Deputy still gets his kicks in 10 years later for Mount Ida

A Montgomery County deputy made his way into Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium on Thursday to kick a couple of footballs.

That deputy has done it before, but in a Mount Ida Lions uniform a decade ago.

Josh Baker helped Mount Ida win its first Class 2A state championship with a 22-yard field goal that gave the Lions a 17-16 victory over the Bearden Bears on Dec. 8, 2007.

Baker’s field goal came at the end of a 10-play, 76-yard drive in the final 2 ½ minutes with the Lions trailing 16-14. He earned MVP honors in the game, also rushing for 159 yards and a 1-yard touchdown on 37 carries and he recorded a team-high 13 tackles.

As he walked down the tunnel to the field Thursday in the northwest corner of War Memorial Stadium, Baker said he felt like it was 2007 all over again.

“When I walked out on the field, it was just amazing,” Baker said. “It brings all these memories back. It feels great.”

After high school, Baker, 28, received his welding degree at National Park College in Hot Springs in 2010, then joined the Montgomery County sheriff’s office, where he’s worked ever since. He’s also a resource officer at Mount Ida and helps out with the Lions’ football program.

“Everybody respects him. Everybody looks up to Josh Baker,” Mount Ida Coach Michael White said. “These kids know who he was. A lot of these kids were running on the field the first time we won it [in 2007]. They weren’t very big.

“He keeps them motivated. We’re sure glad to have him around.”

Mount Ida junior running back Jonathan Lagrange, who will face Foreman in today’s Class 2A state championship game, appreciates having Baker as a sounding board for on- and off-the-field topics.

“He’s a big role model for us,” said Lagrange, a sophomore on Mount Ida’s 2016 state title team, the school’s first since Baker’s team did it in 2007. “He tells us what to do. He helps us out a lot.”

Mount Ida lost to Cross County 20-16 in the 2006 Class 2A second round. Baker recalled Thursday telling his teammates that he and the Lions expected to do more in 2007.

Fifteen victories later, they did, thanks to Baker’s right foot.

“Guys, we can’t lose again,” Baker said. “We said, ‘We will win a state championship.’ We drove through and through. We worked hard for it.”

Democrat-Gazette file photo/BENJAMIN KRAIN Josh Baker’s 22-yard field goal gave Mount Ida its first Class 2A championship in 2007 with a 17-16 victory over the Bearden Bears. Baker also ran for 159 yards and had a team-high 13 tackles.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/STATON BREIDENTHAL Josh Baker, a Montgomery County deputy sheriff and former Mount Ida player, punts the ball as he helps the Lions during Thursday’s practice at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.