When the HBU Huskies pursued Ka’Darius Baker as one of the recruits for their inaugural football season, they expected that he would bring the intangibles that come along with state-championship success when he arrived on campus.
Now, they know he will also bring some tangible hardware as evidence of that success when he suits up in the fall.
Baker, from the state-champion Navasota Rattlers, joined Stephenville’s Tyler Jones to share offensive player of the year honors on the 62nd Annual Collin Street Bakery/Texas Sports Writers Association's Class 3A All-State Football Team.
Baker helped lead Navasota to the Class 3A Division II state title with a 39-3 win over Gilmer in December. Along the way, he passed for 4,411 yards and 55 touchdowns and rushed for five touchdowns. He was selected as the Class 3A first-team all-state quarterback by the TSWA.
The 5-10, 185-lb quarterback had also earned TSWA first-team honors as a junior after passing for 3,074 yards and 40 touchdowns along with 10 rushing touchdowns in 2011.
According to TSWA’s Robert Cessna, the executive sports editor of the Bryan-College Station Eagle, Baker and Jones dominated the voting among the organization’s membership. They were named on every ballot submitted except four.
Baker was one of 21 student-athletes that HBU and head football coach Vic Shealy signed to national letters of intent on February 6. At the time, Shealy expressed his excitement over signing Baker and the other recruits.
“This is the foundation and the legacy the program is built on,” Shealy stated. “It’s a very athletic, competitive group.”
“We would probably be playing against them somewhere down the road if they had not chosen to come to HBU,” he continued, “because they were a very coveted group among the Southland Conference.”
HBU begins spring practice on March 19 in preparation for their inaugural season in the fall.
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