In year one under head coach Rod Baker, the Eastside Lady Eagles appeared to not miss a beat.

The team tallied 14 wins and returned to the Class AAAA playoffs as a No. 4 seed. Although the Lady Eagles’ season ended in the first round in a close loss to Wayne County, Baker did not shy away from evaluating the successes of the season.

“I thought we did well. Of course you always want to get the win but I was pleased with the effort,” Baker said. “It was my first year and we only had three seniors. We are still a somewhat young team, we have a ton of juniors. I was really proud of the effort. That was my goal to make it to state and we accomplished that goal. We are going to keep working.”

Baker served on the staff of former head coach Gladys King before he was promoted to head coach this past offseason.

The majority of last year’s team returned in 2025, and Baker expected a level of familiarity.

“We were already familiar with each other, we had a lot of girls come back from last year when I was the assistant coach.,” Baker said. “I had two freshmen on the team who have been working out with us since last April. So the girls on the team are friends. They get along with each other and they work together to win.”

The team did just that.

Although the season ended with a .500 record, the Lady Eagles competed and won key matchups from start to finish.

A key part of Baker’s first year was his trio of seniors — Donee Morain, Jarilix Rivera-Villarini and Mackayla Buchanan.

“They are a group of girls who wanted to win,” Baker said. “I can't say enough about Donee. She didn't have to come to us after winning a state championship in softball, but she did and she wanted to win. Jarilix and Mackayla wanted to go out their senior years as winners.”

Outside of the team’s veterans, Baker credited a few other plays that helped the Lady Eagles return to the playoffs in 2025-36.

Juniors Nyla Smith and Ari Carter bolstered an upperclassmen group that played numerous minutes for Baker.

Outside of Villarini’s team-high 12.3 points per game, Carter finished second with 10.1 to go along with 6.9 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game.

While the team was highlighted by a strong group of seniors and an even larger group of juniors, one player that found a way to stand out was sophomore Kamryn Davis.

Davis proved to be a force for Baker and the Lady Eagles in her first year with the team.

“I could see her potential, [but] she kind of snuck up on us,” Baker said. “She came through every night. Every night she came to play. She gave her all every night and it was kind of quiet — she is not a big noise maker. Even when I talk to other coaches in the region, they never ask about Kamryn. Silently, it was like she was a secret weapon.”

By season’s end, Davis finished with 9.8 points and seven rebounds per game.

With his first season as head coach completed, Baker discussed how he himself has changed during year one.

“I had a couple nights where I stayed up late thinking about the games, but I learned that, ‘Hey, that game is behind us, we have to prepare for the next one,’” Baker said. “[Despite] if we won or if we lost, I just learned to keep preparing for the next game and always be ready for the next opponent.”

With an offseason and a full regular season under his belt, Baker shared how his program will enter this offseason in hopes of returning to the playoffs in 2026-27.

“There were a few areas where we definitely needed some work,” Baker said. “Free throws and ball handling — things like that.

“I want the girls to get in the weight room a little more and get bigger, we were undersized in a lot of games. I thought we were well conditioned, we didn't have a problem with girls getting tired. We just have to work on shooting. We are going to shoot a lot, dribble a lot and shoot free throws. Just the small things that we need to work on to get better.”