Baker retires after 44 years, 245 wins
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Retirement is often associated with a celebration and the retiree often speaks about relief from the long years of work and plans for rest and relaxation.
For longtime Central and Williamsburg head football coach Dave Baker, it is the opposite. He's losing one of the loves of his life.
Baker reluctantly announced his retirement Friday with a letter to Central High School, and the head football coaching position was posted later in the day.
"This isn't a happy day for me," Baker said. "It's difficult for me to come to the realization that I can not effectively lead the program anymore. That is the real problem. It's not a happy day that I do this. It's a very difficult and sad day for me."
Baker said the decision not to come back for his 45th year as a head coach had a lot to do with getting older.
"Mainly age, medical and health issues that have to be addressed," Baker said. "It was just getting to be very difficult, and I felt that eventually it would be a problem health wise, and it's time."
Central offensive coordinator A.J. Hoenstine, who was the Scarlet Dragons' head coach before Baker took over in 2011, said he would not be applying for the now-open head coaching job due to not being able to commit the time required for the job.
"As advertised, we're accepting applications through Feb. 16," Central athletic director Stacy Kuster said. "Obviously, it may take longer than that or we may be able to fill it within that timeline. We'll make sure we have the right candidate in place before moving forward."
Baker is the all-time winningest coach at Central with a record of 119-42 in 13 seasons.
"Dave is a great guy and is a fantastic coach," Kuster said. "He's had an excellent career during his coaching tenure here at Central High School. He's been here for 16 years, starting as a head coach in 2011 after being an assistant. As a head coach, he only had two losing seasons. Pretty impressive. He's coached the sport of football for four-plus decades, more than 40 years. He obviously was good at what he did, and whoever steps in is going to have some pretty big shoes to fill."
Baker said he doesn't have a particular person in mind for his replacement.
"There are people there who are certainly capable, but whether they want to or not, it's up to them," Baker said. "I don't have any recommendations for one person over another. The people we have there are excellent, and they could if they wanted to. I don't know if they want to or not, but I believe they could take over the program and do it well."
The Scarlet Dragons went undefeated in the regular season and won the inaugural Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship game over Richland and a District 6 Class 3A championship last fall.
"The program is in good shape," Baker said. "You can't expect that you are going to be undefeated every year. So, to expect that next year's team will be as good, you don't know. That's up to them, but I do think that we have good players and a couple good classes coming that will step up and fill in and make their own identity."
Baker's Central teams won seven District 6 championships, two in 2A and five in 3A, including the past four seasons. The Scarlet Dragons made it to the PIAA semifinals under Baker several times, including back-to-back appearances in 2021 and 2022, but never made it to the state championship game.
"The district championships, for me, were high points," Baker said. "We never really got to the point where we thought we possibly could. We never got to the state championship game or won the (PIAA semifinal) game. We fell short of that, and it's disappointing to me. I take responsibility for not leading us to that."
Those who coached with Baker said his legacy went far beyond wins and losses.
"He's such a class act," Hoenstine said. "I know I'm a better human being because of him and so many others are as well. He's kind of a no-nonsense guy and has a great sense of humor. We had a lot of fun years together and had some good years and made some good runs. He's definitely won a lot of football games, but more than that, he was a great example to the kids. He never got too high or too low. He was always even keel, and I really respected that about him. He will be missed."
Baker finished his career with a record of 245-211-11 over 44 seasons. During his time coaching Central, the Scarlet Dragons built a rivalry with Blair County foe Tyrone.
"I loved competing against him, because you knew you were going against the best," Tyrone football coach John Franco said. "I think the feeling was mutual. We just enjoyed the competition as the two oldest coaches in the area. I would tell him every year not to retire, because that makes me the oldest coach. He would laugh and say he was going year by year, but I'll tell you what -- you aren't going to find a more first-class coach anywhere than Dave Baker. Tremendous for our profession, and he was a top-notch defensive coach. His defenses were always the toughest we faced."
Williamsburg years
The first 31 of his seasons were spent coaching in Williamsburg, where he often got the most out of teams with very small rosters.
"The one thing you learned at Williamsburg was a lot of patience and that there was going to be a lot of disappointment," Baker said. "But good came with that bad. Sometimes there was success, but there were times without success. You had to have patience and work your way through and maintain the team even though it wasn't winning and probably wasn't going to win, you had to maintain the team's identity and get them to play as hard as they could and keep the team working together and working with you."
Baker had two teams that had undefeated regular seasons at Williamsburg in 1984 and 1989, but some of his best memories with the Blue Pirates came from teams with losing records.
"We had a number of championship teams and two teams that were undefeated and excellent teams," Baker said. "But also, at that level, there were certain times where in certain games that we won games we probably shouldn't have won. It didn't happen often, but when it did happen, that was a real highlight for a team that wasn't doing well to win a tough game against a tough opponent maybe away from home. Those are the games that stand out to me."
It was also at Williamsburg where Baker, a Central graduate, fell in love with coaching.
"It was a little-by-little thing," Baker said. "I started coaching a lower level at junior high. As I progressed through, I started to get more involved in it and liked it more. I would say at about age 40 to 50 is your peak years as far as your interest in putting your whole self into it."
Though Baker finished with a mark of 126-169-11 at Williamsburg, the Blue Pirates were competitive in most of his seasons at the helm.
"At one time, they were the smallest school in the state with a football team," Hoenstine said. "To keep that program afloat and competitive most years, nothing else needs to be said. It takes a special person to do that. He definitely left his mark."
Williamsburg went into a football co-op with Juniata Valley in 2021, but Baker said he knew the move was necessary.
"I saw it as a way they could continue to have football," Baker said. "They just didn't have enough players and were always going to have trouble with declining enrollment. Even though it was hard to see, it was good to see they could still participate at Juniata Valley."
Baker's last season at Williamsburg was in 2001. He joined Hoenstine's staff at Central in 2008 and then got an opportunity to become the head coach three years later.
"I have known Coach Baker all my life. I grew up with his son, Andy, and he coached me in Legion baseball for a little bit," Hoenstine said. "I was very excited when he came back to Central. He brought a lot to our program. He took the head coaching position when I stepped down, and I was fortunate enough to have him ask me to come back and be the offensive coordinator, and we had some really good years. It was always about the kids with Coach Baker and never about him."
Baker’s year-by-year record
1971: Williamsburg 0-9-0
1972: Williamsburg 4-4-1
1973: Williamsburg 4-5-0
1974: Williamsburg 2-5-2
1975: Williamsburg 6-3-0
1976: Williamsburg 7-3-0
1977: Williamsburg 8-2-0
1978: Williamsburg 4-6-0
1979: Williamsburg 4-6-0
1980: Williamsburg 7-3-0
1981: Williamsburg 2-7-1
1982: Williamsburg 6-3-1
1983: Williamsburg 4-5-0
1984: Williamsburg 10-0-1
1985: Williamsburg 4-6-0
1986: Williamsburg 4-5-1
1987: Williamsburg 4-5-2
1988: Williamsburg 3-6-0
1989: Williamsburg 12-1-0
1990: Williamsburg 8-2-1
1991: Williamsburg 3-7-0
1992: Williamsburg 5-5-0
1993: Williamsburg 3-7-0
1994: Williamsburg 0-8-1
1995: Williamsburg 0-10-0
1996: Williamsburg 3-6-0
1997: Williamsburg 1-9-0
1998: Williamsburg 3-7-0
1999: Williamsburg 2-7-0
2000: Williamsburg 1-9-0
2001: Williamsburg 2-8-0
2011: Central 5-5-0
2012: Central 8-3-0
2013: Central 11-3-0
2014: Central 9-3-0
2015: Central 13-2-0
2016: Central 12-2-0
2017: Central 8-4-0
2018: Central 3-7-0
2019: Central 4-7-0
2020: Central 8-1-0
2021: Central 14-1-0
2022: Central 12-3-0
2023: Central 12-1-0
Total 245-211-11