Coach Hopes To Send Son Out a Champ
Sandia’s Kevin Barker will coach son for final time in title game
It’s one of the most thrilling weeks of Kevin Barker’s 19-year head coaching career.
It’s also one of the most bittersweet.
On Friday night, Barker leads the Sandia Matadors into Wilson Stadium to face Las Cruces for the Class 5A state championship. It will be the last time he’ll coach his son, Brenden.
“That’s definitely one of things I’ve thought about every day this week,” Kevin says. “Walking off the field Monday, I was thinking, ‘This will be the last Monday practice I’ll ever be his head coach.’ There’s been a lot of those type of things. But this year has really been special. My only goal coming into the season was for these seniors and Brenden to not know when their last game was.
“And we didn’t reach that goal,” he says with a grin, “because they know Friday’s their last game. But what a game to go out with.”
Brenden set a school record for receiving yards this season, with 45 receptions for 1,036 yards and nine touchdowns to help the surprising Matadors.
Sandia (9-3), seeded fourth after finishing as the District 2-5A runner-up to La Cueva, beat Mayfield 35-28 in the quarterfinals and whipped Volcano Vista 37-5 in last week’s semifinal.
“It’s something I’ve thought about since I was a little kid,” Brenden says. “I was on the sidelines in 2006 when (Sandia) made it to the semis against Mayfield, and saw how heartbreaking it was for everyone, and I just felt the same way. I’ve thought about that a long time, and thought, ‘By the time we’re all seniors, we can do it.’ ”
In 2006, the Matadors lost at Mayfield 21-14 after a Trojans goal line stand in the final minute. Twice, the Matadors appeared they might
have scored the game-tying TD, but both plays were ruled inches shy of the end zone.
Still, that’s far from Brenden’s only memory of his dad’s teams. He was the mascot — figuratively and literally — when Kevin was head coach at Manzano for seven seasons in the 1990s.
“The (players) would pick me up at preschool and bring me to Manzano, and they treated me like the king’s prince,” he says with a laugh, “because if they lost me, they knew they’d be under the bus.”
But Brenden was more than just the little guy running around at practice.
“We bought him this little lion’s outfit,” says Barbie Barker, Kevin’s wife since 1988, and the mother of their three children: Brittney, 20, Brenden, 17, and Brianne, 14.
“Brenden became the team’s mascot. He had a great time. He’s grown up on the football field ever since he was 3 or 4 years old. He was all over the place at practice, and the kids just took such good care of him, carrying him around. He just loved it and they loved having him around.
“And for Kevin, his dream had always been to coach his son. That’s what he waited for all his life.”
Both of the Barkers’ daughters were cheerleaders for Brenden’s YAFL teams. Brittney played for Sandia’s state championship girls basketball team in 2010 and Brianne plans to play next season at Sandia as a freshman.
“It would really be something if both Brittney and Brenden win a state championship as seniors,” says Barbie, a nurse at Lovelace who graduated from Sandia and met Kevin while the two were at Eastern New Mexico University.
A title will be tough to come by this Friday. Las Cruces (101) has brutalized Clovis and Eldorado in the playoffs by a combined score of 125-68. But Sandia could have a few wrinkles in store for the Bulldawgs, courtesy of the Barker boys.
“No matter what we’re doing, football is always a part of it,” says Brenden, who has a 3.7 grade-point average. “We watch the NFL (both are Denver Broncos fans), and make plays and talk about plays. When we left church on Sunday, we started talking about plays for this game.”
And when Brenden talks, Kevin listens.
Kevin says a number of his players, including Brenden, quarterback Craig Coffman and running back Aaron Smith, “have extremely high football IQs and watch hours of tape on opponents.
“These last two years, since Brenden has become a starter, we talk a lot of football. We talk a lot about coverages and different routes he can run. Then we bring those to my wide receivers coach and go from there.”
Kevin and Brenden both said there is more pressure on the young receiver than most on the team.
“You know how it is playing for your father, but it’s really fun,” says Brenden, who hopes to go to New Mexico, New Mexico State or San Diego State, but has yet to receive a scholarship offer. “And to make it this far is really something.”
Meanwhile, at the Barker house it’s been a hectic few weeks.
“I was at the dentist’s office (Tuesday), and they asked me about how it was to be a coach’s wife, and saw Kevin on the news,” Barbie said. “They said, ‘Wow, you’re married to a superstar.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I have to bring him down to earth.’ ”
As for Kevin and Brenden, when they walk off the field Saturday — win or lose — it will be a moment they will always treasure. Just more so if they win.
“Yeah, it comes into your thoughts now,” Kevin says.
“It really didn’t until the semifinal win, but seeing all the excitement on the kids’ faces, knowing they’re going to go to the championship game,” he says, then pauses. “We talk a lot about the making of a champion and ‘dare to dream.’
“That dream’s almost here.”