Hoosier Highschool Football - Interview with BNL Head Coach Derrick Barker

[Guest]

Derrick Barker, a Linton and Rose Hulman grad is now lazer focused on building a competitive football program at Bedford North Lawrence, and pulling his program, along with all the others in the Hoosier Hills, out of the long shadow cast by Columbus East. The Stars finished 4-5 this season and have an opportunity to even the slate and move on in the tournament as they host conference rival Seymour.

 

Question 1

Hello Coach Barker and welcome to Hoosier Highschool Football. We have readers from all around the state and many are not familiar with your background. Please tell us a little about your educational and playing background, and when and why did you decide to get into coaching? Also, how did you land the BNL job, and who are some of the key mentors you've had over the years as you've worked your way up the coaching ladder?

 

Response

• I appreciate you having me on and really appreciate you increasing awareness for Indiana High School Football! I am a 2009 graduate of Linton Stockton high school where I was lucky enough to be a 2 year starter on some really good teams, thanks to players far more talented than myself. That is where my love for the game really started to grow and develop thanks to some great men who coached me in middle school and high school like Mike Hayden, Andrew Bredeweg, Joe Lorig, and Steve Weber. From there I attended Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and played football for 1 year before transferring to a different school and ending my playing career. My biggest mentor in coaching has been Coach Steve Weber, who was my high school head coach and then gave me my first shot at coaching at BNL 7 years ago. It was unbelievably lucky for me to get to play for, and coach with, one of the absolute best coaches and men in the state.

 

Question 2

What kind of football culture are you and your staff attempting to build at BNL, which is a traditionally strong basketball first high school.?

 

Response

• The first thing we are trying to develop is a culture of great young men and women who are competitors and winners in everything they do. My first core belief for our program is that Better People Make Better Stars so that is what we strive to develop in the classroom and community. We have also really stressed the importance of the weight room for all athletes; it is our goal to help make BNL a strong athletic program in all sports which undoubtedly starts in the weight room. From a football standpoint we want to always outwork our opponent in preparation and in effort and execution during the game.

 

Question 3

What are your preferences in terms of offensive and defensive scheme and basic philosophy?

 

Response

• Offensively we have been pretty multiple this year, but base most of our scheme around the Shotgun Triple Option-mainly from Coach Tony DeMeo who has been a tremendous mentor and help to our program over the last few years. We will also show some spread packages with Air Raid passing concepts that we feel are good change ups to our base scheme.

• Defensively we are a 3-3-5 defense that relies on speed and quickness to try to stop our opponents. While we base out of a Stack look we also pride ourselves in having the ability to show multiple fronts and coverages from play to play, so we rarely ever look the same from week to week.

 

Question 4

Having had the opportunity to make a full run through the Hoosier Hills Conference, what are your general thoughts on the league in terms of competitive balance, speed and physicality, and the variety of coaching styles and offensive approaches you see from school to school?

 

Response

• This year in the HHC has been a lot of fun, in some way probably due to Columbus East finally losing their stronghold on the conference, but each week is a challenge where we see some really good teams that are extremely well coached. It has been fun as well to go week to week on our schedule where most teams are different in scheme and plan for attacking an opponent. I believe this helps to make us a more well-rounded team that is experienced and prepared to face a multitude of different challenges.

 

Question 5

What were your primary objectives heading into practice and game prep this week and do you and your staff feel strongly that you've got the team in the best possible position to compete at optimum level on Friday night?

 

Response

• The big thing for us this week was to solidify our game plan and begin to get comfortable with it and eliminating all mistakes on our end. We were lucky to have an off-week last week to focus on strength and conditioning, but also to give our kids some time away from football practice and let them be kids and recharge their batteries for a bit. We have spent a lot of time each week this season focusing on how we want to play each game and what our best plan is for victory on Friday night, so we have practiced a lot of situations and adjustments for this week because we know it will be a tough game against a good opponent so we have to ready for everything.

 

Question 6

The vast majority of teams still alive in the tournament are playing their best and most physical style of football as they have all season. What specific challenges does your opponent this week present to you and your coordinators and what will you be doing to mitigate their core strengths and tendencies?

 

Response

• This week’s opponent, the Seymour Owls, present a lot of challenges starting with an extremely talented group of skill players on offense. Having played them earlier this season we saw firsthand how explosive their offense can be starting with their QB who is an all around great athlete and then moving to their freshman tight end/receiver who is one of the best weapons in the entire HHC. Defensively they are an aggressive team that has really played some good ball in their last couple games, so we expect them to make some stops and force us to rely on some adjustments and tweaks throughout the game in order to score points.

 

Question 7

What is your basic outlook on the tournament, including the draw , and what observations have you and your staff made as you look around at some of the early results from around the state?

 

Response

• Tournament time in Indiana is one of the most exciting times of year because you really never know what is going to happen from week to week. I think it is great that all teams get in the tournament and that your path to a sectional championship relies on the draw and not necessarily seeding. We are happy to have our first game this week at home because we have had tremendous crowd support all year long and hope that we can use it to better our chances for victory this evening.

 

Question 8

Keeping young players "in the moment" and avoiding the pitfalls of looking too far ahead are a challenge for any coach at any level. What is the message that you are sending to your team this week to keep them grounded and focused on what lies directly ahead of them this week?

 

Response

• That is absolutely a challenge with high school athletes, especially the further along you get in the season. Our focus all year has been from day to day so we have always stressed the importance of each practice to stack good days on top of good days to ultimately get to the end goal we desire. I tell the team a lot that consistency is the ultimate measure of success, so if we want to ultimately be a great team and win championships we must focus on being consistently great each day and never look ahead to something that we can’t control in the present moment. I hope that our kids have learned to enjoy the process over the product of building a great team and have enjoyed each and every day this season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited October 31, 2021 by HHF

[tango]

Good stuff.

[MDAlum82]

Always interesting to learn about the different ways fellow RHIT grads are influencing their communities.  Best of luck, Coach Barker!