Former captain of the Ballard High School Basketball team, Brad Baker, is jumpstarting youth basketball in North Seattle by being head coach of the new Ballard Youth Basketball program.

BYB aims to bring together players in seventh through eighth grade with all skill levels from Ballard, Magnolia, Fremont, Queen Anne and Phinney Ridge communities.

“Ideally, this is supposed to be a feeder program. In a perfect world we would have kids from every single age group all playing with other kids their own age so they get to know their teammates by the time they get to BHS,” said Baker.

But there is no such program until BYB was started. The program is designed to start kids out playing together before they get to high school so that they already know their potential teammates and have experience playing with them.

Bakers said that BYB fills a needed experience for players that other schools have already established.

“I hope that it can create a sense of chemistry the gives BHS a better advantage, especially when they play schools with similar programs to BYB. We really just want to even the playing field in that sense, but also help these kids realize the next step and what it really means to play basketball in Ballard.”

Schools like Newport, Woodinville and Bothell already have basketball “feeder” programs like BYB, which Baker says gives them an edge over other programs because players become familiar with their teammates’ abilities.

“Some of these kids in the other schools have been playing with each other since they were in second or third grade and play with those same teammates for years, and once they get to high school it’s second nature. … They have that familiarity; they already know all the plays they are running; they have so much chemistry that is shows once they get there.”

The team practices once a week and has three city and county -wide tournaments throughout the winter.

“The hope is that we can re-up it in the spring and get more kids to join on and add another seventh and eight grade team,” said Baker.

Right now the team is a mix of eighth and seventh graders and one brave sixth grader. Their first tournament was last weekend.

Baker recently volunteered as head coach for a Sunday skills building class for over 40 kids in the fall. The Ballard Youth Basketball team was created out of the Sunday program.

Baker said there are some contributing factors that prevent kids from playing together at an earlier age besides not going to the same elementary and middle schools.

“Youth teams cost money, so some kids might not be able to afford to play year-round, or some play other sports so they may not see the benefit to playing basketball year-round. … For the most part there, really hasn’t been a team or program that can get them together to put them on a path to eventually be playing together at BHS.”

Baker said that a recent Seattle school district boundary change further limited players exposure to one another.

“I’m trying to brings kids together who are from Magnolia and Queen Anne to North Ballard who have never played together. BYB gives them an opportunity to play together consistently before they get to ninth grade.”

Ballard does have summer skills programs at the Ballard Boys and Girls Club like Hoopaholics, but so far there is nothing offered year round.

Michael Johnson, organizer for Hoopaholics, realized the need at the end of last summer and spearheaded the BYB program with the help of David Gerig.

For Johnson, Baker was an obvious choice to be head coach for the new tea. Baker has been involved with basketball in Ballard for the past 15 years through playing and volunteering as a coach.
Johnson coached Baker when he was on the Whitman Wildcats, and Baker led his team to the city championship game.

“I know Michael has a lot of experience running teams and programs so I knew it would be a well represented team,” said Baker.

Also, Baker was a four-year starter on the Ballard Varsity team. Three of those years he was captain of the team and competed in four consecutive KingCo 4A playoff appearances. During his junior season, the Beavers finished second in the league playoff game delivering the Beavers to the 4A State Championship. Ballard had not gone to State championship in shy of a decade.

In addition, Baker was selected for the KingCo Underclassmen All-Star Game along with an All-League honorable mention following his junior campaign. He graduated in 2012. Currently, Brad is studying Finance at the University of Washington.

“He really understands and appreciates the game and has a great way of teaching the game to young players,” said Gerig.

Baker has been coaching youth basketball for the past six years and has coached every age group from elementary school to high school. In addition, he has been evolved with the Hoopaholics camps and Ballard Boys and Girls Club basketball since he was young. He said he used to practice at the Boys and Girls Club when he was a child.

“Coaching has always been something I’ve really enjoyed. Even when I was playing I kind of embraced the leadership role that I was given. … I feel like I have a high enough understanding of the game so I can teach it and benefit people. I didn’t have anything like this when I was coming up. It (BYB) made me think that this would have been something that I could have benefited from and inspires me to give back and help the next class of Ballard kids.”

The BYB team just started playing against other teams, and Baker said that the more games they play the more the players will get familiar with their teammates.

“The kids do have some skills, but really what we are trying to do is make a cohesive team.”

Half of the players are current Hoopacholics and the other half played on the Sunday BYB skills programs from the fall.

“The toughest part for me right now is getting them (players) to see that we don’t need to be two separate clicks here, but rather, we can all come together as one team. The other part is developing their skills and helping them realize that we have a long way to go. We haven’t played any games yet and once we do, that will give them a wake up call. The kids have responded really well to our coaching. It’s been good overall. I think the kids are not only getting comfortable with each other but more comfortable with myself and my assistant coach.”

Jordan Gould, also played varsity at BHS and gradated in 2012. Also,
Eric Taylor (BHS class of 2009) and Nick Onstad “Oz” (class of 2011) are helping with programs.

“These kids are really coachable and come ready to play and to compete, and I think they have a lot of fun at the same tim, so it’s definitely a great group of kids to work with. … As we gain more momentum hopefully more kids will jump on.”