SAN ANTONIO – First-year Burbank head football coach Phil Barron shared a poignant, emotional moment with his players last Thursday before they took the field to play Edison at Alamo Stadium.
Barron gathered the team in the locker room for his final pregame remarks, but this time his words had deeper meaning. What he said in those few minutes probably will resonate with his players long after they graduate from high school.
“As we were warming up earlier, I looked in the stands and it just came to me,” Barron said. “It wasn’t anything I had planned to say. I want these kids to play for somebody who means something to them, or somebody in their heart who wishes they could be at the game, but they aren’t.”
Barron, 34, thought back to the days when he played football at South San High School and Bethel College in Kansas. His father never got to see him play because he was incarcerated. It’s a hurt Barron still feels to this day.
“It kind of brought me to what I went through in my own personal life and who I wish I could have played in front of,” Barron said. “I got everybody up in the locker room before the game. It’s a typical thing we do. They all huddled around me, my staff as well.”
Barron spoke from the heart, connecting with his players at a level that demonstrates the dynamics of a relationship between high school coaches and their athletes.
“I told them, ‘I want to ask you guys something. How many of you have a mom or a dad or somebody who you care about in prison, or has never come out to your games?’ A bunch of them raised their hands.
“Then I asked them how many of them have both parents at the games and involved in their school life, and some of them raised their hand. I told them to be thankful because they’re blessed.”
Barron touched all the bases as he continued his powerful message.
“I told the other guys who wish that one person could be out here watching them, ‘Play for that person and pretend they’re in the stands watching you, or play for the people who provide for you, work to put a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food in the mouth,’” he said. “I just wish my father had been in the stands every Friday night when I was in high school. I never got that opportunity because he was in prison.”
Barron said he struggled to keep from breaking down as he spoke. Many of his players were moved to tears as they filed out of the locker room.
“I get emotional talking about it now,” Barron said.
Barron clearly struck a nerve with his players.
“Several of them lost it,” he said. “They were sobbing. At the end of it, I told them, ‘We, as coaches, are here to watch you. We love you. We support you. If you don’t have anybody in the stands watching you, you have us.’”
The Bulldogs beat Edison 28-14 in their District 13-5A / Division I opener that night, avenging a loss last year to the Golden Bears. Burbank, 2-1 overall, plays Brackenridge (2-1, 1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Alamo Stadium.
Burbank’s players say they have felt a stronger connection with Barron since his pregame talk with them last week.
“It definitely moved me and inspired me to play for my family that was in the stands watching me,” senior offensive tackle Nick Arias said. “As a team, I think we grew stronger in that moment, knowing that Coach Barron was comfortable enough to open up and share that moment in his life. It probably wasn’t easy for him.
“I think Coach Barron is one of the most relatable coaches we have. He understands what it’s like on this side of town. Not everybody has their parents. It’s hard and Coach Barron understands that. After he told us that, we grew as a team.”
Sophomore running back Matthew Salazar said he was moved by Barron’s willingness to share his experience with the team.
“It really makes me feel like he knows what we’re going through,” Salazar said “He can relate. He grew up on this side of town, went to South San. When he tells us something, we believe him because he’s gone through it. There were a lot of guys who teared up when he talked to us before we played Edison.”
Barron was an assistant coach at Madison for three seasons before joining Mark Perez’s staff as offensive coordinator last year. He was promoted in May after Perez resigned.
“I think one thing that Phil has is a very strong belief in himself, and a very strong belief that there’s more out there for these kids, our kids,” San Antonio ISD athletic director Todd Howey said. “He grew up like a lot of kids on his team are currently growing up. A lot of the same challenges. They’re a reflection of each other. He was a successful athlete and came back to his community, and now he’s a very young head coach.
“He was able to achieve a lot even though his circumstances growing up weren’t perfect. When Coach Barron talks to his kids, he sees himself in those kids and those kids see somebody in Coach Barron that they want to aspire to be like. That’s really what coaching is all about.”
Being from San Antonio, Barron was familiar with Burbank’s football history long before he became the Bulldogs’ new head coach. Burbank has struggled mightily through the years, recording only two winning seasons and making the playoffs just three times since finishing 10-1 in 1978.
The Bulldogs haven’t had back-to-back non-losing seasons since 1977 (5-5) and 1978. They have been 5-5 twice (1984 and 2014) since 1978, and finished 0-10 eight times during that span.
Burbank made the playoffs last year but finished 5-6. Still, the Bulldogs won five games after going 1-29 the previous two seasons.
Undaunted, Barron has embraced the challenge at Burbank.
“This job is for me,” Barron said. “The kids, the community, the environment, the poverty, the struggle. I grew up five minutes down the road. I see myself in these kids. I feel that this is what I was meant to do.
“The challenge is to change the culture here. We work on that every day. We try to get the kids to do the little things right. My coaching staff has done a great job of staying on the kids.”
While Barron’s father never saw him play football in high school and college, his mother and stepfather, Sandra and Mike Hernandez, and his younger sister, Ashley, cheered him on. His late maternal grandparents, Estella and Louis Vega, and aunts and uncles on his mother’s side also were regulars at his games.
“My mom’s side of the family is awesome,” Barron said. “They even used to drive to Kansas to watch me play at Bethel. They’re the reason I am who I am today. They’ve been responsible for a lot of the success I’ve had because they’ve been so supportive.”
A 2002 South San graduate, Barron earned his degree in 2006 and returned to his alma mater for a one-year stint as an assistant coach on John Torres’ staff. Torres was the Bobcats’ offensive coordinator when Barron, a fullback and quarterback, was a senior.
Barron went back to Bethel to work as a graduate assistant in 2007, but stayed for only a year.
“I thought the college ranks was where I wanted to be, but then I decided it wasn’t,” he said. “It’s not what I wanted to do.
Barron returned to San Antonio and has coached in the city since 2008. After working at Terrell Wells Middle School for one year, Barron was hired by Torres as running backs coach at South San and stayed on the job for five years (2009-13). He was promoted to offensive coordinator by then-coach Marcus Booker before his final season with the Bobcats.