From the time she was in diapers, it was her destiny to fill this role. Kyra Baker was born to play point guard at Franklin.
Such things are said in jest about many an athlete, but in Baker’s case, it’s no joke. The freshman is the latest in a long lineage of floor generals and a part of city royalty, the great-granddaughter of Custer Baker.
She’s been groomed her whole life to run the show for the Grizzly Cubs, and she hasn’t disappointed.
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“When it’s crunch time — we’ve had some games this year that are really, really close at the end, and that’s when she plays her best basketball,” Franklin coach Josh Sabol said. “The ball’s in her hands, she hits clutch free throws, she doesn’t turn it over. We’ve won a lot of games in the final seconds this year because of her decision-making.
“The stage is not too big for her. She knows that she can play.”
That confidence comes from a lifelong relationship with the game. Her grandfather Steve Baker, who played at Franklin College and later coached at the high school, used to coach all of the family’s kids at a summer basketball camp, and Kyra was taking part not long after she could walk.
“She was dribbling in her diapers, passing,” said her mother, Cara Baker. “It came pretty naturally.”
The point guard bloodlines flow through both sides of Kyra Baker’s family tree. Her aunt, Michelle Baker, was a 1987 Indiana All-Star and a four-year point guard for the Grizzly Cubs. Her successor at the position was Cara Baker (née Vornehm), who graduated in 1991 as the county’s all-time leader in assists with 406.
So Kyra has been living her whole life with the expectation that she would follow in those footsteps. It’s tough enough for a freshman to excel on the varsity squad at any position, but point guard is the toughest spot for a first-year player at any level. Baker has handled the challenge confidently.
“I feel like they have to have me,” she said. “Without me, the team just falls apart.”
“Her teammates absolutely love playing with her, and there’s no question about who our floor general is,” Sabol added.
Though the Grizzly Cubs are just 8-12 heading into tonight’s game at Mid-State Conference foe Martinsville, the program has plenty of reasons for optimism, and Baker is at the center of it. Franklin’s roster is made up primarily of sophomores, including top scorer Hailee Robbins, and that group will have two more years to grow alongside their freshman floor leader.
It’s Baker’s relationship with Maya Elliott, the team’s lone senior, that has made the biggest impression on Sabol, though.
Playing in her final season, Elliott doesn’t get to stick around and be a part of the Grizzly Cubs’ youth movement. Her future is now, and Baker came in cognizant of that.
“Early in the season,” Sabol recalled, “Kyra went to Maya Elliott and said, ‘Hey Maya, I want you to know that you can trust me and I’m going to play hard for you every single game.’ For a 14-year-old to go to a senior and have that compassion, that foresight, that maturity… I think just speaks about her leadership.”
“From then on, I know I have her, and every time she’s down on herself I always try to pick her up,” Elliott said.
“We really needed a point guard this season … and she doesn’t play like a freshman.”
Baker says that part of the reason she’s been able to blend in so seamlessly this year against older competition is the fact that she’s grown up playing against it. At family gatherings, she can always be found mixing it up against older relatives — one of her cousins, Blaine Wentzell, is a starting guard for the Franklin boys.
Those pickup games toughened her up.
“When you have to play against boys that are four or five years older than you in pickup games at home, in the backyard or in the barn, it’s much easier to go and play against girls who cry,” she said. “Boys, they just don’t stop. I think it’s definitely changed my game to be tougher and not show my fear on the court.”
At least some of Kyra’s competitive nature comes from her mother, who admits to having a hard time watching games (“I want to sometimes go break the press for her”) and only recently was willing to admit that her daughter has passed her up on the court.
“Until last year, I could hang on,” Cara Baker said. “Then it started getting rough when I got older. But she’s definitely stronger; I always tell her she’s not quicker than me yet.”
“I don’t even think she could handle me three years ago,” Kyra retorted. “She thinks that, but I don’t think she could.”
That sort of swagger has started to take hold throughout the Franklin program this winter, and the team seems well positioned to trend upward over the coming seasons with the latest in a long line of Bakers leading the way.
“Her teammates would run through a brick wall for her,” Sabol said.
