It's Time Out for Walter and Barnes

By: Keith Mills

It was back to school for most area students this week, although something was clearly missing at both Arundel and Forest Park High Schools. For the first time since Richard Nixon was president of the United States, Bernie Walter and Obie Barnes Sr. were not there.

"I know one thing, I didn't miss getting up early," Walter said. "I didn't have to set my alarm for 5:45 in the morning."

Walter arrived at Arundel High in Gambrills in 1974 and never left, but for the first time in 43 years, he was not in the classroom when school started this year. He's known more as the Wildcats’ incomparable baseball coach and athletic director, but as a teacher and department chairman he helped turn the school's physical education department into one of the best in the nation.

Leaving Edmondson for Forest Park, Barnes left one West Baltimore school for another in 1977 and, like Walter at Arundel, never left. For the first time in 38 years, Barnes was also a no-show when school began. He coached the football and lacrosse teams at Forest Park and was also the school's athletic director and physical education chairman as well as a huge presence in the community for more than three decades.

"It was a lot of fun," Barnes said. "But it was time to leave. Thirty-eight years in the system's a long, long time."

Obie “O.J.” Barnes Jr. will replace his father as Forest Park's football coach. The all-time leading rusher at the school, he has been an assistant to his father since 1997. "He's ready," Barnes Sr. said. "He's been with me the last 11 years and has done a wonderful job."

Chris Barnes, who played at both Baltimore Polytechnic and Dunbar before moving on to Boston College, also assisted his father the last two years at Forest Park and will continue to help his brother coach the Foresters.

When practice began nearly two weeks ago, Barnes Sr. was in Atlantic City with his wife Itetha.

"She made sure I was out of town when practice started," he said. "She knew it was going to be tough. So we went to Atlantic City for a few days, then Ocean City. I was there to help O.J. give out the equipment, but I was gone during the first day of practice. It was strange not being there."

Damon Bomar takes over for Barnes Sr. as athletic director at Forest Park while Lee Rogers, also the school's girls basketball coach, replaces Walter as Arundel's athletic director. Walter is hoping to remain as baseball coach.

"It's not official yet," Walter said. "There are some things we have to work out, and though it's close, it's not 100 percent as yet."

Walter may or may not coach baseball again at Arundel, but he is still active in amateur baseball, both locally and nationally. He will spend the Labor Day weekend in Jupiter, Fla., running an Under-14 national baseball tournament for the U.S. national program.

In 1988, Walter coached the U.S. junior national team to its first world championship. Walter coached and taught at Archbishop Curley for six years, then left in 1974 for Arundel. He has won 597 games and 10 state championships as the baseball coach.

Walter is also a member of the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame and is one of just a dozen high school coaches in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Barnes won 152 football games at Forest Park and is a member of the Maryland State Football Coaches Hall of Fame and the Baltimore Touchdown Club Hall of Fame. He has also been a huge presence in the development of the Baltimore City Lacrosse league.

Now, the two local icons will take a step back to spend more time with their families, specifically their grandchildren. Bernie and Barbara Walter's daughter Kelly was an outstanding soccer and basketball player at Andover High School. She and her husband have four children, and Obie Barnes Jr. and his wife Gabrielle have two.

Their shoes will be impossible to fill. Both never wavered in their coaching and teaching philosophies although bureaucratic challenges have taken a lot of the fun out of teaching and may have ultimately helped expedite their retirement. They stressed education and taught discipline, fundamentals, teamwork, responsibility and accountability and directly helped influence the lives of thousands of boys and girls.

"Three things have happened," Walter said. "Class sizes have gotten much larger. The kids’ desire to learn is less than it was. They're more interested in what grade they get now instead of what they learn. They're satisfied now with a ‘D’ as long as they pass. And once the politicians got involved, it changed things a lot. Now, they tell us what we're supposed to teach, and they are so far removed from the situation that they really don't know what the kids need.

"Politicians always talk about the teachers needing to be motivated. They don't know anything about motivation. The people that need to be motivated are the students, not the teachers."

Issue 3.35: August 28, 2008