About Us

Our Mission

Use a holistic approach to sports
Allow for both directed and exploratory learning
Strike a balance between structure and freedom

Create a community environment
Develop life-long love of sport and activity
Provide a continuing and varied sporting experience for the community

Meet The Founder

I grew up with a passion for sports and always knew I wanted to be involved in sports. As a high school and collegiate athlete, I learned first hand the importance of good coaching and a strong mental game. Originally intending to become a college soccer coach, I spent nearly every weekend during the year, and several weeks each summer, coaching soccer teams in South Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, California, and Oregon, improving my craft.

Through my experiences in coaching teams and camps, I found that while the soccer skills training was typically good and the activities fun, by and large they missed the bigger picture.

From my early days of coaching, I envisioned an organization whose coaching included not only skill-building and learning the game, but also stressed the importance of nutrition, proper stretching, positive thinking, and the mental game.

As an athlete, coach, parent, and sport psychology consultant with over 20 years experience in youth sports, I created BaxterSports – Camps, Clinics, Coaching, and Consulting – to continue my work and provide a great environment for athletes to learn and grow in all aspects of life.

Brian Baxter Owner / Director / Sports Psychologist

Jake Weiss
Head Coach / Program Director

Coach Jake

Coach Jake is BaxterSports’ first new Director since the camp’s inception, taking over for the

universally beloved Coach Blake. In fact, Jake & Blake’s rivalry spans countless millennia and

infinite planes of existence, where their various incarnations have nobly competed in sporting

tests of strength, speed, and skill. And their names always rhyme. In East Portland’s corner of

the multiverse, Jake defeated Blake in an epic whiffle ball battle by belting a knuckle curve into the highest branches of an elm and thereby earning the coveted mantle of Camp Director.

Much like Coach Blake, Coach Jake is a fun-loving sports nut and dad of two. He’s worked with kids in many capacities, with experience including 10 years of little league coaching, 5 years of advocacy for foster kids, and 1 year as recess coordinator at Abernethy Elementary. In that role, he was tasked with inventing and implementing inclusive games and creating a YouTube channel to entertain at-home schoolchildren when recess activities were shelved by distance learning. He has also been a Special Olympics volunteer, a mentor to underprivileged youth, a manny, a stay-at-home dad, and a certified coach in multiple endeavors. Coach Jake also plays all the sports. Some of his athletic accomplishments include varsity table tennis at Portland State, 2x MVP of Baseball USA Camps, a bowling high score somewhere in the 230’s, the record for most touchdowns all-time in SE PDX Ballers’ Annual Joey Bowl, and being the only person in the world who can claim to have attended high school with both Kobe Bryant and Paul Konerko.

While Coach Jake shares much in common with Coach Blake, there are some small differences that your campers may notice. For one, Jake’s got his own unique coaching style that is part drill instructor, part pro wrestler, and part honey badger, and is eager to teach your kids all of llife’s most important lessons, from “doing whatever it takes to crush your competition” to “there’s no I in TEAM, but there is M-E.” He’s also staunchly opposed to sunblock and napkins, so don’t dare send your kids to camp with either of those items or risk his wrath. Other than that, he’s super fun and normal.

He is very excited to begin what is more or less his dream job, and is thrilled to be a part of the BaxterSports family! (Until, of course, he is defeated by Coach Drake, as the prophecy foretells.)