St. Stanislaus forward Max Baria leads team to Class 3A title, poised for All-Star game

Max Baria, a 17-year-old senior at St. Stanislaus, helped the school capture the State Class 3A championship and is slated to play for Mississippi in the Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game at 2 p.m. Saturday at A.E. Wood Coliseum, Mississippi Today reported.

Baria’s rise comes amid a family story of loss and adoption. David and Marcie Baria lost their eldest son, Darden, after he became mysteriously ill about a month after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005; the family later learned Darden died of rabies, likely from a bat bite, the Baria family told Mississippi Today. “You never, ever get over something like that,” David Baria said. “You just don’t. You just have to find better ways to cope.”

The couple pursued medical and fertility options before deciding to adopt. Marcie Baria said an agency informed them it was having trouble finding a white baby boy; she replied that she had not requested a white child. The Barias soon were contacted about an infant whose birth mother was white and whose father was Black. The child, Max, was born May 30, 2008. “The first time I held him and he opened those eyes, I was just blown away,” Marcie Baria said. “He saved my life.”

On the court and in the classroom, Baria has drawn praise from coaches and family. He carries a 3.6 grade-point average, scored 29 on the ACT and narrowed his focus to basketball in ninth grade, Mississippi Today reported. Daniel Grieves, who has coached Baria since eighth grade, said Baria is competitive, intelligent and steady. “He’s going to get bigger and a whole lot stronger,” Grieves said. Doctors have told the family Baria could add two or three inches, the family said. David Baria also recounted one incident at a sailing camp where a child used a racial slur; the camp director apologized and the situation was addressed, he said.

Baria chose to continue his basketball career at Jones College in Ellisville, where coach Newton Mealer said the program is eager to develop him. “Great kid, great family,” Mealer said. David and Marcie Baria said they are preparing for an empty nest and for trips to Ellisville. Marcie recalled a kindergarten teacher who found an old record that had been Darden’s favorite, a song called “Happy Adoption Day,” which she said felt like a message to Max. The family recounted these details to Mississippi Today.

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