Spotswood has welcomed Paul Baker as its new coach, with the experienced mentor eager to build on the club’s strong foundation and drive future success in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west.
The Woodsman announced that Baker would step into the role, taking over from Dan Schuppan who steps down from the role after six seasons which included three grand final appearances.
Baker, who has an existing rapport with Spotswood’s former senior coach Dan and several players, said the club had always been on his radar.
Schuppan will remain at the club as a player in a boost for the Woodsmen,
“I’ve got an existing relationship with Dan himself and a number of the players from a previous life, so I was always keeping an eye on them. The facilities at the ground and the rooms were first class,” Baker said.
When the opportunity arose to step into a coaching role at sub-district level, Baker saw it as the perfect chance to further his coaching career and contribute to Spotswood’s development.
Baker coached Newport-Digman in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association after a long career coaching at Bacchus Marsh.
“It’s a great opportunity in our lower grades to try to get the next group to come through,” he said.
“We’ve got a pretty stable first group that’s been together for a number of years with Dan, and he’s led them beautifully. Now, it’s probably time to start seeing what’s underneath and what we can get to come through and have an impact at first and second level.”
Despite the first-grade team narrowly missing out on finals this season, Baker remains optimistic about the club’s direction.
“The ones are really competitive, I know they just missed out this year, but that could have gone either way,” he said.
His focus will be on maintaining a strong senior side while strengthening the lower grades up, that’s been the club focus,” Baker said.
“I just want to improve the club overall.”
Tom Ingleton
