Looking at the beautiful trophy presented to the 2015 Indianapolis City Tourney Champions in the office of Howe Hornet’s head basketball head coach Mosi Barnes, it’s hard not to appreciate what Coach Barnes has done with this team in a very short period of time. Coach Barnes has always been a champion from his days as a high school basketball player as a point guard for Cardinal Ritter High School, where in 1996 he was Metro Player of the Year. He also played on Mack Gaddis’ AAU Championship team in 1994. He played for Gene Keady’s 1997-98 and 97-98 Purdue Boilermaker Squads. He transferred to play for Coach Milton Barnes and the Easter Michigan Eagles his final two years. Mr. Barnes played some pro ball in an International League in places such as London, Paris, Belgium, and Amsterdam. Going into coaching high school basketball, he started at Indianapolis Northwest High School where he was considered a rising star in the Indiana High School coaching ranks and was the Indianapolis High School Basketball Coach of the year at the end of the 2012-13 season. City budget cuts made him available to take on the coaching challenge at Howe High School starting in the 2013-14 season and his rapid progress in developing the Hornets into champions in just two years has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Coach Barnes insists that his players must be students first and athletes second. Everyone on the team is on the honor roll. In his six years of coaching, all of his students have graduated, and have gone on to college. Coach Barnes observes “there is a direct correlation between academic achievement and performance on the court.”
Like all winning coaches, Coach Barnes sees attention to detail as a key to success. Mastering the basics creates a foundation for a team to become winners. “Do the small things, the fundamentals like footwork and passing and you will succeed,” says Coach Barnes.
Coach Barnes’ mother was an Indianapolis Public School teacher for 43 years and it is her inspiration that has led the Coach in seeing himself as a teacher and motivator first and foremost. “I try to take my experience and share my vision” says the coach “and see it manifest in the team. In the end we have to want to win.”
After dropping their first two games of the season against Detroit Ford and Noblesville, the Hornets have come on to win fourteen straight as of this writing. Winning the first city championship for Howe since 1987 with a 75-72 victory over Scecina on January 26, the Hornets also won the McDonald’s Holiday Classic Tournament with a 62-43 victory over Vincennes Lincoln on December 29. With a group of outstanding young players led by senior shooting guard Harris Brown, whom Coach Brown calls the best player in the state, the team has championship chemistry and puts winning above individual glory. “To see them accomplish their goals is priceless,” the coach confesses.
Harris Brown, according to Coach Brown, is a definite candidate for the Mr. Basketball title in the All-Star Game this summer. The 5’-11” Brown is averaging 30.1 points per game and has hit 127 of 206 field goals attempted for a 62 percent shooting average. He has hit 34 of 43 free throw attempts for a 79 percent average. Coach Barnes says that he does not use the words genius or legend lightly, but he does use those words to describe Harris Brown’s shooting abilities. Add 63 rebounds and 68 assists to his stats and you see what kind of a great all around player Harris Brown is. Young Mr. Brown has made an oral commitment to attend Evansville University to play guard for the Aces men’s basketball team.
Photo by Paula Nicewanger/Weekly View
Head Coach Barnes with the McDonald’s Holiday Classic Tournament trophy on left and the City Championship trophy on the right.
Coach Barnes calls guard Brian Warren the best junior player in Indiana, and Brian appears ready to take on the leadership role in next year’s Hornet team. Brian Warren is second on the team in scoring, averaging 19.4 points a game. We will be hearing a lot more from Brian Warren. Coach Barnes takes a special interest in his players. He says that he picks up several of his players and takes them to school. He then drops them off at home at the end of the day. This is part of the family atmosphere Coach Barnes tries to create with his team. Coach Barnes is definitely a family man. He has a 16 year old son, a five year old daughter, and he and his wife welcomed a baby girl to the family five months ago.
With four games left on the schedule, the Hornets are getting ready to play in the sectionals in their quest to bring Howe a state 3A championship trophy. The Hornets are currently the twentieth ranked team in the state according to MAXPREPs national high school sports service. Don’t be surprised to see Howe rise in the rankings at the start of sectional play. In a very short time Coach Barnes has made his Howe Hornet team not just good but great! I think that there is another Indianapolis High School Basketball Coach of the Year in Mosi Barnes’ future. It just might be that Coach Barnes is ushering in a new golden age of basketball for the Hornets and all the Howe alumni and fans, and so the Weekly View salutes Coach Mosi Barnes, his staff, the Hornet basketball team, and all the Howe faculty and students.
snicewanger@yahoo.com
