Baker checks all the boxes for West Virginia athletic director

West Virginia had a list of criteria that the new athletic director must possess.

The administration wanted a strong leader and strategic risk taker that could help guide the athletic program through the tumultuous new collegiate landscape, while also showcasing the ability to embrace new opportunities and bringing a different way of thinking to the table.

But another key is that the eventual hire must be a fit with the culture at West Virginia.

The Mountaineers hired Turnkey ZRG to assist with the search and created the eventual check list they would use to pair down the applicants. It started with seven or eight, before being whittled down to three. Officials wanted somebody who understood the new college landscape and had a passion.

And when officials got to Wren Baker, it was unanimous that he checked all those boxes and more.

“He understands the vision, he knows where we want to go and I have no doubts he’ll get us there,” President Gordon Gee said.

For Baker, an Oklahoma native, it was an opportunity that he simply couldn’t pass up. After learning about the program, he loved the role that the university plays for the state and it’s people as well as the roots as a land grant institution. As a first-generation college student himself, Baker understands the role that the university plays in providing higher education for all West Virginians.

And of course, there was the passion that the entire state has for the program.

“It is special and unique,” he said.

Baker believes that it all starts with the student athletes and their success and well-being will be at the center of everything he does in his new role. The goal is to provide them with the best experience possible and mold them into champions, leaders and graduates during their time on campus.

A detail-oriented leader, Baker also believes that the little things make the big things and is critical to building and sustaining winning programs over time.

Baker plans to embrace the challenges of name, image likeness, the transfer portal and every other hurdle that comes his way in his new position. He plans on listening and learning everything he can in the coming weeks about West Virginia and meeting all of the interested parties.

West Virginia certainly wasn’t the first opportunity for Baker to make the jump from his role at North Texas, but was the first that was a consensus amongst his family. He spent plenty of time talking with alumnus and those that have been around the program to see how he would fit.

“That’s where I really figured out there’s a lot of similarities with where I grew up and how I grew up and the culture here,” Baker said.

Baker now plans on integrating former alumnus and others into the overall experience at West Virginia. He wants to focus on celebrating the past and finding avenues to welcome those people back.

That will be part of a barnstorming tour that Baker will embark on when it comes to finding out how to engage people and looking at creative ways to involve others.

He has experienced tremendous fund-raising at every stop he’s made and part of that is those relationships. That starts with getting as many people in the door as possible and then getting to know what they’re interested in and inclined to support.

West Virginia has their new athletic director but now the real work is set to begin.

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