After taking over a team that won just nine games the previous season, Angelo State women’s coach Kevin Baker knew his first season in San Angelo would be quite a challenge, especially with just three returning players.
 
      But by mid-January, Angelo State already collected their ninth win – ironically enough in a home victory over West Texas A&M, a team Baker knew a thing or 12 about.
 
      One of the reasons that made him such an attractive hire for ASU in the first place was his Lone Star Conference ties, having spent five years at WT as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for a program that won three straight LSC Championships from 2008-10.
 
      That experience helped land Baker the head coaching job at UT-Tyler before being named head coach of the Rambelles last year.
 
      Fast forward to this weekend in Allen, and Baker has his new team on the cusp of claiming its first LSC Championship in 11 years. Along the way, he took a team with 11 new players and won 21 games, finished second in the LSC regular-season standings and if that’s not enough, this new group of players and coaches took home some hardware at Tuesday’s awards banquet.
 
      Baker was named LSC Coach of the Year, while his Jasmine Prophet, the one player he took with him from UT-Tyler, was named Player of the Year. And Taylor Dorsey, another one of Baker’s additions, was LSC Newcomer of the Year.
 
      However, Baker insists his focus wasn’t so much on the abundance of newcomers, but the three holdovers.
 
       “I didn’t want to do anything that is going to be disrespectful to those seniors,” Baker said. “Yeah, we brought in new players but this is their last chance. I told them, I’m bringing in these players to help you be successful. That’s how we sold it to them. That’s how it has to be. We needed them. We needed senior leadership. So, I’m happy to have seniors that bought into that.”
 
      And they bought into a lot more than that, often relying on Baker’s experience in the LSC, from scouting reports against some veteran coaches such as TWU’s Beth Jillson, the head coach he just defeated in Friday’s semifinal round to even simple things such as what to expect during long road trips to Portales, N.M. or Kingsville, Texas.
 
       “Believe me, the five years at WT have helped me with this team in what to expect,” Baker said. “None of them have really ever been here. It’s one of those things, as a coach, you’re looking for any little nugget you can help them with. Sometimes it is knowing where to go, where to walk, the little things that people take for granted.”
 
      One thing Baker didn’t take for granted was the strength and parity of the LSC, which is one reason he remains pleasantly surprised by his team’s success.
 
       “When you come in as a new head coach, all you really want is to put a competitive team on the floor,” Baker said. “That’s really the goal. Can we be competitive in this tough conference? That was my only goal. If I would say this was our goal to get the championship that wouldn’t be true. We talk about it. But to me, this conference is way too tough and you’re not going to walk right through it.”
 
      But Baker gives all the credit to his kids, which have continued to overcome adversity all year, including this weekend in Allen, where many of the players are fighting flu-like symptoms.
 
       “Basically what has happened, we are seeing this weekend, their toughness and resiliency,” he said. “Our kids are sick, but still gutting out wins over tough opponents. This weekend is a capsule as what the whole season has been. We’re just hanging on.”
 
      Still, Baker has his team one win away from hanging up a championship banner and cutting down the nets.