Juggling act; Utah State’s Andrea Barker balances school, tennis, married life
Some people seem to be able to flat-out do it all. They’re the straight-A students who also happen to be good athletes, who also somehow manage to be well-liked by everyone around them.
That’s Andrea Barker. No matter what hat she wears, they all seem to fit – and she’s worn quite a few in her time at USU. From valedictorian to college athlete to newlywed – one talent Barker has definitely sharpened is juggling.
“I like to have a lot on my plate all the time,” she said.
Barker came to USU on academic scholarship in 2002 and has studied her way to becoming the College of Education’s 2006 valedictorian, all the while maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA. In fact, she’s never had an A- in her life.
“I don’t know how she’s been able to maintain that GPA,” said Mary Lou Reynolds, Barker’s academic adviser in the HPER department. “When you think about athlete’s schedules and all the traveling, it’s quite a challenge to keep up.”
Reynolds also added that Barker was instrumental in changing the way the College of Education chooses its valedictorian.
In years past, the College of Education had certain criteria for deciding who they would give that honor to in the case of a tie. One of the main criteria was how many pass/fail classes the student had taken: the fewer, the better.
Since Barker is a student athlete, she said she ended up taking several classes of this type and felt the policy discriminated against her.
“Andrea is very persistent,” Reynolds said. “When she knew she was close to being valedictorian, she went to [the College of Education] to find out if she could get that changed, and she did.”
Barker will graduate this year with a degree in physical education, with an emphasis in exercise science. Adding to her academic record, Barker said she has recently been accepted to physician assistant school at the University of Utah, which she will begin May 15.
In addition to being a good student, Barker is also an accomplished tennis player. As a member of the USU women’s tennis team for the past four years, Barker has played a significant role in the Aggies’ success.
“She’s done an amazing job juggling married life, school and tennis,” head coach Christian Wright said. “She’s an extremely coachable and smart player.”
Though Barker came to USU on an academic scholarship, she was awarded an athletic scholarship after her sophomore year. She said she and her husband Alex were engaged at the time and were planning on moving back to Salt Lake so they both could attend the University of Utah. This would’ve meant no more tennis for Andrea.
Wright said he decided to surprise Barker with the scholarship offer after her final match of the year in April of 2004.
“I had just finished the last match I thought I was never going to play in college tennis,” Barker said. “I was sad because I thought that was it. I had played tennis since I was six.”
Barker then recalled her tears turning from sadness to joy as Wright offered what he said was an “early wedding present.”
“She was worthy of a scholarship from the minute she walked up here,” Wright said. “It was probably overdue on my part.”
With Barker set to move to Salt Lake after that season, Wright said she wasn’t completely sure she would accept the offer.
“I was hoping she would,” he said. “I didn’t know for sure.”
Had she gone, Barker would’ve been missed by her coaches as well as teammates. One of her teammates, senior Jill Smith, remembers competing against Barker in high school.
“Andrea and I go way back,” Smith said. “We played almost every year in the state finals. She’s very smart and a hard worker. She’s an awesome teammate.”
Last, but not at all least, Barker and her husband have had a rather uncommon marriage for anybody outside of the military.
Andrea said she met Alex through family in the summer of 2003.
“His sister married one of my old family friends,” Andrea said. “I got to know his sister, he got to know my dad and they all kinda’ put us together.”
“I met her dad at a bachelor party in Vegas,” Alex said.
Then, they said, after strategically attending the same parties, the two of them began dating. The rest, as they say, is history. They were engaged by December of 2003 and married eight months later in August of 2004.
Because of the scholarship offer, Andrea said they decided to live in Logan. This meant that Alex would have to sell his house in Salt Lake and quit his high-paying job with Reuters in order to accommodate the change.
“I’m older than she is,” Alex said. “I’d had my experiences. I didn’t want to take that away from her.”
However, upon moving to Logan, Alex said he found it hard to find a job that he wasn’t over-qualified for. He said he decided to go back to school as well, but the degree he was pursuing, speech communication, wasn’t offered at USU.
After three semesters together in Logan, the Barkers said they decided that, in order for them to both get finished with school before she got accepted to PA school, Alex would have to finish what he started at the University of Utah and Andrea would have to stay at USU.
“I had spent hours and hours trying to find a way for him to stay at Utah State,” Andrea said. “But the way the classes transferred over and the way it worked out, it was going to be so much more work for him.”
In December 2005 Alex moved to Salt Lake while Andrea stayed in Logan. Throughout the next few months, the Barkers said there were periods of up to three weeks in which the only contact they had with each other was by phone.
“I didn’t think it would really happen,” Andrea said. “At first it wasn’t too bad, but after three and a half weeks of not seeing him face to face, that was when I kind of hit the wall.”
To help get her through the lonely months, Andrea said she relied on her teammates once again, this time to keep her company.
“My team has been really good,” Andrea said. “They’ll come over because they know that I’m there by myself. I’m used to being married and having someone there all the time.”
One of the toughest things to handle for the Barkers was having to deal with everyday married couple issues over the phone, they said.
“Paying bills, any problem, any conflict. You have to deal with your everyday things over the phone,” Andrea said. “It got a little bit stressful. It’s like communicating with your spouse through a wall.”
“If we had any kind of a different relationship, I don’t think that we could’ve made it,” Alex said. “We’re really close friends. We put each other first.”
May 6, 2006, is a day the Barkers say they have been looking forward to for some time now.
It’s the day Andrea will graduate.
-jhislop@cc.usu.edu