Kevin Baker, former UTEP women's basketball coach, hired at Argyle Liberty Christian

Baker joins an athletic program that features former Cowboys Jason Witten as football coach

UTEP head women's basketball coach Kevin Baker at a game against FAU Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso. / GABY VELASQUEZ/ EL PASO TIMES / USA TODAY NETWORK

Former UTEP women’s basketball coach Kevin Baker is going back to the high school ranks.

Argyle Liberty Christian High School hired Baker to take over the girls' basketball program for the 2025-26 school year.

Baker guided the UTEP women’s program to four winning seasons in his six years at the helm, going 93-85. He led the Miners to the WNIT in 2022-23 and was the Conference USA Coach of the Year that season. 

"I am most proud of my journey," Baker said in a press release following his resignation at UTEP. "I do not think many coaches came up the way I did. I was fortunate to have success in the high school ranks at the 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A levels. Following that, I was head coach at the collegiate levels of Division I, II, and III. Each team played at an elite level. My players were so talented that I was awarded Coach of the Year honors at each university.”

Overall, Baker is 417-204 as a head coach (20 years), including 195-103 (10 years) at the collegiate level.

Baker is returning to high school basketball, where he guided various teams from 1997-98 to 2006-07.

He’s coached at Commerce, Palestine, Nacogdoches and Copperas Cove.

In only one stop did he have a losing record — 5-22 in his first year at Nacogdoches. The next year, the Lady Dragons won 19 games. 

In 10 seasons as a high school head coach, Baker put together three years with 29 or more wins. He was a combined 222-101 in the prep ranks. Highlights included a 29-4 mark at Palestine High School (4A) in 1999-2000, a school record for victories. His 2002-03 Nacogdoches team was 30-4, a school record for wins. His final high school team, at Copperas Cove (2006-07), was 32-3 with Area and Bi-District championships and a regional semifinal berth.

He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Hudson High School in Lufkin in 1994. 

After leaving Copperas Cove, he became an assistant coach at West Texas A&M. In five years there, the Lady Buffs made the Division II playoffs four times.

He got his first collegiate head coaching job at Division III UT-Tyler in 2012-13. 

He was 76-16 in three years at UT-Tyler and then went 50-14 in two years at Angelo State University, a Division II school. He guided Angelo State to the Sweet 16 in 2016-17 for the first time in school history and was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country that season. 

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