Brent Barnes: Lake Stevens High School wrestling coach

By Aaron Coe

Herald Writer

One of the best things that ever happened to Brent Barnes was losing a job he’d barely begun.

He wound up settling for Lake Stevens – a place he’d never been – and became the school’s physical education teacher and head wrestling coach in 1987.

Since then, the Vikings have won three state championships and become one of the state’s premiere wrestling programs.

Barnes was hired by the Tacoma School District in 1987 to be the wrestling coach at Wilson High School. Barnes, who won a state title in 1980 as a senior at Rogers of Puyallup, was looking forward to beginning his teaching career not far from his hometown. He bought a house, had a team meeting and was ready to go. He later learned that a district employee desired the job and filed a grievance.

Barnes was out.

He had previously interviewed at Lake Stevens, and made a quick call, hoping the job was still available.

“I ended up a lot better off,” Barnes said. “It would have been tough to build a program at Wilson. The support in Lake Stevens is outstanding. There’s nothing like coaching in a one-high-school town.”

Barnes took over a program that had enjoyed some success, but had never been a factor at the state tournament.

In Barnes’ third season, that all changed.

Led by 190-pound state champion Richie Chambers, the Vikings won the school’s first-ever state title in 1990. Barnes’ teams enjoyed three additional top-three finishes in the 1990s. Led by his son, Burke Barnes, the Vikings won consecutive titles in 2000 and 2001.

“In 1990, it was so out of the blue,” said Barnes, who was a junior college national champion for North Idaho College as a sophomore. “By 2000, I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen again.”

In 2000, Lake Stevens brought only five wrestlers to Mat Classic. They all finished in the top four, including championships by senior Danny Klevin and Burke Barnes, as the Vikings won the team title with 108.5 points.

The following season, Lake Stevens qualified nine for the tournament. Burke Barnes won his third of four state titles and the team enjoyed one of the most dominant performances in state tournament history.

The Vikings compiled 131.5 points – the fifth largest big-school total in the 49-year history of the tournament. Seven of the nine wrestlers placed in the top four, including 140-pound champ Hopper Pearson.

Cascade coach Sherm Iversen, who was Barnes’ assistant from 1990-94, says he doubts anyone devotes more time to wrestling than Barnes.

“He taught me a lot of things that I still use in my program,” Iversen said. “He knows how to get the most out of athletes and how to keep practice real intense. He will go down as a legend as far as what he has done at the high school level.”

Barnes says he’s just good at picking assistants. Dean Width has been with him since the beginning, and Andy Knutson took over when Iversen left to build a strong Cascade program.

The head man must be doing something right, however. The Vikings have not lost a Western Conference meet in more than 11 years. Their last in-state loss was to 17-time state champion Moses Lake in 1999. Lake Stevens has not lost at home since 1994, when it was beaten by Burlington-Edison, winner of the 1994 state title.

Barnes still has plenty of time to build his legacy. He’s only 40 years old and is as fit as they come. He has run in five marathons and competed in half-ironman triathlons. He is currently training for the 2003 Ironman Canada Triathlon, which consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon run.

He is also an avid fisherman and loves to read.

Wrestling, however, is his passion.

Strong wrestling programs are led by coaches who put time in year-round, which turns the stipends they earn into pennies per hour.

“State titles are won in the summer,” Barnes said.

The job, he said, has been made much easier while his son has been a part of the program. Burke Barnes, who is the No. 1 ranked 125-pound grappler in the nation, recently won his fourth state championship. His father wonders what it will be like next season when Burke is wrestling for Boise State.

No one will be surprised if Lake Stevens keeps contending year after year.