Carrice Russell Baker

Sport: Coach

Induction Year: 2009

University: Louisiana Tech

Induction Year: 2009

During her 39-year girls high school basketball coaching career, Carrice Russell Baker won over 1,000 games and is the state’s winningest girls coach. Her teams posted an astounding 972-191 (.836) record (three of her seasons in the late 1940s do not have records available, but there was a 22-5 record sandwiched between two of them). They won eight state championships and finished second four more times. Four state titles came at Winnsboro HS in the era of six-player, three at each end of the court competition, and four more came in the 1970s at Jena HS in the five-player full-court game. She was 588-138 (.810) with 20 playoff appearances and 11 district titles at Winnsboro after taking over as head coach at the age of 19 for the 1946-47 season following her graduation from Louisiana Tech. Her 1952-53 team made history by ending the national-record 218-game win streak by nearby Baskin HS, coached by Hall of Famer Edna Tarbutton. That team was her first to reach the state finals, followed by state titles in 1954, 1955, 1958 and 1960.

She returned to her hometown of Jena for the 1972-73 season, the first year under the five-player format, and won the first of three straight state titles in a stretch when the Lady Giants played for the state crown six times in seven seasons. Jena took state in 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1979, and was runner-up in 1976, 1980 and her final season, 1985, as she capped her Jena tenure with an overall 384-53 record, nine district titles and nine “Sweet 16” state tournament appearances. She was chosen as national Coach of the Year in 1980 and was the third girls coach enshrined in the Louisiana High School Coaches Hall of Fame, honored after Louisiana Sports Hall of Famers Edna Tarbutton (1979) and Jelly Pigott (1980) as her career continued in 1981.