Justin Baker: Touchdown Maker, Cal Kind of Guy
Ask the Cal football coaches about recruiting, and they'll agree on one thing, that they need 'a fit.' What that means is somewhat nebulous, and every single football coach in college football will talk about needing a fit, but Cal is a little different. Head coach Justin Wilcox discussed it a couple weeks ago when talking about Elijah Hicks, Chase Garbers, and Zach Angelillo either raising money or working in their communities to help out during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
"How those guys can think on their own," Wilcox said, "they have really fantastic intentions. That goes a long, long way and that carries over, whether it’s in the locker room, down on campus, or if it’s 3rd and 6. Those things matter, and it should make us all feel proud, anybody affiliated with Cal, myself, the people associated with the program and the institution, I like to think it makes all of us proud."
Justin Baker is one of those guys. The Kennedy Catholic (Burien, WA) wideout signed with Cal in December and made headlines in February, organizing a protest of two Kennedy Catholic teachers being forced out due to their sexual orientation and their intent to marry their same-sex partners.
Baker agreed to an interview about how he's preparing for Cal, organizing a protest, and more.
TT: First things first, how are you dealing with everything right now?
JB: To be completely honest, it is not bad at all. It sucks not being abe to leave the house too much, but being able to wake up whenever you want, to have your own schedule, and to have more time throughout the day to yourself, I think it has been helpful personally. School can sometimes be really stressful, and we’re still getting assigned homework and everything, but to be able to do it whenever I want and in the comfort of my room or my bed, it’s really nice.
TT: With that, how are you preparing for Cal?
JB: For the past four/five weeks, I’ve been working out, six days a week, five in the morning, 5-8. There’s physical therapy (at Ford Sports Performance), and we’re allowed to do physical therapy there because that’s essential.
TT: It seems like you’ve managed to develop a pretty good routine throughout this…
JB: Well, I mean I’m really productive in some areas, but less productive in some areas. I’ll have that three hour workout every day, then I’ll come home, play video games (editor’s note: I do this without the workout) and sit around, but I’ve been trying to read more in addition to doing my homework now. I’m reading the autobiography of Malcolm X, I’m really enjoying that and hoping I can get a few more books done.
TT: Have you managed to talk to some of the current players a bit, though you’re not set to be on campus until the summer?
JB: Specifically, Cam Bynum, I’ve been talking to him a lot. He’s super open about his faith, and that’s important to me, he’s overall just a great role model, so I’ve been talking to him, asking for advice, how he did things when he was a freshman, what to expect and how to excel. Makai Polk, that’s my guy, he was my host on my official visit, we’re real close and he’s also a receiver.
TT: How has it been getting to know coach Toler a bit more during this time?
JB: It has been great, coach Toler is my guy. It was fun to be on the official (visit) with him and I was down there for a second time in (the final weekend of January) with my mom. We were with coach Toler the entire time, with his wife and his little son. It was cool getting to know him, and we have Zoom calls once a week with him and the entire incoming receiving core.
TT: On a more serious note, you organized a protest at your high school about the two teachers who had been fired, can you walk me through the situation and how everything happened?
JB: Basically, one day after school, a lot of students were still at school, seniors and juniors getting ready for what we call the ‘Freshman retreat,’ it’s a retreat we put on for the freshmen, to get them to be more comfortable with the school, to meet new friends. All the teachers had some emergency meeting, which was super uncommon. They all walked out, I happened to be walking through the hallway when they started leaving, and I saw some of the teachers crying. I saw one, and I asked what happened. He says two of the teachers were essentially let go. That was a Thursday, we didn’t have school on Friday, and they had to be gone by Monday. It didn’t make any sense at all. We were like ‘how could this happen at all?’ Ms. Beattie, she was the soccer coach and my health teacher, and she was a great soccer coach, always nice when I saw her in the hallway. It was crazy, because that was the last person you’d have thought something like this could have happened to. (Michelle Beattie and Paul Danforth, were the two teachers who “resigned” at Kennedy Catholic in February)
TT: How did the idea to organize a protest because of this come about?
JB: I’m a part of ASB (student government), and we had to do something. There were so many students that would help as well, and we weren’t really sure if we could have a protest. My ASB director, she went to Seattle Prep, which is a school that’s right by my school, it’s a private school as well, and something like that happened at Eastside Catholic and at Seattle Prep, so she led a protest as well. The person that was in her position to us, told her that ‘if you do this, you might have to leave the school.’ She did it, it was this whole big thing, and in the end she got to stay. She was like ‘I don’t know what could happen to you guys if you do this, but if you do it together, you have to stand up for what you believe in.’ We started making group chats and trying to organize as much as we could to get everyone to support the cause.
TT: What has come about from the protest, will the teachers be rehired?
JB: I don’t think the teachers will ever be rehired and I don’t think they’d necessarily want to come back to that environment. Off of school emails and stuff, our president retired. I don’t know what really happened to our principal, but that job reopened for people to apply to.
TT: On a different note, you’ve been involved, trying to get more guys to Cal, most recently Josh McCarron.
JB: That’s my little bro, it’s going really well, I know him through FSP, I met him this year in training, and I always can respect someone who works really hard. If I don’t know anything about you, if you work really hard then I automatically have a level of respect for you. We were doing some drills and he was trying to push me a little bit. We started talking from there, and he got a Cal offer a few weeks later, I was like ‘c’mon little bro! Your move!’
TT: He noted that seeing you go to Cal raised his opinion of the school as well…
JB: I think it makes people more comfortable when you know someone is going to the school. For me, knowing Trey (Paster) was going there was cool for me, we’d talk all the time, now DJ (Rogers) as well. I’ve obviously become friends with everyone in my class, but knowing someone gives you that little bit of comfort, knowing that you’re not going to be walking into this new stage of life, this new school, this new environment completely by yourself, not knowing anyone.
TT: On the Cal topic, have you talked to coach (Bill) Musgrave a bit now that he’s the OC?
JB: I have, he’s amazing, he’s the best. When I saw he got hired, I thought ‘that’s so awesome, how did we make that happen, he’s a legend.’ With the receivers he’s coached, the players he’s coached in general, it’s so cool. Knowing he’s coached Amari Cooper, Amari Cooper is one of the nastiest receivers in the NFL, and knowing he was helping to develop him. Coach Musgrave, he knows what he’s talking about and he knows how to get us to the next level.