Barnes, Robinette top defenders
Fort Hill safety, Allegany linebacker voted area Defensive Players of the Year

Posted: Friday, February 13, 2015 10:15 am
MIKE BURKE Times-News Staff Writer

CUMBERLAND — They were players who were dedicated to the weight room in their offseasons and, in turn, dedicated to taking over games for their teams during the season. Fort Hill senior safety Alex Barnes and Allegany senior linebacker Kirk Robinette will be honored as co-recipients of the Pepsi-Cola Defensive High School Football Player of the Year Award for their inspiring play in 2014.

Barnes, for the second straight season, was instrumental in Fort Hill going 14-0 and winning the Maryland 1A state championship, serving as the Sentinels’ final-say enforcer from both his safety and linebacker positions. Robinette, who signed his NCAA National Letter of Intent last week with James Madison University, was “the heart and soul” of the Allegany team, helping the Campers return to the Maryland 1A playoffs with a 6-4 season.

They will receive their awards at the 67th annual Dapper Dan Awards Banquet Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Ali Ghan Shrine Club.

Alex Barnes
In the movie “Pulp Fiction,” Vincent and Jules had Winston Wolfe, a.k.a. The Wolf, to take charge and make their problems go away. For the past two seasons the Fort Hill Sentinels have had Alex Barnes.

The 5-foot-10, 176-pound safety was at the heart of every matter through two Fort Hill state titles and was a repeat honorable mention All-State selection. With a fiercely physical style of play, Barnes not only steadied, but led the Fort Hill defense through some early rough spells, coming up from safety to play a third linebacker.

“He’s that hard-hat kid,” said Fort Hill head coach Todd Appel. “Alex is the guy that holds us together when things aren’t as consistent as they could be. He’s always been the consistent force the last three years, defensively especially.

“This year was a great example. The first seven games we had a different defensive lineup, but we still had the same hard-nosed tough linebacker-type safety line up 14 yards deep ready to knock your head off.”

Barnes was also there to steady the ship on offense, twice rushing for over 1,000 yards at halfback and fullback.

“When (halfback Ty Johnson)?takes two strides to make five yards, Alex seems like he takes seven,” said Appel. “But in those seven strides five people bounce off of him and he makes yards. He is the one I?always equate to the old-time player playing without a facemask if you will, the blood coming out of his nose. He’s the epitome of that.

“I’ve always said when Alex does something everything relates to those old Fort Hill football players. He plays it like they used to play, and he brings it to the future with toughness and physicality on both sides of the ball. When he hits somebody it’s like a Roman-type roar from the crowd. They’re there to watch one of those battles in the arena. He brings excitement with big hits and big runs. He runs and he can be contacted by 12 people, and he just carries them.”

The base of Barnes’ accomplishments are his offseason workouts, both on the field in improving his speed and agility, and in the weight room where he set the Fort Hill squat record of 550 pounds.

“When you look at him you know he spends time in the weight room,” Appel said. “He has two percent body fat; it’s like he’s chisled out of stone and he plays like that. He imposes his physicality on other teams.

“Alex is a good example of working hard, doing the right things, doing his school work. I’m glad to be part of it.”

Barnes’ impact has been no greater or any less so on either side of the ball. That’s because, Appel says, he is a football player.

“I think he was important to the team all around because of stability and consistency,” Appel said. “We put him at linebacker, and in key moments when we need a big play or a momentum builder Alex is that guy. He causes people to gasp and cringe — ‘Oh my God, he did that again.’

“He throws his body at people and he’ll forget that one and come back and do it again and again and again. And the other players figure if he can keep doing that, they can too. Of course, he has quickness and physical ability to do it.”

And when the big games have come for the Sentinels to win, and when the moments arrived for them to win those games, it was Barnes making sure Fort Hill won them.

“He has probably been the star in both state championship games on both sides of the ball,” Appel said. “He stops the goal line thing at the end of the half against Douglass. When Ty goes out we feed him the ball along with Raen (Smith) and he comes back with a 25-yard run.

“In big games Alex came up big. His junior year he scores on a pick six and set our momentum, and then solidified it with a 40-yard run. This year he solidified it with a one-yard run. In big games, he’s a big leader. He’s definitely the kid we count on the most. When things go wrong he always found a way to make them right.”

Kirk Robinette
Robinette, 6-3, 225-pound first-team Maryland Small Schools All-State linebacker, led Allegany in tackles with 79 solos and eight assists. He also had an interception and three fumble recoveries. His skills, his size and his speed, though, combined with his never-stop hellbent style of play forced opposing offenses to prepare game plans for facing him in the week leading up to their game with Allegany. The extra plotting and preparation, however, rarely worked.

“I don’t think there is one single moment you can single out about Kirk’s season,” said Allegany head coach Tom Preaskorn. “He could take over a ballgame. He kept us in games with his defense.”

One of those games was the Homecoming Game, which Allegany lost to Fort Hill 26-8, but was the lowest-scoring Homecoming game in six years, producing less than 400 yards of offense. Robinette and his fellow Allegany linebackers were chiefly responsible for holding the Sentinel offense far below its normal production.

“That’s what we were counting on this year,” said Preaskorn. “Kirk brought intensity to the field that made the other players play to his level. He never took a play off and took pride in the way he played defense and offense.”

Offensively, Robinette played halfback and rushed for 663 yards (5.5 yards per carry), scoring eight touchdowns. He also caught 16 passes for 188 yards (11.8 ypc) and scored two touchdowns.

“He had a tremendous season for us,” Preaskorn said. “He kept us in the games. We always had a chance when he played. He was the heart and soul of our defense, but he also made great contributions on offense. He was just an all-around football player for us at Allegany.”

Preaskorn says the secret to Robinette’s success is easy to discover.

“It comes down to his work ethic,” said the Allegany coach. “He worked extremely hard in the offseason and was willing to do all of the right things to make himself a better football player. He put the time in and made the commitment in the weight room and on the field.

“He was a pleasure to coach. He never missed practice, he came each day with the right attitude, and he worked extremely hard in practice and in games, and in the weight room.”

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