Redlands East Valley High's first coach Chuck Baker remembered by peers, friends

Former Redlands East Valley High's teacher and head football coach Chuck Baker, shown here with quarterback Russell Blackmon, died Tuesday at the age of 65. (John Valenzuela/Staff Photographer)

REDLANDS -- His students and his student-athletes always came first -- that is what friends and co-workers of Chuck Baker are saying.

Baker -- a longtime educator at then-Clement Junior High and Redlands High School, and Redlands East Valley High School's first football coach -- died Tuesday.

Baker was 65. He leaves behind his wife, Patty, sons Jerry and Michael and daughter Kelly.

"When you think of Chuck you really think of how he really liked working with the kids," REV Principal John Maloney said. "When he talked to the kids, it was sincere. He really meant it."

Baker was REV's first football coach, spending the 1997, 1998 and 1999 seasons with the Wildcats. REV struggled in those first three seasons.

"We got thrown into the Citrus Belt League to play with the big boys right away and that was tough," said Sandy Crumrine, who coached Baker's freshman team for two seasons before joining Baker's varsity staff in 1999. "He was always out there battling, but we just weren't there yet and it ate at him a bit, because he cared about the kids."

Crumrine added, "When it came down to it, he was all business but he loved life. He was tough but had that kind side too. He is really gonna be missed."

Baker taught at Clement Junior High in the 1980s.

"The main thing I remember about him is that he was always fair and consistent," said Daniel Madrid, a P.E. student of Baker's in 1982. "He pushed us."

Madrid

said Baker's P.E. class was tough but in the long run it paid off.

"It was good," Madrid said. "It was always tough. But you will not do more if you are not pushed or have high expectations of you."

"He was here for three seasons and will be fondly remembered as a member of our Wildcat Family," REV athletic director Rhonda Fouch said. "He and his wife Patty, who was our cheer adviser at the time, made a great partnership at Redlands East Valley. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in the Baker family."

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Source: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/ci_21318547/developing-chuck-baker-has-died?source=rss_viewed

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