After a magical season, Steve Baik has resigned as Chino Hills basketball coach.
The sudden move has sent shockwaves across the high school basketball landscape.
Baik led the Huskies to a 35-0 record and CIF state Open Division championship. Chino Hills finished the season ranked No. 1 in the nation in most national polls.
Prep2Prep’s basketball Coach of the Year cited that he desires to be closer his family in Pasadena.
“I’ve been commuting 40 miles to Chino Hills for the past few years and I’m at a point in my life where I have a young family. I have a soon-to-be five year old and I have a nine month old," Baik said. “A few weeks ago, my wife and I just realized how fast those four, five years went and how precious those years are and we can’t get those years back. I had to sacrifice something.”
Baik coached the Huskies for nine seasons, the last six as head coach. Along with being Prep2Prep’s top basketball coach, he also received Naismith National Coach of the Year and USA Today Coach of the Year accolades in 2016.
Although he’s parted ways with Chino Hills, Baik yearns to stick to the high school ranks closer to his family.
“I just want to be closer to home (in Pasadena),” Baik explained. “To not coaching, to being an assistant, if the right opportunity presents itself as a head coach and teacher. I’m just open right now.”
Chino Hills returns four starters next season, but will lose McDonald’s All-American Lonzo Ball, who is headed to UCLA.
The Huskies might not have to look far for Baik’s successor. The coach told Prep2Prep that he’s pushing for assistant coach Stephan Gilling to take the reins.
Baik’s decision to leave Chino Hills was an emotional one. But who can blame a coach and a man for choosing family over profession? The consensus national high school basketball coach of the year spoke about how grateful he was to coach a team like he did.
“I was just left in awe many times throughout the year in just trying to realize what I had as a team. It was a very special year where everything came together.”
The coach recounted to Prep2Prep a time early in the season where things started coming into fruition for the Huskies.
“Back in December in a hotel my coaching staff and I we’re thinking ‘Okay, we have one superstar player in Lonzo (Ball), a scoring machine in LiAngelo (Ball). Those two are the only two guys who had varsity experience,’" Baik said. "Then we had Eli (Scott) playing his first year of varsity basketball and two freshman. And here we were getting ready to play a national power in Montverde Academy (Fla.).”
The team ended up beating Montverde 83-82 to catapult themselves to the pinnacle of the national rankings, a spot they would never relinquish en route to a 35-0 unblemished record.
“Doing what we did with that type of makeup and dynamics of the team to be honest with you was crazy. “It’s hard to imagine anything like that happening again,” Baik analyzed. “It’s a public school. We don’t get to recruit. And schools like Montverde, these Academies, they pick up international players (and) some of the nationally top ranked players. For us, you’re talking about playing with two freshman and we are at a public school with local kids. I can’t imagine that ever happening again. I can’t imagine a public school doing what we did.”
Baik is walking away from Chino Hills on top. Coach of the Year, undefeated season and state title all culminating into a consensus No.1 ranking. Feats accomplished by a coach who made an undoubtedly difficult, yet honorable, discussion to resign from Chino Hills to be closer to his family.
