A former Jamestown Eagles basketball standout is coming into his own as a contributor at Westminster College.
Trenton Barbour, the CCAA Conference MVP for his senior season at Jamestown in 2017-18, has become a regular at forward for the Westminster Blue Jays in his sophomore year. Barbour started out playing a smaller role for the Blue Jays as a freshman before seeing his playtime jump in the last season — he saw time in all 24 of the team’s contests and started 18 games.
Barbour said the adjustment from the high school level of basketball to the college level has not been that hard for him. He said his mindset going into college ball was that it would not be all that different than his time at Jamestown.
“The adjustment hasn’t been that hard for me, personally. In college, I knew coming in that I wouldn’t be the star of the show, and I never felt like I was in high school either, because I had some amazing players on my team at Jamestown,” Barbour said.
Barbour said that playing in college has not been that much different for him than playing in high school. The similarities between Westminster and Jamestown are one reason Barbour said he chose to go there.
“I chose Westminster because of the small school atmosphere, both in the classroom and sportswise,” Barbour said. “Our gym at Westmo is probably as big as Jamestown’s and gets loud, but I will say that our fan base/community in Jamestown is much better.”
While the adjustment period was not too hard for Barbour, he admitted he struggled to find regular playing time early during his first two years on the college team.
“(The) first two seasons were a struggle. I didn’t take care of myself physically and mentally as I did in high school,” Barbour said. “A lot of athletes think that when they get to college it will be easy to get playing time, but I’ll be the first to say that isn’t normally the case. My freshman year, I played in only seven games.”
In his freshman season, Barbour scored 1.4 points per game while playing 3.9 minutes a game. After his first year, Barbour said he knew he had to work harder and get better if he wanted to play more. His work paid off as he became a starter in his sophomore season and saw his time on the court increase drastically. In his sophomore season, Barbour played 14.9 minutes a game and scored 2.7 points a game.
“I understood I had to get better and work harder to earn my minutes,” Barbour said. “Sophomore season, I started every game but six. Kids need to understand that the process to become an outstanding student athlete isn’t an easy one, and patience mixed with hard work is what it takes.”
The team at Westminster is young right now, but Barbour said he has some lofty goals for the team in the future.
“This past year we had a young team, starting four sophomores and one junior with zero seniors. We had growing pains just like I experienced in Jamestown when my class took over the starting lineup sophomore year,” Barbour said. “The process to become a great team is also a long one and I think once we put the pieces together, we will have a conference championship and possibly make a run in the D3 national tournament.”
The aspects of his game Barbour said he thinks have improved the most fall more under the umbrella of the defensive dirty work.
“The areas of my game that have improved the most are my defense and rebounding. It’s always fun to bang around down there and do the dirty work, so I put in extra work to give that to my team,” Barbour said.
Barbour said his personal goals are to do what the team needs him to do. He said he wants to be the best teammate he can be for his team.
“Personally my goals are simple: play the role they need me to play,” Barbour said. “Grab every rebound, play outstanding defense, and be a leader, while also maybe making a basket here and there. I also strive to be the best teammate. This year, I was nominated for our conference’s (SLIAC conference) All-Sportsmanship Team. Some players overlook that, but all my coaches that I’ve had over the years have preached how to be a good sport, and Coach (Matt) Mitchell is the same.”