Adia Barnes woke up Friday to some unexpected news.
Her father, Pete, has been named to the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.
Pete Barnes, who died in Tucson in 2018 from Alzheimer’s disease and other health issues, played both baseball and football at Southern University. The Los Angeles Dodgers took Barnes in the sixth round of the 1965 amateur draft, but he chose football instead. He went on to play linebacker for the NFL’s Chargers, Oilers, Patriots and Cardinals.
As a baseball player, Barnes was a four-time All-Southwest Athletic Conference outfielder and a two-time All-American. He hit .506 as a sophomore, the fourth-best average in the nation, and drove in 41 runs. The following year, he hit .417 led his team to the NAIA World Series, where he made the all-tournament team. Barnes’ average ballooned to .436 as a senior.
Mike Gustafson, President and CEO of the College Baseball Foundation, said in an email that Barnes “checks all the boxes for induction.” The hall will hold a virtual induction later this month.
“He was a two-time NAIA All-American, multiple times all-conference, and he led his team to the NAIA World Series where he was named to the All-Tournament team,” he said. “That’s quite a resume! I am very proud of the work of our Black College Legends and Pioneers committee for their work in researching his career.”
The Class of 2020 includes 10 other players, including former big-leaguers Jason Varitek (Georgia Tech), Paul Molitor (Minnesota) and Rick Cerone (Seton Hall).
Adia Barnes called news of her dad’s selection “a good surprise.”
She was 3 years old when her parents, Pete and Pat, divorced. Her mother eventually married another man, Bruce McRae, and Adia Barnes and her birth father drifted apart. The two reconnected when Adia Barnes was an adult. The UA coach moved her father to Tucson when his health began to fail. Pete Barnes lived at Copper Canyon Alzheimer’s Special Care Center for four months before being moved to hospice care.
Adia Barnes and her family believe CTE from Pete Barnes’ 11-year NFL career caused the health issues that killed him.
“I didn’t know he was that good in baseball,” Adia Barnes said. “I knew he got drafted, but just didn’t know. I wish he would have played baseball. He wouldn’t have gotten all those concussions. Look how long he played in football — he would’ve played 20 years in baseball.”
They’re back
The Wildcats are scheduled to return to campus this week.
Some UA players are already in Tucson. Aari McDonald and Virginia Tech transfer Trinity Baptiste came back last month, while Sam Thomas and Indiana transfer Bendu Yeaney arrived on Sunday.
Arizona’s seven overseas players are all expected to return to campus before classes start later this month. Derin Erdogan, a freshman forward from Turkey, will arrive on Aug. 23.
Barnes said she “can’t wait to get started.”
“I miss the team. It has been five months since I’ve seen them,” she said. “The players want to play, and I want to coach them. Even if we phase in slowly, I’m OK with it. I’m OK if we start later. At Arizona, we are doing the things the right way and I am comfortable with that.”
Love and marriage
UA assistant Jackie Nared married former Duke basketball player Josh Hairston Saturday in a small ceremony on the beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Nared is entering her second year as an UA assistant. She was named to WBCA’s Thirty Under 30 this year as one of the young and up and coming coaches.
Hairston, who played professionally in Italy, Sweden and Switzerland after college, recently joined SAC Sports Representation as a recruiter.
He and is working toward becoming an NBA agent.
Summer of swoosh
Thomas joined Barnes on her weekly “Sunday Night Live” Q&A on Instagram this week, shortly after driving back to Tucson with her dog, Proxy.
Thomas spent her summer working a virtual internship for Nike. One of her fellow interns was a familiar face.
Christian Shepperd is a former UA women’s basketball manager and an Eller College of Management graduate. He is now pursuing an MBA at Oklahoma, where he works in the athletic department as a graduate assistant.
Thomas said they “talked every day,” just like old times in the gym.
Moving on up
One of Barnes’ former WNBA coaches had a very good weekend.
Brian Agler moved up the list of winningest WNBA coaches over the weekend, when the Wings defeated the Dream on Saturday.
Agler now has 282 wins, trailing only the Mystics’ Mike Thibault, who has 338.
Agler coached Adia Barnes when she was with the Minnesota Lynx. “He has a brilliant basketball mind. He gets it – knows how to coach professionals,” Barnes said. “He knows how to relate to players and gets people to play hard for him. He’s one of the best in specific situations and is a great defensive coach.
“You have to be a good coach to coach professionals. It’s hard. They know everything. He has the right balance — he knows basketball and is a good listener. He’s going to find a way to make the best players happy. I don’t think that’s easy.”
