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Cory
Baldwin
is entering his 11th season at Clayton State, his seventh
as an assistant coach. Cory’s basketball duties include
the areas of academics, recruiting, marketing and promotions, opponent
scouting and player development (guards), Laker Club
activities and film exchange.
Along
with head coach Gordon Gibbons and fellow assistant coach Brent Buchanan,
Baldwin has been responsible for assembling each of the last
three Clayton State recruiting classes that ranked among
the nation’s best.
Baldwin
is well known in the Southern-Crescent, metro-Atlanta area and in the Georgia Junior Colleges as a relentless
recruiter. He recruits nationally in junior colleges and
in four-year transfers. Baldwin concentrates his high school
recruiting in the Georgia only.
A
member of both the National Association of
Basketball Coaches (NABC) and the Atlanta
Tip-Off Club, Baldwin is also known for his tremendous work with players on an
individual basis, on the floor and in the classroom.
He's been very instrumental in past improvement with guards
from one year to next, like Charlie Frazier, Kevin Young,
and many more.
Baldwin
served as a motivational leader throughout his playing
career. In three seasons, he saw action in 27 games,
including one start, and was a 75 percent career free
throw shooter. He also served as team academic
representative on the athletic-academic board, and was
team captain his senior season on Clayton State’s first
nationally NCAA Division II ranked team. The 1998-99 team
was ranked in the December 7, 1998 poll, as the team
opened the season with an 8-0 record.
Baldwin was teammates with former Clayton State
University Greats: Derrick Stroud and Robert Conley, who
still plays professionally overseas.
In
addition to his Clayton State coaching and playing experience, Baldwin has worked numerous camps
throughout the United States, as well as being the Camp
Director at Clayton State the past seven summers. He was
the site coordinator for the NCAA 2002 Final Four YES
Clinic on the Clayton State campus. He was also the
coordinator for the Martinique National Team’s 2002 and
2005 USA Tour and coordinator for the 2003-04 Ft.
McPherson Army Base Tour Team.
Baldwin
heads up many community service projects for the
basketball program. He’s had the team give back to the
community in many ways, speaking at elementary schools,
middle schools, churches, and volunteering time at
community centers. He was the organizer of the First,
Second, and Third Annual Jonesboro First Baptist
Recreational Outreach Center Basketball Camp. He also
received a citizenship award for his work in the community
from the 2001-02 Morrow High School Final Four men’s
basketball team. Also
has players giving time to special education departments
throughout the Southern Crescent.
Prior
to coming to Clayton State, Baldwin was a two-time
all-region and one-time all-state selection at Lake City
Christian High School. As a senior captain, he averaged 24
points, nine assists, and five rebounds per game in
leading the Suns to a runner-up finish in the state
tournament. He also was a starting quarterback at
Jonesboro High School for one season, before transferring
to Lake City Christian and quarterbacking the team to the
state playoffs. He
was also academically successfully, receiving the H.O.P.E
scholarship out of high school.
A
native of Jonesboro, Baldwin has a bachelor’s degree in
health care management from Clayton State. He also holds a
masters degree in instructional education from Central
Michigan University. He earned that degree from the
distant learning program located on the CCSU campus.
Besides
coaching, Baldwin is also entering his fourth year as a professor,
teaching a course in the humanities department,
"Critical Thinking". He uses that experience,
along with his years here as a student-athlete, to advise
or counsel student-athletes in their course and/or degree
choices. He
is the unofficial Student-Athlete Advisor for the athletic
department. He
is the Faculty Representative for Fellowship Christian
Athletes Association at Clayton State.
Amongst his busy schedule, Baldwin
also finds time somehow to work as a fitness instructor
for SmartBodies, located on campus. While
working with Smartbodies, he wrote the course proposal for
the health Science Department, Introduction to Basketball
and got it approved by the University.
Baldwin's
sister, Selena, played four years at Georgia Tech and was
a three-year starter. She was a member of the first NCAA
Tournament team in Georgia Tech women’s basketball
history. She was also a member of the Yellow Jacket squad
that won the WNIT. She
is currently the head girl’s basketball coach at
Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy.
Baldwin resides in Jonesboro with his wife Amanda,
who is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, and
works as a lawyer assistant at a law firm in Atlanta.
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