Ed D Allan Barker

Allan Barker has been involved in athletics almost his entire life. He grew up in a sports minded family in Durant, Oklahoma. He played with various teams through age 17. He then played four years with Southeastern State University and a 5th year of college baseball in Monterrey, Mexico with Monterrey Tech as an exchange student.

He began a 22-year college baseball coaching career in 1973 at Grayson County College. His college baseball coaching career included three other schools, John Brown University, Phillips University and Oral Roberts University. He coached those three schools to four NAIA World Series over a 12-year period while they were affiliated with the NAIA. He is the only coach to date that has taken three different universities to their respective World Series. In all, he coached in the NJCAA, NAIA, and NCAA D-1 programs.

He was approached by the MLB Pittsburgh Pirates in 1996, but chose to honor his commitment to a college scholarship and continue his graduate education. He has earned three graduate degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Education (1966), a Masters in Education (1969) and a Doctorate in Education (1974).

He retired from coaching college baseball in 1995 and opened a tax preparation office in 1996. This afforded him the opportunity to work with youth baseball teams ever summer. In 2004, he created, coached and sponsored the Tulsa Redhawks. The Redhawks won NBC National Championships in 2004 (15U) and 2006 (17U). They finished 4th place in 2005 (16U).

40 of his college players signed professional baseball contracts. Additionally, his son Nick and 7 or 8 other youth players that he mentored also signed professional baseball contracts.

He also spent 33 years as a sports official, primarily in basketball and football. He worked numerous play-off tournaments and state championships. He had over 200 NCAA D-1 basketball assignments over a 15 year period. He officiated the Suntory Classic in Japan in 1983 and worked high school football in Mexico in 1966. He officiated in the Southwest Conference Basketball Post Season Championship for seven different seasons.

Please check out an article written about the author and the book. http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/okpreps/high-schools-local-authors-new-books-can-help-student-athletes/article_90b73d7e-56d3-5894-88cd-73e7f6db6064.html