Braxton Derouen, 5, speaks to football players Brady Thomas and Nick Barnfield, and volleyball player Blair Claypoole. / Paul Kieu, The Advertiser

Tim Buckley, Daily Advertiser, December 13, 2013

It was shortly after he left the UL football team’s 2011-season banquet, in April 2012, that Nick Barnfield met a man with whom he had never before crossed paths.

They were outside of a Circle K gas station on Louisiana Avenue.

Before long, and after briefly mentioning the awards dinner, Barnfield found himself guiding the stranger in prayer.

“He said he wasn’t sure if he had received salvation, and if he was gonna be going to heaven or not,” Barnfield said. “So I prayed with him, and I led him through the prayer of salvation.

“He told me afterward … ‘I know you may see your future as being involved in sports, but I know that your future is in ministry, and you’re gonna help people and you’re gonna encourage people through that.’ ”

Maybe it’s both.

Either way, the gentleman was oh-so-right.

“Ever since he said those words,” Barnfield said, “it changed my life.”

When the former reserve linebacker and special-teams contributor from Destrehan High returns home for UL’s New Orleans Bowl meeting with Tulane on Saturday night in the Superdome, Barnfield will do so as a student-assistant coach and as the Ragin’ Cajuns’ assistant team chaplain.

Tears last season to the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in both his right and left knees put him on the path. But it was only after great pain and much anguish that Barnfield understood why he should follow it.

Cajuns head coach Mark Hudspeth, for one, is happy he did.

“Nick Barnfield has done more for me than I’ll ever be able to do for him,” Hudspeth said. “He is an inspirational leader for this team, and, to be honest with you, he’s made a difference in my life, in my spiritual life.

“It’s amazing. I think God sends people in your life for a reason. He (Barnfield) was sent to the university and to this football team for a reason. And he’s not only changed my life, but a lot of kids on this team.”

X X X

Barnfield, winner of the program’s defensive Scout Team Player of the Year award after last season, tore the PCL in his left knee on the Thursday before UL’s 2012 season-opening win over Lamar.

It was a devastating blow for someone who didn’t start at Destrehan until he did so for a 14-0 Louisiana Class 5A state-title team.

Someone who redshirted as a freshman walk-on at UL.

Someone who played in only four games on special teams in 2010 and in only two for a new coaching staff in 2011.

Someone who finally had earned a scholarship in 2012.

But Barnfield played on the torn ligament and managed to appear in six games in special teams, including one in November at nationally ranked Florida in which he recorded his only tackle of the season.

Then it happened again, during a practice one week before UL’s New Orleans Bowl win over East Carolina. The same ligament tore, only this time in his right knee.

After the season, Hudspeth felt that because of the severity of the situation and how long it would take to recover from surgeries that Barnfield could better serve the team in both a spiritual and student-coaching capacity.

“When I first heard the news,” Barnfield said, “that was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever heard – just because coming out of high school I put so much into getting here, and walking on, and getting on the team, getting on the field, and earning a scholarship.

“It was like everything was building up to this moment. My senior season, I really thought there was endless possibilities to what I’d able to do.

“And with the injuries, it shocked me,” he added. “But after praying about it, I knew. … I felt like that was what God was asking me to do.”

X X X

Troy Wingerter, UL’s director of football operations and an ex-Cajun player and assistant coach, had a long talk with Barnfield.

Barnfield recalls his words as if they were spoken just a play or two ago.

“ ‘You can work hard and maybe get a few good snaps in for your last season,’ ” he remembers Wingerter saying, “ ‘or you can make this sacrifice and have a major impact on a lot of these guys’ lives.’

“When he said that, it just kind of made sense,” Barnfield added. “I realized the ability just to kind of encourage these guys, and coach them, and be kind of a big brother, but also somebody who is able to teach them, and help them grow as men – that was really important to me.”

Still, it wasn’t an easy call to make or accept.

Tight end Ian Thompson, who came to UL as a freshman the same season as Barnfield, knows his friend struggled coming to terms with the fact his playing career had ended.

“He kind of thought he didn’t know what he wanted to do, but he knew he still wanted to be involved with the team,” Thompson said. “It was a tough decision for him, for a while, and he didn’t know what he was gonna do.”

It didn’t help that Barnfield convinced himself he could return much sooner than conventional wisdom suggested was reasonable to expect.

“He’s always overcome any limitations he might be considered to have had athletically,” Wingerter said. “Because of that, when you invest so much, it’s hard to believe you can’t recover from something.

“When you’re a guy who’s gotten where he is on so much hard work and so much effort, it’s hard for anybody to see, ‘Well, you really can’t recover from these types of knee injuries.’

“While they weren’t completely devastating, the probability of him recovering – and the amount of time that was recovered for recovery, and still being able to contribute like he had in the past – was negligible,” Wingerter added. “He might have been able to come back and play the last game or two, but what we saw immediately was what a greater role he would play.”

X X X

A couple of days before Barnfield and Wingerter spoke, Barnfield coincidentally had a conversation with Eric Treuil.

Pastor of UL’s Chi Alpha Christian student organization, Treuil also serves as the Cajun football team’s chaplain.

He knew just how much Barnfield wanted to beat the odds and return sooner than anyone thought he could.

“He was kind of salivating at the thought of being able to get back and play,” Treuil said.

While mulling his discussion with Wingerter, though, Barnfield also reflected on his chat with Treuil.

It was then that Barnfield had told the team chaplain he could see himself some day serving in the same capacity.

“So when all that happened, I’m telling you, it just made sense,” said Barnfield, one of five recent Cajun players or signees working as student assistants in 2013. “Getting to work with these guys has been the greatest experience.”

X X X

Deep down, Barnfield – who worships at Our Savior’s Church in Lafayette – wishes he had been on the field until the end.

He wanted to walk out with teammates on Senior Night late last month against UL Monroe, wanted to play during the 8-4 Cajuns’ recent eight-game win streak, wanted to make his final appearance at the Superdome in the New Orleans Bowl.

“It’s very bittersweet,” he said, “not being able to play my last game here.”

But some things just are not meant to be.

“He wanted to finish out the right way with his senior class, with his guys, and didn’t want to give it up that easy,” Hudspeth said. “(But) to be honest, he’s made a much bigger impact now doing what he’s doing than if he would have played.

“He would have rather had it the other way around, but he has had a huge impact.”

Barnfield realizes now that what he’s doing really is for the greater good.

He’s gotten to preach at chapel. He often leads post-practice prayer. He ministers to both coaches, including Hudspeth, and players alike.

“The focus is not on me; the focus is on them,” he said. “I’m able to do what I love, which is football. Football’s my passion. But ministry is my calling. That’s definitely where I see myself doing at this point.

“People ask me, and I say, ‘I’m doing what I always thought I’d be doing; I’m just doing it a little sooner than I thought I’d be.’ ”

X X X

Doing it so soon after suiting up himself is win-win for Barnfield and the Cajuns alike.

For UL players, he’s a bridge to full-time coaches.

“That is key,” tight end Thompson said. “It’s like a buffer system. He knows when morale’s good, when we need to lay off a little bit. He knows what the pulse of the team is, but at the same time he understands where we’re coming from.”

That goes for football and faith.

“From the players’ perspective,” Treuil said, “there’s a lot of respect for Nick.

“Because it’s one thing for an old guy to tell them how to live their life, and to challenge them spiritually – versus someone their own age, a peer, who is saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got the same struggles, I’ve got the same thing going on, but I’ve made these choices.’ It comes with a lot of more credibility.”

For Barnfield, the decision and the season have delivered a satisfying taste of what he thinks he wants to do full-time.

Athletics-based ministry can be a vocational calling from the amateur to the pro levels, and Treuil said most NCAA football teams have their own chaplains, some even two. Some programs even have character coaches who focus on both football and moral foundation.

“It was almost as if it breathed new life into him,” said Treuil, who is more than happy to tag-team with his new partner.

But the last few months also have helped ease Barnfield’s move from the field.

He’s been able to maintain relationships and stay connected to the camaraderie, yet he’s also started stepping toward his future.

“That was the only way it was doable for him,” Wingerter said. “It would have been a really hard transition to go cold-turkey, for lack of a better term.”

From Treuil’s seat, though, the move has been long in the making.

He recalls when Barnfield was water-baptized with teammates and other UL athletes in a campus swimming pool a couple of years ago.

“At that point he really began to take the trajectory of being a spiritual leader, as a player,” Treuil said. “And when the injuries came, it really was a deciding moment for him – which direction he was gonna go. In his gut, he really wanted to continue to play.

“(But) as he starting thinking of the grand scheme of things, (he realized) you’re gonna have an opportunity to impact guys from an eternal perspective vs. one season, and I think he really began to see that as a gift and as a calling.”

One of which the man at the Circle K unwittingly made him aware.
____________________
   
KEEPING CLOSE:

Four recent Cajun players and one signee have kept close ties assisting the program this season:

* Nick Barnfield, assists with linebackers and as assistant team chaplain: Former walk-on, reserve linebacker and special-teams contributor’s career ended a year short due to multiple knee-ligament tears
* Dominick Bilich, assists with the offensive line: Scholarship signee’s career was cut short by a foot issue before he ever played a game for the Cajuns
* Javone Lawson, assists with receivers: Signed with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals as a undrafted rookie free agent earlier this year, then tore his Achilles tendon
* Aaron Thibodeaux, assists in the strength room: A concussion and back injury sustained in a game two seasons ago activated dormant MRSA, a life-threatening strain of staph bacteria that ended the defensive lineman’s career
* Brady Thomas, assists with quarterbacks: Reserve QB and kicker Brett Baer’s regular holder finished his UL career in 2012