Amarillo High senior Briley Barnes named GOAT Scholar Athlete of the Week

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - This week’s FirstBank Southwest GOAT Scholar Athlete of the Week signed her National Letter of Intent to Tulsa University. Meet Amarillo High’s Briley Barnes.

Barnes is not your average 6-foot-1 player. The Tulsa University signee started playing basketball in seventh grade after fine-tuning her academic studies. The State Champion holds a 101.8 GPA and plans on studying English in college.

“I just loved the same sort of challenge that it presented but also a more competitive sort of edge,” said Barnes. “I just really like that of being able to go up against someone and saying okay we’ll see who’s better.”

Barnes is the daughter of former Texas Tech basketball player Brock Barnes, so basketball runs in the family.

“She’s an outstanding player,” said Jeff Williams, Amarillo High girls basketball coach. “I mean she’s very fundamental, she puts in a lot of time to get better, shoots the ball really well, tough and I mean she can defend.”

Her goal from day one has been to play college ball, but a setback freshman year nearly held her back.

“We were scrimmaging the Varsity and I got an elbow to the head,” said Barnes. “It set me back about four months I think where I really wasn’t able to develop my game much.”

After hard work and dedication, Barnes was able to make it back on the court and called up to Varsity for playoffs. She gained valuable experience becoming a State Champion.

“She developed into that kind of player that you can’t leave open and we want the ball in her hands in a big situation,” said Williams. “She showed a lot of toughness coming back from that.”

Now she’s an experienced leader on the floor and has one goal in mind.

“Want to get one more State Championship while I’m at Amarillo High and I want to do it with this team because I just love the team and the girls,” said Barnes.

“This is my first year on Varsity and she brings a really good leadership and you just see her working all the time,” said Kloe Gleisner, Amarillo High sophomore guard.

“We’re relying on her to guide us as a leader right now because that’s the ultimate goal to hopefully get back to that level,” said Williams. “Hopefully she can lead us there.”

Congratulations to Briley Barnes on being nominated as a FirstBank Southwest NewsChannel 10 GOAT Scholar Athlete of the Week. To nominate a senior, go to https://www.newschannel10.com/sports/goat/.

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