Barber enters his fifth season as the head men's basketballcoach at Gallaudet University, for the 2011-12 season, and servesas the NCAA Compliance Officer for the Bison, a position he hasheld for over four years. Barber is also the Chair of the NorthEastern Athletic Conference Basketball Coaches Committee.
In only his second season, Barber led Gallaudet to a record of11-14 in 2008-09. That is just the 14th 10-win season in theschool's 105-year history of playing basketball. Two of the winscame at Gallaudet's annual Holiday Classic in which the Buff andBlue kept the hardware at home for the first time in thetournament's history as they defeated Penn St.-York and MarylandBible College.
Last year, the Bison posted a 5-19 record as Gallaudetparticipated in its final season in the Capital AthleticConference. Gallaudet won its annual Holiday Classic for the secondyear in a row with victories over Maryland Bible and PennSt.-York.
In his first season at Gallaudet the Bison finished 6-19overall, along with a conference record of 4-12, including two winsagainst his mentor Brett Adams the head coach at StevensonUniversity. The aspect that Barber is most proud of, however, isthe fact that his team has boasted over a 3.0 GPA every year he hasbeen at the helm of the program.
Barber came to Gallaudet from Villa Julie College (currentlyStevenson University), where he was the Assistant AthleticDirector, Sports Information Director, Head Coach of Men's Tennisand Head Assistant Coach of Men's Basketball. Barber is also analumnus of Villa Julie College, where he majored inInterdisciplinary Studies: Education and Psychology, in 2001. Hethen earned his Master's Degree from McDaniel College (formerlyWestern Maryland College) where he majored in Exercise Science andAthletic Administration in 2005.
Barber joined the Villa Julie athletics staff after graduatingfrom VJC. He was the Head Basketball Assistant for six years underAdams. His basketball duties included being the chief recruiter aswell as planning and execution of day-to-day practices. He was anintegral part of taking a team that was 7-18 the year before hejoined the coaching staff, to a team that went 58-27 over the finalthree years of his tenure. Under his assistance the Mustangs earnedan at-large berth to the NCAA tournament in 2006, and an automaticberth after winning the North Eastern Athletic Conferencechampionship in 2007. In 2006, the Mustangs made it to the round of32 after they defeated the No. 1 seed in the pod Baruch College onits home court, before they fell to William Paterson University.The two NCAA tournament appearances were the first in the school'shistory for men's basketball.
While running his team with the motto, "Play hard, play smart,play together," Barber and his men's teams have gained a reputationof playing resilient basketball. Barber also runs his program withhis most important goal in mind, which is to watch hisstudent-athletes graduate and earn respectable careers. Barberbelieves that it is the coaching staff's job to teach his playerslife lessons through the game of basketball. It brings him greatjoy to watch student-athletes from different backgrounds from allover the country come together on the basketball court as onecohesive unit.
Barber resides in Mechanicsville, Md., and is the proud fatherof three children; daughters Cali and Peyton and his sonCarson.
