GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. – Spring football is in full swing and the News4Jax sports team is making stops at high schools across the area in its annual Spring Swing tour.
So close.
The start to Baker County’s football season in 2020 was stellar. The finish was agonizing. And it’s how that season finished that has served as a reminder to players this spring that no detail can be left unchecked.
Finish strong. Close it out. Pay attention to the details.
The Wildcats jumped out to a 5-0 start and finished the season wondering how things ended when they did.
Of course, nothing about 2020 was normal, but that ending was painfully real. The pandemic wiped out spring practice and pushed the regular season back.
Baker County had a sterling season when things actually began and rolled into the fourth round of the state playoffs. It ended in agonizing fashion, a 14-10 loss to Rickards that went down to the wire. The Raiders scored the winning touchdown with just under two minutes to play to end Baker County’s season.
That loss is still mentioned at practice, a teaching moment about fundamentals and attention to details, said linebacker Toby Kinghorn.
This spring, there is a sense of normalcy beginning to filter about.
For third-year coach Kevin Mays, this is his first semi-normal spring with the Wildcats.
He was hired after serving as athletic director at Tohopokeliga High School in 2019 and it was a transition in getting things put in place in a relatively quick time at Baker County. The pandemic scuttled all of spring last year.
“The way the season ended, close game against Rickards last year, they want to take that step and they think they got the guys here to try to make another deep run,” Mays said. “They put the effort in the weight room and workouts and out here at practice. That’s kind of their theme; they had a taste of it, they want to try again.”
They are well-positioned to try it again, too.
Baker County brings back roughly seven starters on both sides of the ball. Kinghorn, Baker County’s leading tackler in 2020, said that the biggest shift is in chemistry.
“How much we’ve grown and just come together as a team,” he said. “Last year we were a little divided. This year, we’ve come together a lot.”
Jamarian Baker should move in to the top back role, a position left vacant by the graduation of four-year player Scooby Graham. Baker said chemistry, familiarity and the bond between players who have grown up together has made the upcoming season the most significant one yet.
“How much we’ve grown, we’ve grown as a team a lot,” Baker said. “Just growing up playing with the same guys for three years now, four years now. We’re ready.”