With ‘lazy’ days behind him, Baker giving Union a big lift

Kayleen Cubbal

New Castle News

Every time Stacy Robinson ran into Steve Antuono, the conversation went just about the same.

“He would tell me, ‘you should see Seth Baker,’ ” Robinson said, “and I would say, ‘I’ve seen Seth Baker.’

“And then,” Antuono joined in with a laugh, “I would say, ‘no, Stace, you haven’t seen Seth Baker.’ ”

The bantering came to a screeching halt in the spring when the Union High football coach ran into Baker.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Robinson said. “It was Seth’s face ... but it was somebody else’s body.”

And so it went with one of biggest turnarounds — both physically and emotionally — that teachers and coaches alike at Union High ever have witnessed.

A BAD START

Baker’s story actually started about a decade ago, when he was playing youth baseball.

“I would go to a couple of practices and quit,” said the soft-spoken straight shooter. “Nobody really challenged me on it, so I kept doing it.”

Starting and quitting became a way of life for Baker and he began to struggle with commitment in his everyday life.

It reached its pinnacle when Baker began playing football for Union. He reported to practice as a seventh-grader, only to quit days later. He did the same thing in eighth grade. Then ninth. And 10th.

His lack of commitment transferred to the classroom, where he began to miss days on top of days.

“My biggest problem was that I was lazy,” he said. “It started with things like I would take my shower the night before so I didn’t have to get up early to take one before school. Then since my mom had already gone to work when my alarm went off, I would just shut it off and go back to sleep.”

Union athletic director Bob Natale watched the decline with sadness.

“Seth was making poor choices and it bothered me, because I could see a good kid inside of him,” he said. “Seth had a knock on him that he would quit things and for a long time, he didn’t prove anybody wrong.”

Baker’s grades suffered and he all-but stopped going to school, missing about 70 days as a sophomore. When he was there, he found himself so far behind that he could not catch up.

His weight ballooned to nearly 250 pounds.

“I was miserable,” he said. “I was really unhappy, so most of the day, I just ate and slept.”

HITTING THE WEIGHTS

Baker’s life was spiraling out of control and no one knew it better than him.

Then came a fateful day in September 2010.

Antuono, a sixth-grade teacher in the Union district, had been put in charge of the weight room at the high school. One day Baker walked in and said he wanted to change his life.

“He told me he wanted to be more fit,” Antuono said, “and most of all, he wanted to play football again.”

For nearly a year, Baker never missed a day of Antuono’s ambitious regimen.

“We go early when we’re out of school, usually 8 or 8:30 a.m., and he was always there on time,” Antuono said. “And Seth isn’t a stand-around lifter. He came to work.”

When Baker first walked into Antuono’s weight room, he could bench-press 280 pounds, at best. Now, even though he is down to about 185 pounds — a weight loss of more than 60 pounds — he is one of the top lifters on the team with a 320-pound bench.

“He lost almost all the weight in probably six months,” Antuono said. “He has leveled off and now we just work on maintaining.

“From the first week that he was there, he began to see results and I think that was important. As his body changed, so did his attitude.”

Baker was ineligible to play his junior season because he previously had missed so many days of school. Instead, he attended practices and games and served as a manager — while continuing to work out in the weight room.

“Seth was our biggest cheerleader,” Robinson said. “I was glad to have him on my sideline.

“Even though Seth fell short by his own admission, we never beat his spirit down,” he added. “We always encouraged him to be a better person because we knew he had it in him.”

Although Baker began to attend classes regularly last year, he still had the matter of eligibility to deal with. Because he had missed so much school overall, he had to apply to the WPIAL for permission to play. Finally in the spring, word came that Seth was reinstated athletically.

“I would have been devastated had he been denied, because he had worked so hard and I knew it meant so much to him,” Antuono said.

Baker is a two-way tackle for the Scotties, which poses a bit of a problem since he is smaller than many of the lineman he faces in the Big Seven Conference.

“But he holds his own,” Robinson said. “He is undersized, but his tenacity keeps him on the field.”

THE NEXT SETH

Antuono said that Baker has inspired him to reach out to other student-athletes who might be in a similar position.

“Hopefully, we can find other Seth Bakers now that we see it can be done,” Antuono said. “Seth is a great role model and I would have no problem with him serving as a mentor to anyone.”

Robinson agreed wholeheartedly.

“Two weeks ago, I called Seth out at practice,” he said. “I told our kids that no matter how long I coach, I will always remember Seth Baker.

“To me, the ultimate test of success is what a kid is doing when no one is looking and I can turn my back and know this kid won’t miss a beat. He’s not a rah-rah guy, he is a quiet leader who leads by example. To me, that is the best kind.”

WHAT LIES AHEAD

Baker has a girlfriend now and last week, he attended Union’s Homecoming dance. His grades have picked up and he is well-liked by teammates and classmates.

But the real test for Baker will come next year. A senior athletically, he is a junior academically because of the absences from school, which means this is his final year to play. He plans to join the military when he graduates.

He has vowed to Antuono that he will not abandon the weight room and Antuono says he will hold Baker to that.

“It’s going to be tough on him, because a lot of his friends will be gone and he will have to commit himself all over again,” Antuono said. “But I have no doubt he can do it. I have never seen such a determined kid. I am so proud of him.”

Baker answers the question about his future with a steely resolve.

“I messed up before, but I got a second chance from people who believed in me,” he said. “I’m not going to mess up again.”

(E-mail: kcubbal@ncnewsonline.com).