The defining season of Baker’s 20-year career may have come in 2003. Expectations were running high as the team was a consensus top-15 preseason ranking and was coming off its second Sweet 16 appearance in three years. After getting off to a rocky 1-4 start, Baker coached his team to a 17-8-1 final record and the program’s first College Cup appearance. “1-4 to the Final Four” is how the 2003 Seminoles are remembered. Baker was named the Soccer America National Coach of the Year for his efforts.
In what would end up as his final year as the Seminole head coach, Baker lead his 2004 Florida State team to a 12-5-3 record, including a 1-0 win against Georgia in Tallahassee.
Competing in arguably the toughest women’s soccer conference in the country, Baker’s team finished in the top three of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings three of his last four years and reached the ACC Tournament Championship in 2001 and 2003.
Over his six-year FSU career, Baker’s squads finished in the top-20 five straight times, including a top-five showing in 2003. The Seminoles reached the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2000 and 2002 and they registered 18 wins against ranked teams. He also coached all four of the highest-scoring teams in Florida State history. His Seminole squads hold school records for wins, winning percentage, best ACC winning percentage, most ACC wins, most goals scored and fewest goals allowed.
Baker began his coaching career at Division III North Carolina Wesleyan in 1989. Not only was he the head coach of the women’s soccer program, but also took on the jobs of Sports Information Director for 12 sports and Head Groundskeeper for soccer.
In five years at NC Wesleyan, Baker led his team to a record of 45-21-4, twice earning Dixie Conference Coach of the Year honors. He coached the Lady Bishops to three Div. III NCAA Tournament appearances and three top-10 finishes as well. In 1991, Baker was named the National Soccer Coaches of America (NSCAA) Division III South Region Coach of the Year. Baker was inducted into the North Carolina Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.
Following his success at Wesleyan, Baker made the jump to Division I as he became the head women’s soccer coach at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1994. Over the next five years, Baker compiled a 42-37-5 record in at the Quaker helm.
In just his second year at the Penn head coach, his team posted the best record in the program’s history and registered its first-ever winning season, going 8-6-2. Just two years later, his 1997 Quaker squad became one of the most successful in school history. The team recorded double-digit wins for the first time, going 14-5-0, and had its first in-conference winning season with a 5-2-0 mark. The crowning achievement came in the postseason, when the Quakers captured the school’s first Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship. For his successes, Baker was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
Under Baker’s direction, Penn saw its players receive All-Ivy League, All-District and All-Region selections for the first time in the program’s history. Several of the offensive and defensive records that were established during Baker’s time as head coach still remain in the top five in the Quaker record book.
Following another winning season off 11-5-1 in 1998, Baker was hired to become the second coach in the short history of the Florida State program, taking over for Heather Kerby-Nelson.
Along every stop during his coaching career, a significant trend has developed — Baker’s ability to turn a program around and set it on a winning course. Baker has of course shown a knack for taking a struggling team and making it a winner during his tenure. But one fact that may be even more impressive is that he has always been able to leave that team in a situation conducive to future success.
Since his departure from North Carolina Wesleyan, the Lady Bishops have gone on to win seven conference crowns, including six in a row from 1996-2001. At Penn, the Quakers became ECAC Champions in 2000 and won the Ivy League in 2001. Finally, the 2005 Florida State Seminoles made a return trip to the College Cup before falling to national runner-up UCLA.
Baker is also an integral member of the US National Team program and served as the interim head coach for the U-17 National Team after assisting head coach David Smith with the newly formed team. He has also assisted U-19 National Team head coach Tracey Leone on numerous occasions at the Arco Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif., preparing the team for the inaugural U-19 FIFA World Championships. Baker helped the U-19 National Team prepare for a match against the Mexican National Team and for a European tour in 2001. He recently traveled to help prep the full national team for an Olympic friendly versus the Australian National Team that Baker’s squad faced three times during the summer of 2004. He served as the head coach for the Region III girl’s Olympic Development Program (ODP) and was named an assistant coach for the 2000 U-16 Women’s National Team.
Baker has attended the South Region ODP camps since 1990 and has a total of 18 years experience at all levels of the ODP. Prior to working with the U-16 team, he assisted head coach Lauren Gregg with the U-21 Women’s National Team for three consecutive years. He served four years at the U-14 state level in North Carolina and was the 1996 U-17 ODP state coach for Eastern Pennsylvania. Baker coached the U-16 and U-18 ODP South Regional camps for eight years and was the assistant coach for the U-17 South Region team from 1991-93. Baker was also the U.S. South Region amateur coach for the five years where he received the national coach of the year award in 1994.
Baker received his Bachelor of Arts from Otterbein College in 1989 as a double major in Radio & Television Broadcasting and Journalism with a minor in Public Relations. He graduated with a 3.67 GPA and was a four-year starter for the men’s soccer team. Baker was named team captain as a junior and senior. He was a member of the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) All-Academic Team from 1986- 89, was a first-team All-Conference selection in 1989 and played on three OAC Championship squads. Baker played soccer for 11 years in England and Germany while his father was stationed overseas with the U.S. Air Force.