Baker Ready to Balance New Fatherhood and Coaching
By Christy Cabrera Chirinos
HurricaneSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – After recapping the season opener and breaking down how some of his players had performed during the first week of the season, Hurricanes head coach Manny Diaz wrapped up his weekly news conference last Monday with a personnel announcement.
“There is a new arrival on the roster,” Diaz carefully read from his notes. “A little bit small, but feisty at 20 inches long, 8 pounds, 8 ounces, Brady William Baker. Blake Baker and Roslyn Baker welcomed their third child today. So, we’ll add that, we’ll get the depth chart out next week and let you know exactly where Brady William Baker will line up.”
In a hospital room not far from Miami’s campus, Hurricanes defensive coordinator Blake Baker and his wife Roslyn laughed as they watched the clip from Diaz’s news conference, a clip that Baker described as “classic Manny” and featured back-and-forth speculation about what position little Brady, who already has a new Turnover Chain onesie, might play.
It was a welcomed moment of levity for the Baker family given all that had transpired recently, including not only Brady’s delivery, but the fact that just days prior, a very-pregnant Roslyn had traveled to Orlando for the Hurricanes’ nerve-racking game against Florida.
“After the game, when everything was over and done with, that was the first thing that went into my mind: ‘I hope she didn’t get excited and go into labor,'” Baker said. “I shot her a text and the baby was still in there, so that was good.”
As the Hurricanes turn their focus to not only preparing for Saturday night’s ACC opener against North Carolina but the season beyond, Baker joked that some of his late-night film sessions might now include baby bonding time and bottle duty, too.
While the Bakers already have two children in 4-year-old Anderson and 2-year-old Byron, neither were born during football season. The coach is now in uncharted territory.
He feels confident, though, that with the support system he and Roslyn have, he’ll be able to balance the responsibilities that come with not only having a new baby at home but coaching a defense that has been among the nation’s best in recent seasons.
Already, Baker says, both his parents and Roslyn’s parents have been there for the growing family. Diaz has pledged his support, and so too, have Stephanie Diaz and the rest of the wives of the Hurricanes’ coaching staff.
Even Baker’s players say they want to help, maybe not so much with babysitting per se, but in their own ways.
“I mean, we can take some of the stress off his shoulders,” said senior linebacker Michael Pinckney. “We’ve got to make sure we’re on our P’s and Q’s in our meetings and all the things that we do in the film room, make sure everybody’s lining up doing what we’ve got to do. That takes some of the pressure off of him in terms of things they have to correct as coaches.”
For Baker, who previously worked with Diaz at both Louisiana Tech and Texas before the two reunited at Miami earlier this year, having that support has been crucial, especially as he spent a significant amount of time with Roslyn at the hospital in the days after Brady’s birth.
“There are a lot of coaches out there who may say ‘family,’ but they don’t necessarily show it. For [Diaz and Stephanie Diaz] to both support, 100 percent, knowing that family comes first, it’s really a sense of relief,” Baker said. “Knowing the fact that if something is the matter or maybe I need to attend to something, it’s not a dreaded conversation I have to have with Coach. It’s more like, ‘Hey, Coach, I have to go,’ and he’s cool with it.
“And the players, they’re funny. They’re all calling me ‘Minivan Baker.’ They’ve been awesome. They’re part of our family, too. They were supportive and watching film even though I wasn’t there [the day Brady was born]. They get it. They’re a mature group and they’ve been really good about it.”
Still, even with all the help he’s received – and will continue to receive in the coming months – Baker doesn’t expect he won’t face some challenges.
Like all new parents, he knows there will be a learning curve. And he doesn’t expect things will always go as planned, a sentiment pretty much every parent, everywhere, can appreciate.
“This is a new experience, so there may be some trial by error,” Baker said. “It’s probably going to be tougher than I think. But, [Roslyn] is awesome. She really is. She’s a rock star and she gets it, but I’m going to try and balance the two as best I can.
He then laughed, “There will be times I’m sure I’ll screw it up, but that’s part of it, too.”
