Spring Insider: Q&A with Coach John Barnes

Question: Tell me about your team.
JB: We have a bunch of really goods skill players -- the receivers, our quarterback. On defense our secondary, our linebackers are all skilled guys. Not the biggest guys in the world, probably as skilled as we’ve been since 2004 when we went to the finals. On the line we have a couple big kids who have played some. We have a totally new offensive line. They’re not the biggest guys, but they have great attitudes.

Q: What are your spring goals?
JB: The goal is to teach them how to practice the way we want, at the pace we want, all the organizational parts. No. 2 is to start teaching them everything we want to put in. But we’re going a little slower this year because we want to do a better job doing everything right. Learn to practice and get an idea of what we’re doing. It’s so funky in high school without pads. It gets rough and bloody. It’s probably not a good idea. We should probably have pads. I’m a big proponent of pads. 

Q: Was it pretty humbling to not make the playoffs last year?
JB: No, you do the best you can. I don’t think anyone in Orange County has won more games in the last 25 years than we have. When it comes to doing great things, we’ve done  it. We had that 47-game winning streak. We’ve had seven CIF finals. We’ve been at least to the semifinals nine times. We’ve won a lot of league titles. I’ll tell you what’s good: when you don’t go to the playoffs and everyone talks about it, that’s good. When you don’t win a league title and everyone wonders what’s wrong, that’s good. When you’re 7-3 and they think you’re not very good, that’s good.

It shows you the high expectations here. And I live by them. I want high expectations. We know they’re there and we like them. You just do the best you can. Were we one of the 16 teams that probably should have been there (in the playoffs last year)? Yeah, I think so. But it didn’t hurt. It probably saved us getting our butts kicked in the first round. Somebody else got that butt kicking. Now we have a purpose that’s more motivating.

But disappointment? The disappointment was losing to Esperanza and Newport Harbor. Those were disappointments. They kind of haunt me. But the playoff thing, once you win the whole thing and become a CIF champion, unless you win it’s always disappointing. Our objective is not to make the playoffs. That would be so low-balling how we think. Our objective is to win the league title and make huge waves in the playoffs.

Q: Do you think the defense is what kept you out of the payoffs last year?
JB: It’s a team game. There are games when we won 7-0. Sometimes you get in a shootout and it’s got to be on the offense. Don’t ask me why those games happen that way. Our defense was a little young last year, but they’re all back. We’re going to be a lot better.

Q: Going into the 2008 season I think you have one of the five best teams in the county. Agree?
JB: I don’t know. I never know what somebody else really has. If you ask me what Mission Viejo has, or Mater Dei or Edison, you kind of know but you never know. I think we’re going to be really, really competitive, up there with the best teams. But I don’t know what anybody else has.

Contact the writer: amaya@ocregister.com