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Kerry Eggers, Portland Tribune
June 23, 2016
A head football coach spends many years preparing for the task at hand.
In Bruce Barnum’s case, it had been a 30-year learning experience, beginning with a season as an assistant coach at Central Valley High in Spokane, Washington, in 1986. Three decades of preparation went into him getting his first crack at a head job at Portland State last season at 51 years of age.
But nothing can prepare a man for what Barnum has gone through this year.
In January, AJ Schlatter, a linebacker who had emerged as a starter and team leader as a redshirt freshman last season, died after complications following tonsil surgery. Then in April, three-year starting offensive lineman Kyle Smith died after an apparent drug overdose.
Barnum had never had a single current player die under his watch. Now there were two in just three months.
One death would be devastating to those inside a football program. But two?
“It hurts,” Barnum says over a cup of coffee near the PSU campus. “It will be 20 years from now, and it will still tear my heart.”
Barnum is an affable, convivial sort who is a natural at finding the right combination of discipline and lightheartedness to make football both fun and successful for his coaches and players.
But how do you rally your troops after one tragic death? And then two?
Thankfully, Barnum had plenty of help — from Portland State athletic director Mark Rountree and those in the school’s administration and counseling departments. The reaction within the program has been heartwarming, the coach says.
“I couldn’t have hoped for anything better,” Barnum says. “(The circumstances surrounding the deaths) were different. One was a shock, and one was so dark.
“The response from this university the morning after both (deaths). ... I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t have to do anything.’ My role was give the players a schedule, talk to them and try to make something positive out of this. That was easy because the school — I’m talking Mark, counselors, every piece of administration this place has — followed up so effectively.”
Rountree spoke to the players. Counselors sprung into action where needed.
“I had kids come into my office with issues and the counselors were right there,” Barnum says. “I found out who Portland State was. This place is pretty cool. I was impressed.
“Nobody likes to deal with something like that. How this place handled it ... kudos to them.”
The players already had formed a tight unit. That was evident when Barnum, in his first season, turned around a 3-9 team and created one of the great sports stories in the state in 2015. The Vikings knocked off FBS opponents Washington State and Texas State, went 9-3 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky play and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Barnum was named FCS National Coach of the Year. “Barney Ball” had made PSU football relevant for the first time in ages.
But Barnum noticed a change after the deaths. A positive change. Players from different backgrounds grew closer.
“It kept bonding them,” he says. “I have (a player from) Compton having lunch with (a player from) Pendleton. They’re spending time together away from the locker room. They care even more about each other. That’s come from it.”
The players are working together already for next season, and Barnum wants desperately to make sure the Vikings aren’t a one-hit wonder.
“I want to establish a program here like it used to be,” he says. “It’s a fragile thing; I understand that. Pokey Allen had a program at Portland State. If it didn’t run itself, it was pretty damn close. Players wanted to come here. People wanted to watch it, and be a part of it.
“That’s the ultimate goal. I don’t want to just battle for the Big Sky title. I want to win a national championship. I want to win it all. I’m finding out what it takes.”
Though Portland State’s budget is commensurate with its Big Sky brethren, Barnum is knee-deep in fundraising and courting benefactors who could help make a difference.
“It takes money to win,” he says. “If I had one suitor or a consortium of guys who wanted to give me $1 or $2 million a year like some other programs, it would make a difference.”
Barnum is making do. A new 3,000-square-foot weight room will be completed by the end of June to replace what the coach calls “a Rocky Marciano-era sweatbox.”
“It’s going to be magic,” he says.
A new FieldTurf surface on the practice field is scheduled to be done July 8. When the Viking Pavilion — a multi-purpose center that will house PSU basketball and volleyball — is completed in 2018, the football coaches offices will relocate there.
“Our facilities are getting there,” Barnum says.
Barnum jimmied his travel budget last season, busing on trips in which the Vikings previously would have flown to provide funds elsewhere. He’ll do it again, busing on trips to San Jose State, Washington, Cal Davis and Sacramento State. For PSU’s game at Southern Utah, Barnum has set up an attractive trip for boosters. The Vikings and their fans will fly to Las Vegas on Thursday.
Fans will spend two nights in Vegas, then bus the 2 1/2 hours to Cedar City for the game on Saturday. The team immediately will bus to the luxurious Brian Head Resort just outside of Cedar City.
“Wait till the kids see the hotel,” Barnum says. “Then we’ll charter home from Vegas after the game.”
Do the players complain about the long bus trips?
“My guys are good with it, honestly,” he says. “I’d hear the grumbling somehow. It’s who we are. They put their cell phones away and play cards and dominoes and talk. They get to know each other better.”
With the saved funds, Barnum is housing his grad assistants in a downtown high-rise apartment. He is spending more on uniforms and equipment and leaning on his growing relationship with Nike.
“I’m going to make a big deal out of Nike taking the time to re-brand us,” he says. “If Phil Knight’s operation is going to do that, I’m going to show it off.”
Nike’s team has designed new helmets, and the company doubled PSU’s allotment of free gear for one season.
“I get all the new stuff without going broke,” Barnum says. “It would be cool if it stayed like this, and we could keep wowing them.”
Barnum also is funneling more money into recruiting.
“That’s the key,” he says. “Recruiting is the heart and soul of our program, along with uniting this university and making everyone believe in us and what we’re doing.”
PSU’s 2016 schedule is front-loaded with difficulty. After an opener at home against Division II Central Washington, the Vikings go on the road for games at San Jose State, Washington and defending Big Sky champion Southern Utah.
“I don’t like money games, and I don’t want to play Washington in Game 3,” Barnum says. “I’d prefer to have (the Huskies) right of out the gate when they’re not already greased up, and maybe something happens our way. That happens more in Game 1 than Game 3. Not that I’d beat them Game 1, but I’d take my odds over Game 3. It’s a tough stretch, all on the road.”
The Vikings will not play either Montana or Montana State for the first time since 1995.
“Surprising,” Barnum says. “They’re programs I have great respect for, solid year after year. That’s where I want to be.”
Barnum hopes to take up where the Vikings left off last season.
“That’s why I’m doing this,” he says. “My job is, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ That’s college football. Everyone will forget last year about the time we kick off against Central.”
Barnum’s mind can’t escape the losses of Schlatter and Smith.
“The tragedies, it’s a circle of life, but really, those were hard,” he says. He pauses. He hopes there is added motivation.
“We’ve seen the top to the bottom in the span of a few months,” he says. “But let’s keep climbing. Was last year a fluke? I don’t think it was. You can win at Portland State. That’s why I’m excited about this job. “
Barnum also is excited about Rountree, who took over the AD job just after he was named as interim head coach.
“He’s a Louisiana guy who cooks jambalaya at our urban tailgater,” Barnum says. “I was going to call it ‘Barney-Gra.’
“Mark cares. He gets stuff done. He wants us to win just as bad as I do.”
After home victories last season, Barnum bought beers for the first 250 Viking fans at the Kingston Bar & Grill.
“They’re paying me more, so I’ll kick it up to 500 this year,” Barnum says. “We need to get where some guy doesn’t just watch us on TV. He has to be out at Providence Park, watching us play in person, and be a part of it.”
PSU season ticket-holders will sit behind the Viking bench next season — “best seats in the house,” Barnum says. “Where all the action is. Where our team is. Where our students are. That’s the side I want sold out.”
Attendance at PSU’s 29-17 season-ending playoff loss to Northern Iowa at Providence Park last was 8,022.
“I would like to fill the place, but I’m realistic,” Barnum says. “I’d like us to average five figures next season.”
Barnum must replace some key parts from a year ago, including running back David Jones and defensive stalwarts Patrick Onwuasor, Aaron Sibley, Daniel Fusi, Sadat Sulleyman and Jeremy Lutali. And, of course, AJ Schlatter and Kyle Smith.
“What I have trouble handling is talking to the parents and grandparents,” Barnum says. “It crushes me. I try to keep in touch with them. I had a memento made for one of the grandmothers — a framed jersey.”
He pauses again.
“My goal is to make something positive of it, and I like how how the leadership of our kids has responded,” he says. “They’re not ‘woe is me’ right now.”
The players will not wear commemorative patches for Schlatter and Smith next season. Barnum has something else in mind, which he’ll soon reveal to the players.
Life goes on, and football continues to be played.
“I’m using the game to take the kids away from it, at least for now,” Barnum says.
It’s all part of being a football coach.
[email protected]
Kerry Eggers, Portland Tribune
June 23, 2016
A head football coach spends many years preparing for the task at hand.
In Bruce Barnum’s case, it had been a 30-year learning experience, beginning with a season as an assistant coach at Central Valley High in Spokane, Washington, in 1986. Three decades of preparation went into him getting his first crack at a head job at Portland State last season at 51 years of age.
But nothing can prepare a man for what Barnum has gone through this year.
In January, AJ Schlatter, a linebacker who had emerged as a starter and team leader as a redshirt freshman last season, died after complications following tonsil surgery. Then in April, three-year starting offensive lineman Kyle Smith died after an apparent drug overdose.
Barnum had never had a single current player die under his watch. Now there were two in just three months.
One death would be devastating to those inside a football program. But two?
“It hurts,” Barnum says over a cup of coffee near the PSU campus. “It will be 20 years from now, and it will still tear my heart.”
Barnum is an affable, convivial sort who is a natural at finding the right combination of discipline and lightheartedness to make football both fun and successful for his coaches and players.
But how do you rally your troops after one tragic death? And then two?
Thankfully, Barnum had plenty of help — from Portland State athletic director Mark Rountree and those in the school’s administration and counseling departments. The reaction within the program has been heartwarming, the coach says.
“I couldn’t have hoped for anything better,” Barnum says. “(The circumstances surrounding the deaths) were different. One was a shock, and one was so dark.
“The response from this university the morning after both (deaths). ... I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t have to do anything.’ My role was give the players a schedule, talk to them and try to make something positive out of this. That was easy because the school — I’m talking Mark, counselors, every piece of administration this place has — followed up so effectively.”
Rountree spoke to the players. Counselors sprung into action where needed.
“I had kids come into my office with issues and the counselors were right there,” Barnum says. “I found out who Portland State was. This place is pretty cool. I was impressed.
“Nobody likes to deal with something like that. How this place handled it ... kudos to them.”
The players already had formed a tight unit. That was evident when Barnum, in his first season, turned around a 3-9 team and created one of the great sports stories in the state in 2015. The Vikings knocked off FBS opponents Washington State and Texas State, went 9-3 overall and 6-2 in Big Sky play and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Barnum was named FCS National Coach of the Year. “Barney Ball” had made PSU football relevant for the first time in ages.
But Barnum noticed a change after the deaths. A positive change. Players from different backgrounds grew closer.
“It kept bonding them,” he says. “I have (a player from) Compton having lunch with (a player from) Pendleton. They’re spending time together away from the locker room. They care even more about each other. That’s come from it.”
The players are working together already for next season, and Barnum wants desperately to make sure the Vikings aren’t a one-hit wonder.
“I want to establish a program here like it used to be,” he says. “It’s a fragile thing; I understand that. Pokey Allen had a program at Portland State. If it didn’t run itself, it was pretty damn close. Players wanted to come here. People wanted to watch it, and be a part of it.
“That’s the ultimate goal. I don’t want to just battle for the Big Sky title. I want to win a national championship. I want to win it all. I’m finding out what it takes.”
Though Portland State’s budget is commensurate with its Big Sky brethren, Barnum is knee-deep in fundraising and courting benefactors who could help make a difference.
“It takes money to win,” he says. “If I had one suitor or a consortium of guys who wanted to give me $1 or $2 million a year like some other programs, it would make a difference.”
Barnum is making do. A new 3,000-square-foot weight room will be completed by the end of June to replace what the coach calls “a Rocky Marciano-era sweatbox.”
“It’s going to be magic,” he says.
A new FieldTurf surface on the practice field is scheduled to be done July 8. When the Viking Pavilion — a multi-purpose center that will house PSU basketball and volleyball — is completed in 2018, the football coaches offices will relocate there.
“Our facilities are getting there,” Barnum says.
Barnum jimmied his travel budget last season, busing on trips in which the Vikings previously would have flown to provide funds elsewhere. He’ll do it again, busing on trips to San Jose State, Washington, Cal Davis and Sacramento State. For PSU’s game at Southern Utah, Barnum has set up an attractive trip for boosters. The Vikings and their fans will fly to Las Vegas on Thursday.
Fans will spend two nights in Vegas, then bus the 2 1/2 hours to Cedar City for the game on Saturday. The team immediately will bus to the luxurious Brian Head Resort just outside of Cedar City.
“Wait till the kids see the hotel,” Barnum says. “Then we’ll charter home from Vegas after the game.”
Do the players complain about the long bus trips?
“My guys are good with it, honestly,” he says. “I’d hear the grumbling somehow. It’s who we are. They put their cell phones away and play cards and dominoes and talk. They get to know each other better.”
With the saved funds, Barnum is housing his grad assistants in a downtown high-rise apartment. He is spending more on uniforms and equipment and leaning on his growing relationship with Nike.
“I’m going to make a big deal out of Nike taking the time to re-brand us,” he says. “If Phil Knight’s operation is going to do that, I’m going to show it off.”
Nike’s team has designed new helmets, and the company doubled PSU’s allotment of free gear for one season.
“I get all the new stuff without going broke,” Barnum says. “It would be cool if it stayed like this, and we could keep wowing them.”
Barnum also is funneling more money into recruiting.
“That’s the key,” he says. “Recruiting is the heart and soul of our program, along with uniting this university and making everyone believe in us and what we’re doing.”
PSU’s 2016 schedule is front-loaded with difficulty. After an opener at home against Division II Central Washington, the Vikings go on the road for games at San Jose State, Washington and defending Big Sky champion Southern Utah.
“I don’t like money games, and I don’t want to play Washington in Game 3,” Barnum says. “I’d prefer to have (the Huskies) right of out the gate when they’re not already greased up, and maybe something happens our way. That happens more in Game 1 than Game 3. Not that I’d beat them Game 1, but I’d take my odds over Game 3. It’s a tough stretch, all on the road.”
The Vikings will not play either Montana or Montana State for the first time since 1995.
“Surprising,” Barnum says. “They’re programs I have great respect for, solid year after year. That’s where I want to be.”
Barnum hopes to take up where the Vikings left off last season.
“That’s why I’m doing this,” he says. “My job is, ‘What have you done for me lately?’ That’s college football. Everyone will forget last year about the time we kick off against Central.”
Barnum’s mind can’t escape the losses of Schlatter and Smith.
“The tragedies, it’s a circle of life, but really, those were hard,” he says. He pauses. He hopes there is added motivation.
“We’ve seen the top to the bottom in the span of a few months,” he says. “But let’s keep climbing. Was last year a fluke? I don’t think it was. You can win at Portland State. That’s why I’m excited about this job. “
Barnum also is excited about Rountree, who took over the AD job just after he was named as interim head coach.
“He’s a Louisiana guy who cooks jambalaya at our urban tailgater,” Barnum says. “I was going to call it ‘Barney-Gra.’
“Mark cares. He gets stuff done. He wants us to win just as bad as I do.”
After home victories last season, Barnum bought beers for the first 250 Viking fans at the Kingston Bar & Grill.
“They’re paying me more, so I’ll kick it up to 500 this year,” Barnum says. “We need to get where some guy doesn’t just watch us on TV. He has to be out at Providence Park, watching us play in person, and be a part of it.”
PSU season ticket-holders will sit behind the Viking bench next season — “best seats in the house,” Barnum says. “Where all the action is. Where our team is. Where our students are. That’s the side I want sold out.”
Attendance at PSU’s 29-17 season-ending playoff loss to Northern Iowa at Providence Park last was 8,022.
“I would like to fill the place, but I’m realistic,” Barnum says. “I’d like us to average five figures next season.”
Barnum must replace some key parts from a year ago, including running back David Jones and defensive stalwarts Patrick Onwuasor, Aaron Sibley, Daniel Fusi, Sadat Sulleyman and Jeremy Lutali. And, of course, AJ Schlatter and Kyle Smith.
“What I have trouble handling is talking to the parents and grandparents,” Barnum says. “It crushes me. I try to keep in touch with them. I had a memento made for one of the grandmothers — a framed jersey.”
He pauses again.
“My goal is to make something positive of it, and I like how how the leadership of our kids has responded,” he says. “They’re not ‘woe is me’ right now.”
The players will not wear commemorative patches for Schlatter and Smith next season. Barnum has something else in mind, which he’ll soon reveal to the players.
Life goes on, and football continues to be played.
“I’m using the game to take the kids away from it, at least for now,” Barnum says.
It’s all part of being a football coach.
[email protected]
