Sports Genetics: It Runs in the Family

By Mason Walling – When you come from a family of athletes, sports are in your blood.

            Danielle Barber is a 22-year-old from Cape May, New Jersey, and has been playing basketball for as long as she came remember.  She was the starting point guard at Middle Township High School scoring over a thousand career points before going on to play four more years at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

            Barber was her usual calm and comfortable self as she sat down with me for a one on one interview in the study lounge of Campus West, the Syracuse University apartment complex building in which she currently resides.

“Growing up my dad was probably my biggest influence,” Barber said.  Barber’s father, Gary, was the girls’ high school basketball coach at Middle Township for eight years.  He won back to back state championship titles in ’94 and ’95, and he is in the New Jersey Hall of Fame for high school basketball coaches.

            Barber’s mother, Lucille, was a track runner in college and has been a triathlon competitor for more than ten years.  Barber credits her parents for sparking her passion in sports, and she still maintains excellent relationships with each of them via daily phone conversations.

“Basketball is my life and so it’s kind of weird being without it,” said Barber, when asked how it felt to be finished with playing collegiately on the hardwood.  However, she refused to give up sports entirely, which is why she is currently a graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications pursuing a career in commentating college athletics.

Barber got her start broadcasting play-by-play for the Lady Rangers softball team of Drew University, followed by both men’s and women’s lacrosse.  Her dream is to announce women’s college sports for ESPN, specifically college basketball and softball.  She strives to emulate NBA analyst Tim Legler, as he is a mentor to her and a close family friend of the Barber’s.

Regardless of what the future has in store for Barber, she will always have an inherit love for competition and sport.

                       

Transcribed Interview

(Mason)          Okay, my name is Mason Walling, I’m sitting down today with Danielle Barber.  Thanks for joining me Danielle.

(Danielle)         Thank you for having me.

(Mason)           Yeah, we were talking a little bit about your background in sports.  Go ahead and tell me, what is your sports background?

(Danielle)         Well, high school and college I was a four year starter for both.  Thousand point scorer.  I was a point guard, my favorite position to play.  Basketball is my life and so it’s kind of weird being without it, but I’m in a summer league for the YMCA just to kind of keep in with basketball.  So yeah, basketball is definitely a huge part of my life.

(Mason)           Good.  What originally got you involved in sports?

(Danielle)         Well, growing up my dad was probably my biggest influence.  He was a high school basketball coach for the high school that I went to, back in ’89 only until ’97.  He was a back to back state title championship team.  They were originally Division II and then moved up to the next Division III, which is like a bigger school.  He graduated all five seniors and then still won, which is pretty big in high school.  He’s in the New Jersey Hall of Fame for high school basketball coaches.  So I think he obviously was the main reason for even why I got into the sport in the first place.  He’s definitely been a huge reason why I got into it.  Always, you know giving me different opportunities to, you know, be a better player, things like that.

(Mason)           Yeah it sounds like you have a very, very good relationship with your dad.  What about your mom, what’s her sports background?

(Danielle)         She is an avid triathlon, I guess enthusiast, if you say that.  Yeah, she is athletic also, she was a track runner in high school and two years in college.  So I think that’s where I get my athleticism from, my dad would argue that, but I definitely get it from my mom’s side.  So mesh the two, and you get a basketball player, who is athletic.

(Mason)           Nice.  Yeah it definitely sounds like you are very, very close with your parents.  That’s good.  What are your career aspirations and I guess what is your dream job, you would say?

(Danielle)         My dream job, definitely to be on ESPN commentating sports like women’s college basketball, women’s college softball, I would like to do men’s college sports also if I had the chance to.  But definitely want to stay in college, don’t really want to, you know, get off into the professional sports yet.  If I had the opportunity, I would obviously say yes, but definitely want to stick with college sports.  I think I would definitely excel in those, specifically basketball just because I know a lot about it, and I’m most comfortable talking about it.

(Mason)           Great.  What kind of experience do you have, as far as sports media goes?

(Danielle)          Well in college during my off season, obviously I played basketball, so during the spring I would do play-by-play for the women’s softball team and the men and women’s lacrosse teams.  I also did some announcing too, which was a lot of fun just to get the crowd riled up and announce everyone’s names, and it was just a lot of fun being in the college atmosphere.

(Mason)           Great.  Sticking with that, like on a professional level, who are some of your role models or some of the people you would like to emulate?

(Danielle)          My biggest one definitely would be Tim Legler, he is an ESPN NBA analyst.  He’s a close family friend of mine and my dad’s.  And I coached his daughter, or trained her in basketball when I was home for the summer, over the past like few summers.  But I just think the way that he carries himself on camera, the way he speaks, his delivery, is so firm and so strong and he just has such a broad base of knowledge.  He’s just so engaging when he talks and I think that’s really important to have, especially being on TV in such an industry and for him to stand out in my mind I think that says a lot.  So I would definitely want to emulate him hopefully when I get into my own career.

(Mason)           Awesome. Well, Danielle thanks for sitting down with me, I appreciate it, and I wish you the best of luck in the future.

(Danielle)         Thank you very much.