Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s Josh Baker poses for a photo with his family after signing his National Letter of Intent Tuesday to play basketball at Iowa Central Community College.

MARSHALL — With a quick scribble of the pen, the next step to Josh Baker’s athletic career was complete. The Marshall senior signed his National Letter of Intent on Tuesday to play basketball at Iowa Central Community College.

Baker said it felt good to finally have the day come and make his decision official after a long wait.

“It feels good. It’s been a long ride, that’s for sure; I tried to wait it out as long as possible, just to see all that I could get,” Baker said. “I had a lot of Division III and NAIA offers but I wanted a little bit more than that, so I waited until the end of the year to make this decision final.”

Baker said going to Iowa Central will be a good stepping stone for him to hopefully get a chance to play at the Division II level.

“I picked Iowa Central because I wanted to give myself another chance at Division II basketball,” Baker said. “There’s nothing against D-III or NAIA but my dream has always been to play Division II basketball, so this will be a good stepping stone if it’s one year or two years at Iowa Central and hopefully it gets me to the next place I want to be at.”

Baker has been a key contributor to Marshall’s success on both the hardwood and the baseball field throughout his time at MHS. This past winter, Baker averaged 14.8 points per game, along with 2.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2 steals per game and led the team in free-throw percentage (75%) and in three-pointers.

Baker attributed that success to the impact that his coaches and teammates have had on him. He said his coaches helped teach him everything from an early age.

“They’ve taught me everything and they’re the reason I’ve had success and am able to go to the next level. I’ve known them since probably fourth grade from just going to these camps here,” Baker said. “Coach [Taylor] Johnson and coach [Derek] Long came during high school but they’ve had a major impact on me and were always playing against me in practice and always having fun with it.”

Baker added his teammates have continued to push him every day and said that former teammate Noah Peutz especially has been a role model for him over the years.

“They’ve pushed me to be my best,” Baker said. “Noah Peutz was a really big role model for me, he’s playing at Sioux Falls now, and I’ve always wanted to be like him and hopefully I’ll get another chance to play against him someday but all of my teammates have pushed me to do my best every day.”

Baker added he plans to major in education or sports management, with the goal of becoming an athletic director. Going into next year, Baker said he’s looking forward to competing with his new teammates each day and getting the opportunity to play the sport he loves.

“Just competing every day in practice with these guys,” Baker said. “They’re going to be really good teammates down there so I’m excited to get down there and play and it’s an opportunity to play again.”