All-around threat Baith sets sights on AHS receiving record

By Doug Haidet

ASHLAND – Gabe Baith didn’t have to say a word.

Instead, he sent out a deafening warning with his feet on the very first play of the 2025

season. The senior returned the opening kickoff of Ashland’s opening game against Bay 89 yards for a touchdown. Within 13 seconds, teams were on notice, and Baith has rarely taken his foot off the gas since.

“When I was on the sideline, I just had a feeling I was gonna take one back,” said Baith when

recalling his off-to-the-races touchdown to start the season. “Gunner (Lacey made a block)

right around the 40-yard line; I saw that and went up the hash where that guy was supposed

to be and took it all the way.”

“I like the pressure of being in those moments,” he said. “Special teams is a one-play series,

you could say, and (AHS head coach Scott Valentine) always talks about how important they

are.”

Baith had more than 150 yards worth of kickoff and punt returns in Week 1 alone. At wide

receiver, he’s had at least four catches in seven different games this season.

That position is where he no doubt will be remembered. After perhaps the best game of his career last week at Lexington – 10 catches for 148 yards and two touchdowns, along with a two-point reception that made it a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter – Baith is now so close to history he can taste it.

The senior needs two receptions Friday in Ashland’s first-round playoff game against visiting

Mount Vernon to break the program record for career catches. First-team All-Ohioan Jon

Metzger set the mark in 2022, finishing with 160. Baith said he remembers when Metzger invited him and a few other then-freshmen to his house for dinner that year, speaking with them about what it means to play at AHS. He said he was always impressed with Metzger’s timing and high-pointing abilities as a receiver.

Now, it’s Baith trying to set some of the standards for future Arrow receivers.

“He’s able to win one-on-one,” Valentine said. “We tell our guys all the time that if guys want

to man them up, they have to win one-on-one.

“Great receivers at any level are able to maneuver themselves and get defenders turned and

things like that. He runs great routes and that’s what helps get him open.”

Baith has been reliable essentially from the jump at Ashland.

Two of his six catches as a freshman went for touchdowns, and in each of the three seasons

since he’s had at least 46 receptions. Last week’s explosion at Lexington put him over 2,000 receiving yards for his career (159 catches-2,039 yards-13 TDs), and while the numbers suggest Baith might be a tall speedster, he’s anything but.

The senior stands 5-foot-8, and even after adding about 10 pounds of muscle since last

season, he tips the scale at 160 pounds. The size factor is one reason he’s turned into the receiving monster he’s become on the field.

“Every time I step on the field, I kind of have that chip on my shoulder,” Baith said. “I don’t like the disrespect where other guys are like, ‘Oh, he’s little, I can just throw him down.’ I try to have that physicality to me, and with being able to return kicks and punts, it’s nice because I get the ball in my hands more and can make more plays.”

In his first season as Ashland’s main return man, Baith has 422 yards on 23 total returns –

nearly a 20-yard average. Add in his 83 yards on 12 carries on offense and his 23 tackles on defense, and the returning All-Ohio Cardinal Conference performer has arguably been the busiest man for the Arrows during another historic 2025 campaign.

Ashland is 9-1 and carried a 19-game win streak into last Friday’s epic, 43-35 loss at

Lexington. Baith has been a critical component to one of the most explosive offenses in program history, as the Arrows average 40.9 points per game entering the playoffs.

Ashland’s All-Ohio senior quarterback Nathan Bernhard, who surpassed 10,000 career yards

on offense last week, has gotten nearly 25 percent of his 8,123 career passing yards through

Baith’s hands.

“He’s got three years of starting under his belt and we’ve been able to build a connection,”

Bernhard said. “I’ve thrown a lot of passes to him, and there’s also been a lot of practice in

the offseason, working out, doing 7-on-7s together.

“He’s been able to not just make catches, but to make guys miss and get yards after the

catch. That’s something you’d expect out of a senior like him and it’s something he’s gotten

better at each year.”

Ashland defensive coordinator Ryan Stackhouse – also the AHS boys track head coach –

said Baith surprisingly isn’t among the Top 5 fastest guys on the football team. But

Stackhouse said his impressive agility shows in things like the change-of-direction shuttle run.

“When you get past 20 yards, he doesn’t get much faster,” Stackhouse said, “but he can get

to that 20 yards pretty quick.”

Some of that might come from Baith’s explosive movements in track and basketball, sports in which he’ll finish with a combined seven varsity letters. As a guard for the Arrows in hoops, he could clear 1,000 points this winter (currently at 689 for his career). But where Baith seems to have the most top-end talent is in his field vision. He said it has helped him a lot in the return game and thinks it comes from growing up playing football as part of a huge family.

Baith is one of 12 siblings, including nine boys, and he lands seventh in the order of age.

His older brothers, Sage and Avery Baith, both played during their time at Crestview, as did

his father, Rob Baith. Meanwhile, Gabe has watched his younger brother, junior Grayson Baith, carve out his own niche as the leading running back for the Arrows each of the last two seasons (948 yards and 16 touchdowns on 181 carries in 2024 and 2025).

“I think (the vision) comes from just playing backyard football with my brothers,” Gabe said.

“Ever since I was younger just playing outside, the experience of juking out my older brothers (helped in that regard).”

Gabe said he’s also benefited from being part of an Ashland receiving corps that features four guys who all have at least 300 yards and four touchdowns this season. One of them is 6-2 junior standout Killian O’Brien, who draws a ton of attention on the opposite side of the field as a threat who has eight receiving scores in each of the last two seasons (33-576-8 this year). Add in seniors Dakota Kruty (19-329-4) and Braden Donatini (14-309-4) and the Arrows force teams to pick their poison.

Baith said he has hopes of potentially landing with a college football program; he’s been

contacted by a variety of NCAA Division III schools and also has spoken with Ashland

University. But before he finds his post-high school landing spot, he’s got unfinished business with the Arrows.

Seventh-seeded Ashland (9-1) will carry a 13-game home win streak into its Division II,

Region 7 playoff opener Friday against 10th-seeded Mount Vernon (6-4).

The Arrows finished ranked No. 9 in the final Division II Associated Press state poll, released

Tuesday.

It marks just the fifth time in program history Ashland has finished in the Top 10 in the AP poll

(most recently ninth in Division III in 2015), and Baith, Bernhard and the boys will be looking

to add to the history they leave behind after this season.

“He’s just done a great job of continuing to get better each year,” Bernhard said of Baith, “and I’m really not surprised he’s close to the receiving record.”