Maroon News

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: Sports

PL COACH OF THE YEAR: Baker has turned around the Colgate volleyball program in just two years.

Entering this weekend's Patriot League Tournament, Raider volleyball had a 16-12 overall record and an 11-3 mark in conference play. Colgate ended up finishing in third place and matched the 1999 team's school record for conference wins. That team advanced to the NCAA Tournament and the 2007 Raiders will join them if they beat Army tomorrow night and then either Navy or American in the Championship match.

One can point to many factors responsible for Colgate's turnaround from its 7-20 overall record a mere two years ago. The record-breaking play of junior libero Jackie Adlam has taken countless points off the other team's tally. A deep crop of underclassmen, such as sophomores Kelsea Loveless and Meghan Fanta and first-year Casey Ritt, improved the attack and setting. All four players along with junior Katrina Zawojski have been recognized for a slew of conference awards for their play.

But any discussion has to begin with Head Coach Ryan Baker. The second-year head coach has raised the team's level of play and intensity. Take, for example, the team's come-from-behind win against Navy on the road and near knock-off of top-ranked American.

Baker was a standout volleyball player growing up in New York Mills, a suburb of Utica, and then played four years for Ithaca College's club team. Ithaca's women's volleyball coach, Janet Donovan, noticed Baker's passion for the sport and asked him to become a team manager during his sophomore year.

"I hit balls and set up the net, but later on she let me run drills and be involved in coaching decisions," Baker said in an interview last Friday. "She's been to two Division III Final Fours, won 500 games, but she trusted me and I owe a lot to her for what's happened since."

Even so, Baker graduated from Ithaca in 2003 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He interned for WKTV in Utica during his summers and planned to send tapes to other TV stations to begin a reporting career after college.

But prior to securing a job in that field, the school offered him a position as a graduate assistant on the women's team.

"I got to work with the volleyball team again and they paid for the start of my Master's Degree program [which he completed this past summer]," Baker said. "By now, I was calling serves and running the defense. Coaching had become my dream."

Continued...

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