By Matt Browning
Besides playing for an emerging team, Smoky Valley’s Gabe Baker has a special reason to be excited for his senior season.
“I am excited about a couple things,” Baker said. “We have a very promising team that knows how to work hard even through adversity. I’m also very excited to be able to play my senior year of high school football alongside my twin brother, Ezekiel Baker.”
Spending time working on his body to get ready for the grind of the high school season could be something that Baker would dread, but that isn’t the case.
“I enjoy spending a lot of time in the weight room,” Baker said. “The weight room has become a second home to me since I started high school football.”
Last season, Baker had 15 tackles and one for a loss on his way to an honorable mention all-league selection at defensive end.
He wants to those numbers to go up in 2024, as well become a more dominant offensive lineman.
“A couple of my individual goals for the season would be to increase my number of sacks and tackles for loss on defense,” Baker said. “And on offense I want to focus on maintaining contact with my guy until the whistle and increasing my pancake percentage.”
