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'04 MA K John Barker (Syracuse)

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John Barker info

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/Stories/0,1413,101~6295~2222522,00.html

The Hawks will send John Barker to the mound. Barker, a senior who will try to walk on as a placekicker at Ohio State next year, threw 164 pitches last Saturday in Xaverian's win over BC High. He is also the leadoff hitter and is batting .476 in the tournament.
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http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/baseball/articles/2004/06/20/barker_makes_most_of_finale/

Despite his talents on the mound, Barker, an Avon resident originally from Naples, Fla., has football on his mind. The No. 22-ranked high school kicking specialist (including punters and kickers) in the country according to Rivals.com, Barker will forget about baseball and walk on at Ohio State University in the fall.

"It was a tossup, either baseball or football," said Barker, who was the South placekicker in Friday night's Shriners All-Star football game. "Then I visited Ohio State and watched the spring game there and I pretty much fell in love."
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That sounds more reasonable in light of the scholarship offers to Trapasso, Skeete and Pettrey.
 
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'04 MA K John Barker- grayshirt for '05

http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/highSchool/view.bg?articleid=39707

ltpbarker08232004.jpg


Confidence game: Xaverian's John Barker can beat foes many ways -- and he knows it
By Adam Kurkjian / News Sports Correspondent
Monday, August 23, 2004

When John Barker has you beaten on the baseball diamond, you can literally see it on his face.

One corner of his mouth turns ever so slightly upward into a confident smile some would deem a smirk, a self-satisfied look that merely means this mercurial athlete has bested you yet again.

Barker, who stands about 5-foot-8, 160 pounds, does not intimidate with his physical stature. But more than any player in the Transcript area, Barker, an Avon resident who recently graduated from Xaverian Brothers, is someone who burrows his way into an opponent's psyche and wreaks havoc for an entire nine innings.

Whether it be on the mound, at the plate, or on the basepaths, Barker can frustrate his adversary with his style of play, and it usually results in a positive outcome for himself and his teammates. After all, Xaverian did win the Division 1 state title in baseball this spring, and Barker's play for the Hawks separates him as the 2004 Daily News Transcript Baseball Player of the Year.

It is not as if Barker is ignorant of his effect on the opposition. Of what he believes his role is on the mound, Barker was blunt.

"(Upsetting) the opposing team," said Barker. "I'm one of those pitchers that frustrates the hell out of them. They think, 'Oh, he throws so slow.' But it's right on the corner. So when they hit a pitch, they have to hit a pitch that I want them to hit, and they're going to get upset."

Of his baserunning, Barker sees a similar value to his abilities.

"I love it. I anger a pitcher more on the bases than if I would hit a grand slam off of him," said Barker. "So many times, they don't know what they're doing. In the Norwood game, I had four steals. After two steals, their catcher came out and talked to the pitcher, telling him to try and hold me on. But I just laughed, because there's still nothing you can do. That's why I love it."

It's that kind of brash confidence, and some would call cockiness, that can become motivational fodder for an opposing team. For instance, at the beginning of the season, Barker was quoted as saying that if Xaverian's pitching caught up to its loaded lineup, the Hawks "should win states, easily."

"We knew we had the best lineup in the state, by far," said Barker. "If we had OK pitching, this team was going to be fine. We stuck out a few 1-0 and 2-0 games, and the pitching was unbelievable. Pretty much, I knew we'd do good. We weren't hitting, but I knew we were going to."

To have a player with that type of overwhelming confidence on your team can help push a good team into greatness, according to Xaverian coach Gerry Lambert.

"As one of the guys that was front and center in terms of skills and athleticism, he was one of the guys that led the way," said Lambert. "His confidence morphed into our team having a lot of confidence. After that 8th inning of the Peabody game, I was thinking I'd have to get my guys up. But they were already up. He believes he's going to do it. And when you believe it and have the capability, the rest of your team believes. That's going to be the hardest thing to replace, looking ahead to next year: re-establishing that belief and having guys that know they'll be able to do it."

Barker started his high school career down in Naples, Florida, at Barron Collier High School. A two-sport standout in both football and baseball, Barker would have been the starting quarterback for the football team as a sophomore and a member of the varsity baseball team, but his father had other plans.

Since Barker's grades had started to slip, Barker's father decided to move up to Massachusetts where Barker could attend a Catholic school. After narrowing his choices to Xaverian, Catholic Memorial and Bishop Feehan, Barker chose Xaverian partly because he had played AAU baseball with fellow Hawk Mark Dondero.

Still, the adjustment was not as smooth as he hoped. Instead of playing starting quarterback at Xaverian as a sophomore, Barker was relegated to just kicking. Also, he started the baseball season with the JV after being one of just two sophomores slated for the varsity at Barron Collier.

"It was unbelievably frustrating," said Barker, who hopes to continue his football career as a kicker at Ohio State University. As a gray-shirt, he will enroll in January. "It was really hard, because our fields down (in Florida) were unbelievable. Moving up here, the JV baseball field had weeds growing all over it. I was, like, 'What am I doing?'"

It wasn't long before Barker made his impact on the varsity.

"I think we had three games in four days, and I knew we were going to be a little short on pitching," said Lambert. "I talked to John Kelly, the JV coach, and said, 'I need a pitcher.' And he made it clear that their best guy was John Barker. So John joined the team, and he came on in relief in a (Malden Catholic) game we won in extra innings. It was 3-3 in the sixth inning, and he pitched three more scoreless innings, and we won in the ninth with two runs. Some parents said to me after the game, 'It looks like you found yourself another pitcher.'"

He sure had. Barker went on to win games that season against highly-ranked St. John's Prep and Catholic Memorial teams to cement his place on the varsity. The weed-ridden JV field was now a thing of the past.

"The very next game when I beat the Prep, pretty much (gave me a lot of confidence)," said Barker. "It was in Danvers when I held them to six hits and two runs in 6 1/3 innings. I also went 2-3 with an RBI that game. After that game, I had all the confidence in the world. I was just glad coach Lambert had the confidence to throw me."

Barker threw well his junior year, but, according to Lambert, did not have his best year at the plate. Barker, who hit leadoff every game and played second base on the days he didn't pitch, was having problems with plate discipline.

"Even as a junior, he really did not hit well," said Lambert. "He had a real nice year on the mound for me, but he did not break out, really. He was hitting a lot of balls in the air and striking out too much."

His pitching always seemed like an afterthought before. But he had honed his style of using off-speed pitches to paint the corners and bedevil hitters with breaking balls to become quite a mound presence.

"Honestly, my dad told me, coming into high school, 'I'd love to see you pitch, but you don't throw hard enough to be any good at the high school level," said Barker.

To Lambert, what has set Barker apart is his competitive edge on the mound to not let a dangerous situation get the best of him.

"He's never blown people away with his speed," said Lambert. "He has the command. And, right from the beginning, he's always been able to rise from the occasion in those situations, with two runners on, he's gotten out of the jam. He's always had that knack of being able to do it when it mattered most."

In his senior season, Barker ran up a 10-2 record with a 1.82 ERA over 80 2/3 innings, allowing just 54 hits. That included his first no-hitter early in the season in a 6-0 win over Waltham.

"It was just fun," said Barker. "I knew I had a chance. I didn't think anybody in their lineup could hit me. They didn't have a good day hitting. I had a good day pitching. I didn't have my best stuff, but I did good enough so they couldn't get a hit."

That's one of the traits Lambert said Barker honed to perfection as a senior: being able to pitch well even when he didn't have his best stuff.

"As a junior and as a senior, moreso, he definitely made progress in terms of not having his best stuff, but still being able to do it," said Lambert. "He'd even have times where he'd have a shutout. When he shut out (Bridgewater-Raynham), 3-0, he didn't look real sharp in that game. But he had that knack of rising to the occasion when he had to. And I think that's part of your progression as a high schooler, you get mentally tougher as you get older."

Offensively, Barker became the table-setter worthy of making the Xaverian offense click on all cylinders. He hit .313 with a .466 on-base percentage. He also scored 29 runs and stole 21 bases. He also became more patient at the plate, as striking out was no longer a problem. He finished the season with 22 walks and eight strikeouts. He had twice as many strikeouts as walks his junior year.

"I think it's no coincidence we had so many offensive explosions that coincided with him being on base so frequently," said Lambert. "When you factor in his speed, other teams are aware of him. He's the kind of guy that will bluff a steal without me calling it because he knows it's smart baseball. Now the pitcher is worrying about a lot of things, because he's got to face Dondero, (Tom) Stack-Babich, (Jake) Gorman, and (Brian) McDonough, who made the defense pay for the distraction. He really strained the other team's defense and pitchers. Table-setter is the proper name in this case for him."

Not to be lost in his abilities is his play as a defensive second baseman. Barker uses his quickness to his advantage, both with his feet and with his hands.

"That's something I've always had," said Barker. "I've been blessed, not with height or size, I've been blessed with quickness, and I use it wherever I can. Down in Florida they played me in center field because I'm fast and can cover the outfield. When I moved up here, I went to second because I have quick hands and good range. My dad says he's never seen anyone turn a quicker double- play than I can."

It was fitting that given all he was able to contribute to Xaverian's title run, Barker started the state title game in the win over Pittsfield. He had pitched a lot of innings that week, and by the end of the game he was gassed. But he went the whole nine innings, because Lambert knew who he wanted to close out Xaverian's season.

"After that BC High game (which Barker threw over 150 pitches), his (earned run) average was pummeled," said Lambert. "But he threw the whole nine innings. It was final game of the tournament, and he had given up some earned runs way after the fact, and if I had been totally concerned about his stats, I could have had someone else finish the game for us. But he deserved to be on the mound for last out."

No doubt Barker had a smile on his face for it.

John Barker posted a 10-2 record with a 1.82 ERA and threw a no-hitter as the ace of the Xaverian rotation.

Hawk plays with confidence
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Saw this thread and it caught my eye, especially since we have Thoma walking on and it seems Pettrey will be walking on now, due to transcript troubles or something like that. Did we ever come to a conclusion on this guy? Is he greyshirting or walking on at tOSU this year?
 
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I heard John's name mentioned on the Syracuse-Florida State broadcast. Announcer said that John Barker (punter for Syracuse) was a good punter because he was originally going to attend Ohio State but he enrolled at Syracuse when his "scholarship offer got pulled." Thought that was interesting.
 
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Daily Orange

The Price is Right: After considering several D-I schools, John Barker landed at SU
By Dave Murphy
Published: Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Article Tools: Page 1 of 3

The last time the Xaverian Brothers High School football team traveled to St. John's Prep in Danvers, Mass., for a Thanksgiving Day game, the Hawks lost on a Hail Mary. When Xaverian kicker John Barker returned to Cronin Field as a senior two years later, he had a shot at redemption.

Xaverian head coach Charlie Stevenson had full confidence Barker would drill the 37-yard attempt, but he didn't count on St. John's lineman Andrew Long blocking the kick, solidifying Prep's 22-21 victory.

"I don't remember anything about the kick except I hit it pretty good," Barker said. "But (Long) got through and he wasn't touched."

The kick - which took place on Thanksgiving 2003 - was the last kick Barker made in an official game until a little more than two weeks ago, when he drilled a 27-yard field goal against Virginia in the Carrier Dome. Barker sat on the bench during his first two weeks with Syracuse, but is now the full-time field goal kicker for the Orange.

"(Barker) is certainly the best kicker we've ever had at Xaverian," Stevenson said. "Even when he was in high school, I believed he had a major college leg, and I'm glad he found a home."

Finding a school wasn't as easy as Barker imagined. Shortly after graduating from Xaverian, Barker was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back that would take four months to heal. Though Barker was one of the best kickers in Massachusetts, schools were less likely to take a risk on him because of his injury.

"Kickers are hard to place because not every D-I school needs a kicker every year," Stevenson said. "There were only about 50 of 110 schools that needed a kicker last year and there are a lot of high school kickers."

Ohio State was willing to take a look at Barker, though, after a former Ohio State player recommended him to Buckeye head coach Jim Tressel. Barker verbally committed to walk on at Ohio State, but Tressel revoked the offer, leaving Barker without a school to attend or a team to kick for in the upcoming fall season.

"(Ohio State) lied a lot," Barker said. "They said they didn't have any more scholarships to give. Then they turned around and offered someone else a scholarship a week later.

"With all the recruiting and booster stuff going on there, I realized it just wasn't the place for me."

With the help of his father, Barker started the college search all over again. They researched every Division I school in the country and he came close to going to the University of Massachusetts to be a multi-sport athlete, playing baseball and football.

"(My Dad) told me, 'You have the chance to go to UMass and be a good kicker and a decent baseball player,'" Barker said, "'or you can play big-time Division I football, now pick.'"

Barker had a tough decision to make. He was a key member of Xaverian's state-champion baseball team and always dreamed of playing baseball at the collegiate level. His passion for football was stronger, though, and he ultimately chose football.

"I miss baseball badly," Barker said. "If I didn't get some sort of closure, which came with winning the state championship, I'd probably be somewhere playing baseball, too."

Once Barker made the decision to stick with football, he and his father worked to make sure they found the right school.

"You should've seen the stacks of papers we had," Barker said. "We did research on everybody. I could tell you the kicker for every single school in Division I football now."

During his months of rehab and research, Barker worked at his father's insulation company and made trips to the University of Virginia and the University of Connecticut, but the coaches at both schools wanted no part of him. He got a tryout with three other kickers at Boston College, but the Eagles didn't want him either.

Barker finally found a spot when he committed to Syracuse earlier this year.

"My Dad always liked Syracuse and we knew here that Colin (Barber) was leaving," Barker said. "We figured that this would be the best place for me. Plus, the academics are great, too."

In his first weeks with the Orange, Barker got the opportunity to compete for the role of starting field goal kicker. Unfortunately for Barker, SU head coach Greg Robinson passed him over for the starting role in favor of sophomore Ricky Krautman.

"Ultimately, the decision came down to Coach Robinson," Barker said, "and he didn't feel I should be the starter. That's the decision they made, and I had to live with it."

After Krautman had a field goal blocked and freshman Patrick Shadle missed a 39-yard attempt against Buffalo, Robinson decided to go with Barker against Virginia. With 6:25 left in the fourth quarter and the Orange down by three, Barker drilled his first field goal in almost two years, tying the game with Virginia, 24-24.

"Taking your steps back and looking through the uprights and seeing all those people up there makes you nervous," Barker said. "I was confident in my kick, though, because that's all I've been doing in the past year and a half."

Barker doesn't have to worry about recruiting now that he has a permanent home with Syracuse. After spending two years trying to find a team to play for, waiting two weeks to become the team's starting kicker was hardly any time at all.

"After the kick I was like, 'Thank God I got that over with,'" Barker said. "Now I can just cruise the rest of the way."



 
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I checked the Fla State boxscore, and I see that Barker didn't even punt. But, watching the game, the announcer definitely made the comment during a punt. As we can read, Barker is a placekicker...almost like the announcer was so eager to mention that Ohio State pulled his offer that the first time the Orange sent a kicker on the field, it got brought up.
 
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"(Ohio State) lied a lot," Barker said. "They said they didn't have any more scholarships to give. Then they turned around and offered someone else a scholarship a week later.
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You don't think that stress fracture in his back had anything to do with it? :roll1:

Or maybe he never understood what 'gray shirt' meant. At the time it was reported that he was offered a scholarship (August 2004), Pettrey was already enrolled and was a gray shirt, which meant the earliest Barker would get his scholarship was after Huston's graduation. Of course, this is compounded by the fact that nobody knew if Huston was going to get his sixth year back then either. Barker wouldn't have had a scholarship until 2006, regardless.

Either way, sounds like sour grapes to me.
 
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Dryden said:
Either way, sounds like sour grapes to me.
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I think you are right.

His disappointment is understandable but I think he would be wiser to refrain from comments about how controversies over boosters and etc showed him that Ohio State was not his kind of place.

Perhaps he misunderstood Ohio State but I don't believe that Ohio State really lied to him about a scholarship. I hope he is a huge success at Syracuse and that he is happy there.
 
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