By: Justin Boone
jboone@ticats.ca
Q: Let’s start off away from the football field, what are you studying at the University of Saskatchewan?
Barker: I’m a chemistry major, I know a lot of people would question that, but it just flowed along with what I was doing, pre-dentistry, so it was easy to finish it off.
Q: It must have been tough managing football and school then?
Barker: It sure was. The first two years I had to take a full course load with football. So I was at school from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and then straight to football till 9:00 p.m. every day of the week. It was tough, but I grinded through those first two years and I scaled back the school a little bit in the last two years to focus on football.
Q: What are you going to miss most from the CIS?
Barker: All my teammates I’ve been with those guys for four years now, my coaches, we have a good group there at the U of S, and we had a lot of fun and a lot of success over my time there, so I’m going to miss that a lot.
Q: How did you get into football originally?
Barker: Actually a friend of my dad’s was always on my dad’s case for getting me in there. He saw I was a good athlete and he saw I was aggressive, so he convinced my dad to get me in the minor football league in Moose Jaw. I went and gave it a shot and we had mini-tryouts almost like the E-Camp, I had to compete against one other guy for the number one pick. We ran a 20-yard dash and whoever won went first. That’s what got me into it and from there I found out that I had some talent.
Q: I imagine last month’s E-Camp was a little bit more nerve-racking than the one as a kid?
Barker: It was, but that’s what you’re here for. You have all eyes on you, it’s your time to shine and capitalize. I think I did that for the most part at the camp, and the one-on-ones went alright, so I was happy.
Q: Who was the best player you faced in college?
Barker: I make a lot of tackles, and I come up on the run a lot too. I didn’t like tackling Matt Henry, so props to Matt out there.
Q: Do you liken yourself to anyone who is already in the CFL?
Barker: Not really, there’s not many 6-foot-4 safeties out there, but there are some taller ones who are big. I mean I’m only 205-pounds right now, so I’m looking to get that up a little bit before camp starts.
Q: With a few weeks left till the draft, is the excitement building?
Barker: It’s nice to sit back now and relax. The E-camp is done, the numbers are good and the testing went well, so I can just sit back relax a bit, and train hard until camp and get ready to play.
