Senior Signing Spotlight: Jamaal Barnhardt

This is No. 2 in a month-long series of profiles of Arizona high school seniors that signed with four-year colleges. Here's the full list (currently totaling 267) of players from within the state moving on to the next level.

SPOTLIGHT: 2/9/20

In just two seasons, Ottawa University has made history. The Spirit clinched the Sooner Athletic Conference championship with a season-ending win at Southwestern Assemblies of God (Tex.) last November. With it came an automatic invite to the NAIA playoffs.

The success of the school in Surprise has led to a surge in recruits as OUAZ has had 47 players sign with the program this year. Of that number, 35 of them played high school football within the state.

One of those is Jamaal Barnhardt.

Barnhardt illustrates that Ottawa's recruiting net isn't just limited to the West Valley, it's statewide as he played defensive tackle at Sahuaro in Tucson. The 5-10, 255-pound lineman was offered by defensive line coach David Moseley during a phone call on Jan. 15. A couple weeks later, Barnhardt came up and took a visit. Shortly after that, Barnhardt made his commitment. Other schools that showed interest were Arizona Christian, Arkansas Baptist College, and the Maricopa Mustangs junior college team.

"I chose Ottawa because the coaches were so welcoming and showed a lot of interest in me," Barnhardt said in an e-mail interview.

Ottawa and Arizona Christian are the only non-Division I college football programs in the state. A decade ago, these options didn't exist for those players who were not at the D-I level, but still wanted to get an education and keep playing football at a four-year college in Arizona. In addition to not having to move too far from East Tucson, Barnhardt has worked hard to prove some of his doubters wrong.

"It's a tremendous opportunity to play for their program," Barnhardt said. "Many college and high school coaches said I would never play at the next level."

In his two seasons on varsity, Barnhardt helped the Cougars rebound from a 4-6 record in 2017 to a combined 19-6. In 2019, SHS started the year at 6-0 and was mentioned in early conversation for the Open Division. The Cougars ended up at 8-2 and were the top seed in the 4A Conference tournament. Sahuaro defeated Glendale before falling to Gila Ridge in the quarterfinals.

One of those early season wins for SHS was a 47-13 home victory over its biggest rival in East Tucson - Sabino. In that game, Barnhardt had six tackles and a forced fumble.

The Sahuaro defense made a statement as it held seven opponents to 14 or fewer points. Barnhardt was a First Team All-4A Kino Region selection on the defensive line.

"(Assistant) Coach Brian Graves always told us that defense either wins the game or loses the game," Barnhardt said. "So to us as a defensive group, we had to make sure that we tried our hardest to stop any opponent, no matter who they were."

College coaches love to promote the importance of multi-sport athletes and Barnhardt is no exception. He played some club basketball in Tucson before deciding to take football more seriously. Also, Barnhardt was on the track and field team at Sahuaro last year throwing the discus. He plans to do that again this spring to stay in shape for the upcoming college football season.

Ottawa finished last season ranked No. 16 in the NAIA Football Coaches postseason Top 25 poll. The Spirit had a record of 9-2 and its head coach, Mike Nesbitt, was named the NAIA Region 5 Coach of the Year. Ottawa finished fourth in the NAIA in scoring offense (43.2 ppg).