Baker posted a 42-34 record with the Middies. They were 19-7 and Greater Miami Conference co-champions his first year, 12-13 and fourth-place finishers his second year, and 11-14 and seventh-place finishers in 2015-16.
Baker was an All-American player at Dunbar High School who went on to star at Ohio State. He was also the head coach at Trotwood-Madison for three seasons.
Baker could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Nor could incoming Middletown athletic director Aaron Zupka, who officially starts his new job July 1, but will no doubt be involved in the hiring process.
The name on everybody’s mind seems to be Scott Kerr, a 1990 Middletown graduate who’s been coaching at Purcell Marian the last two seasons.
Kerr, 43, was the other finalist for the job when Baker got hired and also coached at Clark Montessori during Zupka’s tenure as athletic director there.
“Obviously it would be a huge honor to be the head coach at Middletown. I think it would be for anybody,” Kerr said Tuesday. “I was a finalist the last time, so I know why people would assume, and you put the Aaron Zupka connection in there and people start to connect dots that may or may not be there.
“There’s a lot of other factors that go into taking a job at a place like Middletown. It would be awesome to coach at my alma mater. It would be even more awesome for me because it’s the last year of Wade E. Miller Gym, which to me would be a cooler thing than coaching in the brand-new arena they’re going to open.
“People say, ‘Well, you’re a shoo-in.’ Thank you. I appreciate the compliment. But that’s putting the cart way ahead of the horse. I’m still the head coach at Purcell Marian High School right now.
“At a school like Purcell where we don’t have feeders, kids come from all over. Right or wrong, some of those guys come to play for me. I feel bad for them because they get put in a bad spot when there’s a lot of conjecture. Purcell has been great to me. I don’t want to harm that school.”
Kerr is a big Zupka fan and said Middletown people will love him. Zupka was the Clark AD for the last three years of Kerr’s six-year run as head coach.
“Aaron’s awesome,” Kerr said. “Whoever he hires, Aaron will make sure that he gets the right guy to put that program back where it probably should be.”
Kerr teaches social studies and American history at the Live Oaks Career Campus in Milford. Live Oaks is part of the Great Oaks system, and this is his 21st year in education.
His coaching career has included three head jobs: Three years at Mariemont (28-35), six years at Clark (96-42) and two years at Purcell (40-12).
So will he apply for the Middletown job?
“I don’t want to say that I’m going to pursue or hunt the job down,” Kerr said. “If they call, I will listen. That’s probably the best way I can say it.”
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