Burt Barker is not one of those coaches that is devoted to a particular style and sticks to it regardless.

“My philosophy as a coach is to look out there and see what you have as a team,” said the girls’ basketball coach at Mount Desert Island. “Then you decide what offense you’re going to do and then you decide what defense you’re going to run.”

There have been times over the past four seasons that Barker has had to alter his team’s style of play based on personnel. With the annual changeover of players, it was something Barker had to do each season, but he had one very important link to that ability to adapt — his daughter, Bracey Barker.

The 6-foot-1 guard has been one of state’s most unique and talented players during her MDI career. She not only handled the ball on the perimeter like a point guard, she could be imposing and dominate in the post. There is little the University of Maine-bound player hasn’t done for the Trojans during her career.

“It is almost like every weakness we’ve had at MDI the last three years as a team, she was able to step in and fill the void,” said Barker. “Whether it be having to float around the paint, playing a zone, going into the backcourt or if she’d go inside, it was almost like out of necessity. She had to do certain things. If things weren’t going quite right, she’d try to do what needs to be done.”

Three straight Class B state titles and winning the Maine Miss Basketball award last month proved that Bracey Barker’s versatility and talent have delivered the goods. For her achievements this season, Barker has been named the Sun Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year for the 2002-2003 season.

Other players considered included McAuley’s Sarah Marshall, Nokomis’ Danielle Clark and Dirigo’s Lyndsay Clark.

Barker is one of those rarities. She has the size of a post player at 6-1 but has the perimeter skills of a point guard. It has made for a unique combination and a matchup nightmare for opponents. Few guards could guard her, and most post players struggled to defend her, let alone score against her. She has dominated against some of the state’s best team in more ways than you might imagine.

She led the Trojans in every statistical category. Barker averaged 22 points, 10.3 rebounds and five assists. She was the Player of the Year in the Big East Conference and cappedit off with 21 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and seven blocked shots in a dominating performance in a 58-33 win over Greely in the state game.

One of the keys, says Burt Barker, in how Bracey developed into such multi-faceted player is that her game evolved faster than her body.

“Physically, she was a late developer,” said her father, who contemplated retiring from coaching before Bracey became entrenched in the MDI program but he didn’t want to see someone else try to turn his daughter into a low-post player.

“She grew throughout high school. So she went from being 5-foot-9 as a freshman and weighing 105 pounds. She was able to play off the bench as a point guard. She was our best point guard as a freshman. She wasn’t a traditional point guard. Her freshman year, even though she wasn’t physically herself, she was able to be a very important cog.”

Barker’s size made her effective in the backcourt, allowing her to feed passes over defenders. In time, with a need to have some size inside, she was used in the post at times. Eventually it got to the point where she could do both, when needed, with great success.

As she got stronger and more confident, Barker became an even greater force. In this year’s playoffs, she led MDI’s outside shooting barrage that got them through the regional tournament but spurred on the Trojans inside attack against Greely in the state game.

“I think she’s our most improved player from last year,” said Barker. “I think it’s more from maturity rather than she did ‘x’, ‘y’ or ‘z.’ She was just more physically and emotionally mature. Being 6-1, 150 pounds is a lot different than being 5-9 and 105 pounds when she was a freshman.”

Through it all, she’s had an emotional makeup that has allowed her to adapt well. Her poise has always been an asset and fit well in her role at the Trojans’ leader.

“She’s pretty unflappable,” said Barker. “She doesn’t get to high. She doesn’t get too low. It might appear that she doesn’t have the drive, that go-get ’em attitude. It’s there. She’s just more of a controlled type of player.”

kmills@sunjournal.com

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