Wade Baldwin Wade Baldwin is proof positive that you can’t judge a book by its cover. At first glance, it may appear the St. Joseph High School senior is just another average basketball player, but watch him display his many skills on the court and it becomes clear that he is anything but ordinary. In fact, if it wasn’t for his more publicized teammate, Karl Towns, Baldwin might very well be New Jersey’s most attractive college prospect for the class of 2014.
It comes as no surprise that the resident of Hillsborough has received offers for a full scholarship from numerous Division I schools. With each passing week and camp that Baldwin attends, he once again gets to showcase his multiple talents to a cache of coaches in attendance, and the list of offers grows.
What strikes one first about Baldwin is the length of his arms. Although Wade is a solid 6 feet 3 inches tall, his wingspan is that of a player at least 6 inches taller. With arms outstretched, he is able to bat away shots, especially from perimeter shooters, which is why Baldwin usually guards the opponents’ best scorer. But Baldwin is just as potent a shot blocker near the basket.
The subtler attribute is Baldwin’s leaping ability and how quickly he elevates. In fact, his explosions to the basket from the foul line are almost reminiscent of — dare the comparison be made — LeBron James. Baldwin literally catapults his body high in the air and, with right arm extended high above the rim, slams the ball through the net. It is a sequence that brings “wows” from the crowd and usually ends up on highlight reels.
It is these and other qualities, including Baldwin’s extraordinary court intelligence, that guarantee he will be a major contributor to St. Joe’s as the Falcons march to another Tournament of Champions (TOC) title appearance next season.
To be sure, there are obstacles to be cleared, not the least of which is winning the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) regular season title — a trophy the Falcons were denied by another one of the state’s best, East Brunswick High School. St. Joe’s, though, was able to exact revenge against the Bears by toppling them in a third meeting at the GMC championships in one of the best-played games in tournament history.
Baldwin, in fact, considers the victory the highlight of last season. “My No. 1 moment was the GMC championship game [against East Brunswick] at Rutgers University,” he said. “The game went to double overtime, and there were over 5,000 fans cheering and booing. [The win] was revenge for the two times they beat us during the regular season.”
Baldwin’s first two high school seasons were spent at Immaculata High School in Somerville, where he was a blip on the radar screen. However, he made the decision to transfer to St. Joe’s before the 2012-13 academic year began.
“A lot of positive things have happened since [transferring] to St. Joe’s,” Baldwin said. “My GPA has increased, I’m getting more exposure as a basketball player [because of the high profile games the Falcons play], I’m around a new set of friends and we’re winning on the court.”
Winning is extremely important to Baldwin. Put him in a situation when the score is close and the game is near its end, and Baldwin switches to a different level of intensity and becomes what he describes as “assertive.” As a defender, Baldwin literally guards his opponent as if he were wearing his uniform. His point production comes with thunderous jams off the patented St. Joe’s fastbreak, but Baldwin is just as apt to pull up outside the arc and loft a soft jumper with his soft hands. Most of all, it’s his intensity that captures the crowd. He credits that attitude, in part, to being associated with teammates who want to win as much as he does.
“I had the opportunity to play with great teammates last year,” he said. “Of course, there were Karl [Towns], Marques Townes and Raven Owen, but others like Jimbo Long, James Ziemba, Brian Fitzpatrick, Sean Finan and Mike Brunson proved how much they wanted to win by the way they practiced. I’d go against these guys, and they never backed off. I’ll admit, they ‘brought’ it to me on more than one occasion, and I realized the competitive nature of this team. That just energized me to want to win all the time.”
Baldwin’s ultimate goal, of course, is to help his team finish what it did not last March, and that’s to win the TOC. By that time, the expectation is that he will have already made a decision as to where he will attend college, so his recruitment will not be a distraction as it is now. When asked the timetable for making a verbal commitment, Baldwin said, “I’m just waiting for what happens after July.”
Basketball will not be the only activity to occupy Baldwin’s brain this year. Evi- dence that he is an accomplished student is punctuated by the fact that Harvard University is interested in him coming to Cambridge, Mass. While he is an excellent student, Baldwin still has to approach his schoolwork with the same degree of dedication he demonstrates on the basketball court.
“The one thing my parents really tell me to do in life is prepare for your future,” he said. “Whether it’s basketball or school, do the work now, go through the grind in the gym and study a little longer, because in the future, it will make it easier.
“I think about that every day when I wake up, go to a workout, play a game or study for a test.”
Baldwin hopes to end his career at St. Joe’s with the TOC trophy in his hands, but he also has another goal.
“My personal aim is to help all the talent that’s on this team and forge a bond that makes us unstoppable when the lights come on each night,” he said. “The stats will come, but my main goal is to get our heads to think exactly how our coach [Dave Turco] wants us to play. People may say, ‘Oh, this is Karl’s team or this is Wade’s team.’ But I assure you, when all is said and done, we will win only because we’ve done what our coach and his assistants have mapped out for us.”