Just over a decade since he walked the halls as a student at Black Hills High School, Garrett Baldwin is now pacing the sidelines at his alma mater.
The former assistant at River Ridge has taken over a program that has struggled of late. After an appearance in the state quarterfinals in 2018, the Wolves have won just four games total in two seasons since. A 2010 graduate of BHHS, Baldwin is looking to bring some much-needed energy to the Wolves program.
“We just attack every week,” he said. “The goal is to be 1-0. Hold nothing back … We’re not going into any games this season thinking we don’t have what it takes. The mindset is we’ve been out here preparing, we’ve gotten ourselves right, and we’ve got the will to win, so we’re going to step out there and act like we know what we’re doing and act like we’re going to win the game. That’s the mindset, that’s the only option.”
In the short time Baldwin has been at the helm, his players have already noticed some big differences.
“We’ve got some new stuff rolling, it’s definitely way better than last year,” junior Keagan Rongen said. “Everything is smoother.”
While Baldwin will bring some new schemes and wrinkles on the field, perhaps the biggest difference his team has noticed is how close they’ve become in a short period of time.
Though he was coaching at a different school this past spring, Baldwin worked quickly to get his players to trust the new staff and each other.
“It definitely feels more like a team,” senior Hunter Settles said. “He’s done a really good job of bringing us all together.”
It figures that Baldwin would be able to come in and do so much in so little time. It wasn’t too long ago that he was lacing his cleats up for the Wolves. He walked the same halls, hung out in the same spaces, and put on the same uniform that his players are. And he’s ready to give back.
“It’s nice to come home,” Baldwin said. “I love representing these kids, this school, and this community.
“We set the culture, try to keep the language consistent and compete, and just have fun. At the end of the day, if we’re not having fun, we’re not doing it right.”
Baldwin enters Black Hills at an incredibly competitive time in the 2A Evergreen League, and that’s just how, and his team, likes it. With Tumwater building another state title contender across town, W.F. West challenging, and teams like Rochester and Shelton on the rise, no game is a gimme. With stakes returning this season, like a chance at state and a full league championship, Baldwin’s players are chomping at the bit to have a chance to compete this season.
“We have a ton of competition, everyone’s hyped up,” Rongen said.
Time will tell how Black Hills fares this season, as teams across the state deal with the fallout from an abbreviated spring season, and a COVID-19 pandemic that is still affecting high school athletics even this fall.
But one thing that will remain consistent this season will be Baldwin and his coaching staff, who will bring the energy, enthusiasm, and a new culture to the Wolves this season.
“It’s incredible,” he said. “If we learned anything from last year it was just gaining so much respect for how lucky we are to be out here doing normal football … Having those stakes at the end really does up the competitive level. You really feel like you have something to play for.”
Black Hills opens its season this Saturday with a home game against the Franklin Quakers at 1 p.m.
