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Aaron Baker walks into a difficult challenge this year as a new football coach in the uber-tough Mountain State Athletic Conference. Baker, 32, takes over at Greenbrier East, becoming the youngest football head coach in school history and the first alum to serve as head coach. East hasn't experienced much success lately, going 12-58 over the past seven seasons, with its last winning record (6-4) coming in 2001. But the Spartans are banking on the enthusiasm of Baker, who moves over following a successful stint at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School. "We need to win to turn the program around,'' Baker said. "That's been a little tough. I think the kids are buying into what we're doing, and are excited about what we're doing. That's the big thing of it - getting the kids on board.'' Baker hasn't had a tough sell installing his new spread offense and attacking defense - big changes for the Spartans, who ran a low-risk ball-control attack the past few seasons under Mike Michael. "They're really enjoying putting the ball in the air now,'' Baker said. "We want to be aggressive on offense, take the ball downfield and score. Then we want to put pressure on opposing teams and get the ball back. We're changing things up a little bit, and coming after people on defense.'' Baker said sophomore-to-be Clay Ayers has a chance to be "a heck of a quarterback'' in his new system. Ayers completed 23-of-68 passes last year for 624 yards and four touchdowns. More than 40 players have shown up for each of East's summer workout sessions so far, and Baker hopes to keep building momentum on the team and with the fans. "We want to make as many people interested in the program as possible,'' he said. "Down through the years, we've lost a little bit of support and lost a few fans. With our road schedule being close and everything, I think we'll do that. We've generated interest so far. It's been fun, been interesting getting things turned around. Now we need to win a few games.'' East, which generally logs more miles on country roads than any other school in the MSAC because of its remote location in Greenbrier County, actually has about as favorable a road schedule as possible. Its trips include relatively short jaunts to Woodrow Wilson, Bluefield, Alleghany (Va.) and Princeton. The one trip of any distance is Hurricane. Next Game: >All-Time
Series: Greenbrier East leads, 2-0.
Lincoln County High School is a fourth-year
consolidation of Hamlin, Duval, Guyan
Valley, and Harts. The two schools scheduled
a two-game, non-MSAC series in 2007 and
2008, before signing a two-year extension
for 2009 and 2010. >Last
Meeting: August 29, 2008 at Fairlea –
Greenbrier East 16, Lincoln County 8. The
Spartans won back-to-back season openers for
the first time since the 1992 and 1993
seasons with the home victory against
Lincoln County. The Greenbrier East defense
was the key as the Spartans stopped the
Panthers four times inside the
five-yard-line. Brent Robertson and Ben
McMillion scored touchdowns as the Spartans
started at 1-0 on the 2008 season. >WRON Radio/Internet Coverage: The game will be broadcast
live at 7pm on The Bear WRON 103.1-FM and on the Internet at http://www.wron.com/GEHSaudio.htm, a service of Web Creations & Graphics (www.wcgnet.net). Free Physicals July 23
Any athlete interesting in playing sports at
Greenbrier East High School is eligible for a
free athletic physical examination at the Robert
C. Byrd Clinic in Lewisburg on Thursday, July 23
from 4pm - 6pm. No athlete is eligible to
participate in practice without a current
physical. For more information, or to obtain an
official WVSSAC physical form, contact GEHS
Athletic Director Brian Miluk at 304/647-6464
(Ext. 37)
Aaron Baker hired as football
coach
By Dave Morrison
Aaron Baker grew up in Greenbrier
County with a dream. Spartan Football Radio Broadcasts Now Available Worldwide on WRON.com Football season is around the corner and, as always, WRON-FM will be following the Spartans all season long. Our GEHS broadcasts are now available in Windows Media format. This is not a live stream, but files that can be streamed or downloaded at any time you want to listen. These are edited versions of our actual broadcasts with Jeff Campbell and Stan Unroe. These files have been edited to make the file size as small as possible while maintaining good audio quality. There are no commercials and no half-time show. Each game will be added as soon as we can get it prepared. To listen, simply click on the game you want in the list below. If Windows Media Player is the default for .WMA files, the audio should begin streaming in a few seconds. If not, you may be prompted to run or save the file. If this happens, you will have to download the file before you can listen. You can save it to your hard drive for later listening or click "Run" and playback will begin at the end of the download. The file size is listed so you can estimate the download time for the file. WRON will be providing these "Webcasts" of all this season's games! This webcast will be available only at www.wron.com and can be accessed directly at this address: |
All Varsity Games
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