By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer
Unlike most of his predecessors, Mt. Blue QB Mason Barker has learned on the job.

FARMINGTON – The Mt. Blue backup quarterbacks chuckle and mockingly chide Mason Barker when head coach Gary Parlin gives the senior a piece of his mind after Barker misses a read

“You guys just wait,” the second-year starter will tell his understudies. “Next year one of you guys will get the same wrath that I did.”

This is the second year that Barker has been feeling Parlin’s wrath while taking snaps for the Cougars, which in itself is a rarity at Mt. Blue, where the coach prefers to season his signal-callers on defense until they’re seniors.

“I’ve been tremendously hard on him, and we joke about it,” Parlin said. “My feeling is, if he can’t take my crap, worse things are going to happen to him on a Friday night in a lot of places.”

Barker agrees, and wouldn’t change a thing, even if it meant a few less earfuls from the coach. Starting as a junior put him so far ahead on the learning curve that it’s all been worth it.

“Just getting out there on the field and learning the plays and getting to do it against the defense and learning how to adapt to how they change from play to play, it’s just invaluable,” he said.

Just as invaluable has been learning about Parlin, who still occasionally surprises his pupil with his reactions or non-reactions to plays, good and bad, but with whom Barker now has what he describes as “a little bit more of a working relationship” rather than a coach-to-QB monologue.

“I’ve learned that nothing good comes out of arguing with coach Parlin, or even reminding him of anything,” Barker said with a laugh.

“I’ve definitely gotten better at knowing when I’ve messed up,” he added, “and I come to the sidelines and instead of having him explain to me why I didn’t do so well, I’ll just say, I didn’t make the right read on that, right?’ and he’ll just say Yeah, yeah.'”

Barker hasn’t had to explain himself very much this year, though. The Cougars are 3-0 and the quarterback is giving defenses a lot to worry about.

“He’s the perfect quarterback for our system because he’s also a guy that would be a thousand-yard tailback,” Parlin said. “The most effective quarterbacks we’ve had are the guys like Mason, like (1996 Fitzpatrick Trophy winner) Dustin Ireland, guys that were equally adept at running and throwing.”

“It all starts with him. You’ve got to game plan for him,” he added. “He beat Lewiston by running the ball. He beat Cony last week by throwing the ball, and he did a combination of both against Oxford Hills. So I would think the number one option to start (game-planning for) would be Mason Barker.”

Nevertheless, Barker doesn’t feel like there is a target on his back, although he acknowledges that the more success the Cougars have, the bigger the bull’s-eye the opposition will put on them.

“We have to prepare for that,” he said. “As it gets deeper in the season, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, they just continue to get tougher because of the situation we’re in and because we have such a big target on our back.”

Don’t think that Barker’s not prepared for that, too. He’s following the example of last year’s senior leaders, who he credits with instilling him with the most important lesson that he’s carried over from last year to this year – hard work pays off.

“We had some of the hardest working people that I have ever met, and their hard work just rubbed off on all of us,” he said. “They just kind of paved the way for us and set good role models for all of us as players.”

Hopefully, the backups aren’t just paying attention to Barker when he’s getting chewed out by the coach.