaufman, who became the Pacific-10 Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year and an All-American while at UW.
“He (John Barrett) told me he felt Jovan has all the attributes that Napoleon had as far as his statistics, track times and demeanor are concerned,” Kramer said.
Other top recruits include all-state linemen James Venters (Peninsula), Chris Polinder (Linden) and Kyle Delorme (West Valley-Yakima).
Kramer said he expects several players, including Baker, to contribute immediately.
“We’ll give Elijah every opportunity to earn the starting tailback job, alongside (senior) Rex Prescott,” he said. “We plan on giving 15 to 18 carries a game to Rex and 24 or 25 carries to another guy - and that other guy is probably going to be Elijah Baker.”
, DataTimes