By Gabby Alfveby

Flagler baseball head coach David Barnett started his 37 ^th season with the Saints like any other: concentrated on the group and guaranteeing its success.

However for Barnett, this isn’t simply any other season.

After more than 3 years at Flagler, Barnett revealed his strategies to retire following the existing season. While he’s attempting to set about company like he constantly has, he confesses that he’s begun to feel the feelings that include retirement which they will strike him a growing number of as the season goes on.

” I simply desire these guys to have an excellent season and succeed,” Barnett stated. “I wish to enjoy it, which I am. I wish to take pleasure in going to practice. I wish to take pleasure in the video games. You understand simply soak everything in due to the fact that this is it. I will not be doing the exact same thing I have actually provided for 37 years, the exact same regular actually when you consider it, so that will be various.”

Barnett has actually collected a profession record of 1,041-869. He has actually made the leading 20 for all-time wins in NCAA Department II baseball, and led his group to the local finals two times, in 1993 and 2002, along with the Peach Belt Conference competition 7 times. On top of that, he likewise functioned as the athletic director at Flagler from 1994 to 2009.

Barnett is retiring following the rest of the 2024 season and has actually enjoyed every second of his profession. He has actually viewed 51 of the gamers he coached indication expertly, 3 of whom went up to play Big league Baseball.

However for Barnett, it hasn’t simply had to do with baseball. He saw himself not just as a coach however likewise as an instructor of lots of lessons for the gamers who have actually gone through the Flagler baseball program.

” I’ll miss it[coaching players] However there’s likewise a great sensation to understand that I’m retiring and I will not have a few of the headaches,” Barnett stated. “However I understand I’ll miss out on the gamers. I’m not discussing always this group of gamers, however all the gamers that I have actually coached.”

He would like for his existing group to end up the season strong regardless of their rough start so far.

” We have actually won 3 in a row versus great groups,” he stated. “So perhaps it’s turning a bit. It appears like it is, however we stubbed our toe for the very first 8 video games of the season, and after that things are beginning to head in the ideal instructions. However regardless, I’m going to enjoy it.”

Barnett acknowledged that this is the last group he will ever coach and wishes to genuinely reside in the minute and enjoy what he has now.

“[His main focus is] simply taking pleasure in the group and the gamers and [having] a bit of reflection,” he stated. “I wish to concentrate on this specific group due to the fact that it’s the last group I’m going to coach. So, yeah, I desire them to do well. I’ll get a little choked up often in my mind if I attempt to consider reviewing things. I’m attempting to enjoy it.”

Barnett did, in reality, begin training due to the fact that he delights in and gets fulfillment from being not simply a coach, however likewise an instructor, a coach, and somebody gamers can lean on for aid.

” Coaches have impact,” he stated. “I constantly had coaches that I had a great deal of regard for and had a great deal of impact on me when I was more youthful. So I believe that most likely played into my ideas about training, too. That the impact that a coach can have on gamers is a lot more than teaching the video game. You type of hope you’re teaching the video game of life a bit, too.”

Matthew Burke is a senior infielder on the Flagler baseball group and has not just found out a lot about baseball and grown within the sport however likewise those life lessons that Barnett stresses.

” He gambled on me,” Burke stated. “[I had] no deals in high school, and he simply provided me an opportunity to play college baseball, and I’m so grateful for that, and it’s actually, actually amazing. Undoubtedly, he worries about winning and losing. He wishes to win so severely, however he forms us guys to where we wish to be for our futures. He desires us to have a household, deal with everybody that we see right, and he simply desires the very best for us in our future. He desires us to be effective in the real life.”

Burke stated that he will miss out on the energy that Barnett gives the field and is honored that he got the possibility to be a part of his profession.

“[I will miss] his wondrous spirit at practice,” Burke stated. “He constantly has a smile on his face and wishes to exist. He desires us to be much better every day. And I seem like that’s an actually great [quality to have] as a head coach. He’s had a fantastic profession, and it was amazing to be a part of that terrific profession.”

Barnett is grateful for his time at Flagler and all the chances he has actually had. He developed lots of relationships with the neighborhood throughout his time as an assistant coach, head coach, and even when he functioned as an athletic director.

” The feelings are more [than that] I’m simply appreciative,” Barnett stated. “My feelings are appreciative that I have actually remained at the exact same location for as long as I have. Flagler’s a fantastic Organization. You understand, to reside in a neighborhood like St. Augustine is a true blessing. I’m simply appreciative that I have actually had the ability to remain at the exact same location.”

Barnett not just made an influence on Flagler baseball however likewise on sports as a whole. He functioned as the Athletic Director for 15 years, from 1994 to 2009, up until the existing athletic director, Jud Damon, took control of.

” We grew a lot and enhanced a lot throughout his period,” Damon stated. “He made some significant center enhancements as the advertisement. He grew the department and he contributed in the shift of Flagler from the NAIA to NCAA Department II.”

Barnett and his devotion will be deeply missed out on by Flagler College and the neighborhood.

“[What I will miss most about him is] his existence in the athletic department,” Damon stated. “He’s constantly encouraging of everyone else in the department, and he cares really deeply about Flagler College in such a way that just somebody who’s put a lot of his life into it might care.”

Barnett will constantly be a fan of Flagler baseball and is confident for the program’s future.

” I believe whoever takes control of, I feel, remains in a genuine great area,” Barnett stated. “I believe it’s an excellent task. We have actually got a great deal of things in location to win. I desire this program to win. I desire them to win and win huge at the nationwide level, and I believe that we’re trending because instructions.”

Barnett is delighted to be able to take pleasure in seeing from the stands rather of the field.

” I desire the program to do well,” he stated. “I wish to concern video games and being in the stands and enjoy their success.”

Barnett strategies to complete his tradition by developing a “custom space” off the dugout.

” That’s my tradition to the gamers,” he stated. “That’s something I wished to do. It’s called the alumni custom space, and it’s going to have every group image from 1975. That was our really first string. It’s going to highlight all the people that were either All-Conference or All-District or All-Americans and we have All-Decade groups. We have gamers that played expert baseball. We have gamers that are on our Flagler College Athletic Hall of Popularity. So it’ll resemble a museum of sorts for Flagler baseball, and actually, there’s no other sports that have something like that.”

Barnett hopes that developing the alumni custom space can leave an influence on the program and permit previous gamers to bring their households back and relive their professions as baseball gamers.

” That’s gon na be the last thing I wish to do, and I believe it’s cool due to the fact that these guys can return for alumni weekend or whenever. That’s their space,” he stated.

Barnett has strategies to hang out with his household throughout retirement and use up some pastimes.

” I have actually got 5 grandkids, so I believe that [spending time with] household is my most significant strategy, and after that I may see if I can hone up my golf video game a bit,” he stated. “It’s quite rusty, ideal … perhaps doing a little fishing.”

Lots of coaches are remembered and determined by their success on the field, however Barnett hopes that his tradition is more than that.

” I hope that I have a favorable impact on all the gamers that I have actually coached,” Barnett stated. “You hope that you had some type of effect on them … I would hope in the end that the majority of the gamers who have actually played in the program would state that ‘He not just taught me about baseball, however he taught me about life.'”