Cougar Athletics
30 NAIA National Championships
95 GSAC Championships
...and counting

mbarnett@apu.edu

In 1983, Mike Barnett was a key athlete in leading Azusa Pacific to its first of a record-setting number of NAIA men’s track & field championships. Twenty years later, as a head coach, he led Azusa Pacific to its first-ever NAIA women’s track & field national championship which opened a unique run of titles. It seems wherever Barnett goes extraordinary success follows as well.

Now in his ninth year at the helm of Azusa Pacific women’s track & field, Barnett is building a dynasty, much like the one he started for the Cougar men during his competitive days. As a coach, Barnett has led Azusa Pacific to 5 NAIA national championships – 3 outdoor and 2 indoor – over the past 5 years. He is the only coach in NAIA history to lead his team to back-to-back sweeps of the indoor and outdoor titles, a feat the Cougars accomplished in 2003 and 2004.

An even-keeled, good-natured man at heart, Barnett appeals to all types of people and is well-liked by his athletes. He is organized and pays attention to detail. And as can be expected by his success, both as an athlete and coach, he is competitive. He strives for the best of himself and his athletes.

He has been named the NAIA Coach of the Year 5 times, including last year after he led his Cougars to the 2007 NAIA outdoor national championship.

As his storied international career began to wind down , Barnett returned to his alma mater in 1999 as a throws coach. After a season as an assistant, he became the head coach in 2000. Within 2 years he had Azusa Pacific post its best-ever showings in women’s track & field with a pair of national runner-up finishes at the 2002 NAIA indoor and outdoor championship meets. In 2003 he became only the sixth coach in NAIA history to lead his squad to a sweep of the NAIA women’s indoor and outdoor national championships. In 2004, he became the first coach ever of a team to sweep NAIA indoor and outdoor crowns in successive years as the Cougars ran away from the field to win both national championships.

While he is an extraordinary throws coach (between the Cougar men and women he has coached 14 All-American throwers), Barnett’s success has come from a balanced attack. Overall, he has coached 44 different All-American Cougar women, including 17 individual champions.

One of the most celebrated athletes in Azusa Pacific history, Barnett was a 5-time NAIA champion. He is the first and still only 4-time NAIA javelin champion, winning the event as a 1980 freshman and then following with 3 straight NAIA record tosses over the next 3 years. At the 1983 NAIA championship meet, his final collegiate appearance as a Cougar, he broke his own record with a heave of 259’ 11”, and combined with his second-place showing in the hammer, he helped lead Azusa Pacific to its first of what would be an unprecedented 7 straight NAIA outdoor track & field championships.

During that 1983 senior season, Barnett sent notice to the international community that he had Olympic-caliber ability when he recorded the fourth-best javelin throw in U.S. history with a toss of 296’ 5” to win the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays title.

Barnett embarked on an international javelin throwing career that he hoped would lead to the Olympics, particularly the 1984 Games in his Southern California home at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. However, at the 1984 U.S. trials, Barnett fell short of his goal. In preparation for the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, Korea, Barnett finished fourth at the Olympic Trials and had to settle for “alternate.”

In 1989 Barnett captured his first-ever U.S. javelin championship. He repeated the performance with another national javelin title in 1991. Yet neither crown guaranteed him a berth into the 1992 Olympics. In June of 1992, Barnett ended 8 years of frustration and reached the pinnacle of his track & field career, all in one fell swoop, when he garnered a place on the U.S. Olympic team for the 1992 Barcelona Games. He made the most of his lone appearance on the Olympic stage by throwing the javelin 258’ 0” to finish seventh, which is still the highest showing by an American javelin thrower over the past 7 Olympic Summer Games.

A 7-time NAIA All-American, Barnett’s javelin throwing resume also includes the 1980 Pan-Am and U.S. junior championships. In 1991, he was fourth in the javelin at the World Cup. Before his retirement from the sport in 1996, Track & Field News ranked Barnett among the top 10 javelin throwers in the United State for 14 years, ranking him the nation’s best in 1989 and again in 1991.

His international competition delayed completion of his academic pursuits but in 1997 Barnett earned his bachelor's degree in physical education from Azusa Pacific. In 2001 he completed work on his master's in education, which he also earned at Azusa Pacific.

Barnett also lettered 3 seasons on Azusa Pacific's football team (1979-81) and teamed with his older brother, Doug, to spearhead one of the finest Cougar defenses ever during the early 1980s. Doug, who went on to play 5 seasons in the NFL with the Rams, Redskins and Falcons, also partnered with Mike to form one of college track & field's best-ever brother combinations. Like Mike, Doug was an accomplished thrower and won 5 NAIA individuals titles in the hammer, shot and 35-pound weight throws. In 1982, the Barnett brothers became the first Cougars ever to be nationally-ranked by Track & Field News in their respective events -- Mike in the javelin and Doug in the hammer.

During his many years of competition, Mike supported himself and his family as the sole owner of Elite Wallcovering, a business he still operates today though on a reduced scale. Mike, who teaches in Azusa Pacific's exercise & sport science department, and his wife Julie, also an Azusa Pacific alum, reside in Glendora, Calif., with their 2 children, Cory (21), a senior business major at Azusa Pacific, and Shawna (18), a senior at Glendora High.

	BARNETT AT AZUSA PACIFIC
                              NAIA     NAIA
Year School           GSAC   Indoor  Outdoor
2000 Azusa Pacific     2nd     12th     3rd  
2001 Azusa Pacific     1st     13nd     4th  
2002 Azusa Pacific     1st      2nd     2nd  
2003 Azusa Pacific     1st      1st     1st  
2004 Azusa Pacific     1st      1st     1st 
2005 Azusa Pacific     2nd      5th     5th
2006 Azusa Pacific     1st      6th     2nd
2007 Azusa Pacific     2nd      9th     1st