For most student athletes, one sport is more than enough on their plate. For North Penn High School senior Christian Barnes, he was hungry for more. Though he’ll be playing Division I baseball for La Salle next year, Barnes just began to tackle football this year and has already found success as a starter and “Player of the Game” in North Penn’s October 3rd win over Central Bucks South.

Finding the balance between two time consuming and dedicated sports is something that, for Barnes, will come largely with effort.

“I’m going to have to balance it with perseverance. I know when I get back, it’s not going to be easy with baseball, just like it was when I started with football, so it’ll take a lot of perseverance when things aren’t going the way I expected them to at first,” Barnes said.

“One of my key things that I live off of is effort. I think that if you put forth what you have, you’re capable of anything. I know a lot of people say that, but I truly believe that. I think that if you put forth your one hundred percent, then you can do anything,” Barnes added.

The same energy Barnes carries with him helped the Knights to their win. The Knights lost their three game winning streak with two back to back losses and had to find their way back to a win. Barnes recognized mental errors and effort as one of the team’s weaknesses, with weaker passing, tackling, and chasing. So, the team had to re-center their focus.

“The Monday after our second loss was a very focused practice. There wasn’t a lot of messing around; it was more so ‘we need to bite down, we need to work harder, and we need to focus.’ It was really the whole team. I remember our teammates talking to us and just letting us know that there’s no time to mess around,” Barnes explained.

The noticeable shift in energy within practices paid off, with the Knights going into their next games with a higher focus and energy.

“The whole D-line was very active during the whole week of practice. Even the O-line was very energetic, and when both of those things happen and everyone has the same kind of energy going into the game, you know it’s going to be good,” Barnes said.

Christian had 8 tackles against CB South including 2 QB sacks and 1 tackle for loss.

“Christian’s speed and energy has brought a spark to our Defense,” head coach Dick Beck said of Barnes’ strengths as a player.

This isn’t Barnes’ first time stepping foot on the gridiron; sports began as early as the age of four on the T-ball field for Barnes before he then carried on to play football for the North Penn Squires. The focus ended up shifting to baseball by his middle school years.

“All throughout middle and my first three years of high school were just baseball, and football just happened senior year just for fun. Even getting an opportunity to start was amazing in itself, because it was obviously my first year playing [at the high school]. I think the reason they trusted me, again, is the effort, which reminds me that my effort is one of the reasons that I’m on the field,” Barnes said.

In his experiences with sports, Barnes has found family on the field.

“It’s so hard to describe. The best way I could put it is family, there’s no other way to describe it. I’d do anything for them, and they’d do anything for me.”

The family that Barnes has found has helped shape his character and instill in him compassion for others. The strong relationships that he has built within his teams has reflected in his relationships with others around him.

“I really do care about everyone, even if I don’t know them. I care about everyone in this school. I think that in my early years of high school, that wasn’t always the same, so I think now that I’m helping people and trying to be my best and as kind as possible, it makes me feel good.”

The effort and hard work that has led Barnes to balance dedication to two sports and grow as a person comes largely from his coaches, and especially from Coach Kevin Manero, North Penn’s head baseball coach.

“Coach Manero is a person that instilled hard work in me. I saw he had worked with the older players, and I saw them working hard when he gave them speeches about working hard and that really resonated with me,” Barnes said.

Manero speaks to Barnes’s growth as a player and recognizes the responsibility of coaches and teammates to lead with motivation.

“With Christian, we’ve known him since he was a young player as a freshman, and we’ve watched him grow. Like most young players coming into a big high school with a lot of pressure in athletics, he’s needed a lot of guidance and support from both his coaches and his teammates, and I feel like that’s our role. Our role as coaches and as teammates is to motivate people, to make them want to work harder, and to aspire to do the things that the upperclassmen are modeling for them,” Manero said.

“I am very excited to see that Christian is playing football this year. I think it’s excellent for him, both mentally and physically. He’s a true competitor, he’s a passionate hard worker, and I think his ceiling is very high. I believe that football is also going to make him a better baseball player,” Manero explained.

Barnes’s dedication in baseball has led him to a commitment to La Salle University. After being introduced to and observed by one of their coaches, Barnes’s hard work gave him the opportunity to play Division I.

“In the summer I visited La Salle and I thought it was really nice. It’s at the Division I level, and I couldn’t ask for anything more. They gave me an offer, and I was really excited and couldn’t pass up on it,” Barnes said.

Outside of sports, Barnes says he fills his time with hobbies and always tries to keep busy. Among these pastimes are drawing, photography, fashion, and music.

“A lot of people don’t know this, but I draw; I like to draw a lot. I’m also listening to a lot of different types of music. I listen to every type of genre, from piano to rap to jazz. I love clothes and trying new styles. I also like to bike, a mountain bike specifically,” Barnes said. “I like to always stay active. I don’t like sitting around.”

With his strong commitments in baseball as well as football this year, Player of the Game Christian Barnes definitely has lived up to always staying active.