Brandon Barker is the crowned homecoming king at CCA high school, and has had a very decorated high school career. He has won countless cross country meets, been nominated for Iowa student athlete of the week, and continues to excel in the classroom. But how does all of this play into who he is as a person?

When asked, he elaborated that being runner up at state back to back seasons 2018-2019, and 2019-2020 were the accomplishments he was most proud of. “It was especially exciting the first time since we didn’t really expect to place higher than third or fourth,” said Barker. 

As many know, cross country is a very grueling and taxing sport, which makes many shy away from competing in it. But what does he enjoy most overall about the sport? “I enjoy having a fun group of people to work hard with,” commented Barker. “I also enjoy getting to know a lot of really strong runners from across the state.” 

Cross country also has many different challenges and difficulties that many people who haven’t experienced wouldn’t know was there. “The toughest part of the sport is trying to find the strength to keep on running throughout the middle of a race.”

But at what point did he begin to take the sport more seriously and truly work at it? “I’ve taken the sport pretty seriously ever since like eighth grade. Going into seventh grade, I thought that I would only ever be decent at best, but I ended up coming in 2nd place at middle school state by the end of the season, and that motivated me to train harder for the next year,” Barker said. 

And of course, his overall success on the course cannot be ignored, and the question had to be asked what allowed him to excel among the field of runners and his peers. 

“I think my amount of training in the offseason is what allows me to excel. Cross country is a sport that really rewards hard work!”

And what is arguably the most impressive, is how well he does in the classroom. When asked what motivates him to do well across all points of the board, Barker answered, “I’m motivated by getting to go to college and hopefully being able to get a good job someday.”