Simson Garcia | Sports Editor
Numerous passions have kept junior Bernard Barber determined. In football, rugby, his major in business and his dream of firefighting, Barber contains a love for those things he’s committed to.
The way Barber sees it, a love for what he does tells him he’ll never have to work a day in his life — something his mother instilled in him since childhood.
A desire has always been there for him: football became his first love, growing up 10 minutes from the beach in west Long Beach, California. The game drove him up through his Lakewood High School days, to joining Western Oregon’s football team in his first year attending, to flag football and, now, rugby.
Not stopping at the football return or the rugby drop: ambition, fervor and will positioned Barber to excel in multiple sports. He’s thrown himself into the net of all that Western Oregon’s club and intramural sports offer.
This term, he’s signed up to play in intramurals for softball and volleyball, and soon will be involved in basketball.
In a day’s work, once these obligations are met with his teammates on the field or on the court, and after much time has been spent expelling efforts to the many demands from those sports he’s in, Barber will drive up to Keizer to work in his managerial position at Sonic.
“There’s different personalities, customers you have to deal with, but it’s taught me how to prioritize, and different obligations” said Barber. Prioritizing and keeping the right balance in anything, in general, is another lesson his mother raised him with.
Barber said sometimes he knows he’ll have to miss practice because of a work schedule, but it’s something he says he’s learned to manage.
Understanding the different obligations of the various sports and activities he’s in, Barber has found not only the right leverage, but success even with some of the constraints.
He was a part of Western’s all-star intramural flag football team that competed in the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association championship in January 2018.
But football, the friendships he inherited with it and the family bond that’s been created has also had a strong influence to his willingness to be involved in many campus sports.
“The first thing I did when I came here was sign up for football, but I didn’t know anybody,” Barber noted. So, he built connections, like rugby teammate Chris Davis, who urged him to play rugby his first year. Since then, Barber’s started in every rugby game he’s played in.
“Ever since then, I’ve met people who I now call my brothers. It would be weird if I go a day without seeing them,” said Barber.
His competitiveness and work ethic may have been ignited at the age of six, after first experiencing the workings of his grandfather’s fire station and the engine he worked on during weekend visits. Looking back on the experience now, Barber mentions that his grandfather’s coworkers, “the ones that were on the same engine as him, say to me he really took a passion for what he did, and I’ve always looked up to him, as I have several pictures of us being at the fire station.”
Barber says becoming a fireman has been a dream since being around the fire station a number of times as a child: “I will never forget it, and at the time you’re just amazed at what’s around you … But after studying up and going to seminars, I know that this is 100 percent what I want to do.”
If there was ever an urgent demand for firefighting, Barber realizes that time is now.
“I feel comfortable knowing the steps to become a fireman, I know what to do after I graduate, I know classes I need to take, I know the physical shape I need to be in,” he explained.
From the summer until late fall of 2017, California experienced some of the worst wildfire hazards on record.
According to the LA Times, the ten most destructive wildfires in California history have all occurred between September and December. Barber saw what happened in his home state and, after hearing from friends who live around the San Bernardino area and of the effect the recent fires have had on them, Barber has felt a calling to help communities in need.
But Barber’s relieved he’s one year away from graduating, and how soon he will get his chance to pursue a firefighting dream with efforts to aid. He’s hoping to attend fire school after graduation.
After college, he also plans to have a business career to fall back on. While he’s working on his degree, he’s narrowed his focus to marketing.
Barber commented, “I’d like to own my own business. I’ve always been a good people-person and business is something I can always fall back on. My mom is the CEO of her business and so that’s a big reason why I’m in pursuit of that.”
Through the sports he’s involved in, degrees he’s focused on and embellishments of multiple activities, the work he’s putting in now can only move Barber forward in pursuit of his ultimate dreams and aspirations.
Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu
