Baker braces for full summer
Katie Baker is bracing for a busy, basketball-filled summer. Heck, it’s been an eventful spring.
The Lake City High sophomore has played about 30 games since leading the Timberwolves to the State 5A championship in mid-February. Her calendar is dotted with weeklong or weekend tournaments for the next 10 weeks.
The 6-foot Baker essentially has played basketball nonstop since November.
“Occasionally you feel like, ‘Is there more to life than basketball?’ But I keep my priorities straight,” Baker said Tuesday evening after flying back from Reno, Nev., earlier in the day from a weekend AAU tournament. “If there was no reward, I’d wonder if it would be worth it. But I love playing the game so much.”
The reward, ultimately, is that the sport will pay for a college education. To that end, this summer is important from the standpoint of getting on the radar of college coaches. The most important summer will be next year.
Baker hopes she’s getting on the must-see list of college coaches. She won’t know for sure, though, until the fall when college coaches, by rule, can start contacting her.
She started to get her name out there last winter when she was named the 5A Player of the Year and Idaho’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
“I think I’ve improved a lot since (the winter),” Baker said. “But I know there’s room for a lot more improvement. I feel a lot more confident, but I’m trying not to let all the awards get to my head.”
Baker will get a chance tonight to see how she stacks up against some of the top players in the area when she plays for the Region team in the 14th annual Jack Blair Memorial AAU All-Star game, which will be played at Lake City High School. Tipoff is at 7:30.
She won’t be on the court when the game begins, though, because of, well, those priorities she spoke of.
Her brother David graduates tonight from Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy. The graduation ceremony begins at 6:30. Baker plans to get to LC as soon as her brother picks up his diploma.
“I should get there in time for the second half,” Baker said. “My family comes first. You have to draw the line somewhere.”
Baker has been to Las Vegas and Phoenix. Her schedule will conclude with a national tournament in Nashville, Tenn., in late July.
She’ll put the basketball away shortly thereafter to accompany her church youth group for a vacation to Orlando, Fla. For now, though, she’s not looking beyond her next tournament.
“I’m definitely going to take it one tournament at a time,” she said. “The next three weeks I’ll be playing with my high school team.”
Baker knows she’ll have to take on a bigger role at LC next year.
“We’re going to need a leader,” Baker said. “I want to be that leader and be a role model to the younger girls.”
Her goal this spring – one that she will continue to work on this summer – has been to expand her shooting and ball-handling skills. While the foundation of her game fits the post bill for high school, she knows she’ll have to be able to play forward, a position requiring a deeper shooting range and ball-handling ability than a post, in college.
“If I can play both inside and outside I could make myself almost unstoppable,” Baker said.
And she hopes that would make her a must-see for college coaches.
Notes
Admission for the game is $5 for adults, $3 for students and senior citizens. … The Region roster includes Richelle Fenenbock and Riki Moreland of LC; Sadie Simon, Lindsey Stark, Kama Griffitts and Deanna Dotts of Coeur d’Alene; Natalie Nichols of Lakeland; Jenny McVeigh of Post Falls; Nikki Nelson of Chewelah; Roni Jo Mielke of Sprague-Harrington; and Megan Teade of Colfax. Darren Taylor of LC is the coach. … The game will consist of two 20-minute halves. Each player will get six fouls and there will be no shot clock. … The Metro team is 13-0.