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SPORTS
Baker family says W.Va. is 'very friendly'
Sean, Debbie and Butch Baker, of Bear, Del., travel to the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships in Barboursville on Friday.
Purchase this photoBARBOURSVILLE -- Soccer brought 18-year-old Ryan Baker to West Virginia for the second time this weekend.
Baker, of Bear, Del., arrived in the state on Thursday to compete with the Delaware United Football Club during the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships. Baker and his family first visited West Virginia earlier in the year on a trip to Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va.
"He's going to Davis and Elkins in the fall. He actually went to Disney (to play soccer) at Christmas and one of the coaches contacted him. We went down and visited the school and really liked it," said Debbie Baker, Ryan Baker's mother.
On Friday, thousands of soccer athletes, their families and supporters arrived at fields at Barboursville City Park and the Scott Orthopedic Soccer Complex at Huntington YMCA Kennedy Center, just north of Huntington.
Ryan Baker, who plays defense for the Delaware team, played his first game of the championships Friday morning at Barboursville City Park against a Vermont team.
His mother, father and older brother were all there to cheer him on.
"He's been playing since he was 4. This is his passion," Debbie Baker said.
She said her older son, Sean, also played soccer when the boys were young.
"They also played ice hockey, but as they got older, they focused more toward the soccer," she said.
She said the family travels with Ryan as often as possible. Some of their most recent trips were to Virginia Beach, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. One fun trip the family didn't get to take, though, was to England, when he traveled with another team to play soccer overseas.
"That was a nice experience for him," she said.
This month's trip started Wednesday when the family packed up and drove to Fairmont, W.Va., where they stayed overnight before making the rest of their eight-hour journey into the Tri-State area. The family is staying in Ashland, Ky., and had already been all across the Tri-State and much of West Virginia by Friday.
"I really like this state. It's very nice, very friendly," Debbie Baker said.
