The road to disappointment

By Bruce Tran
DAILY BRUIN REPORTER
[email protected]

 

In your average college football game, each team takes about 68
snaps. In each snap, 22 players put their bodies on the line, with
countless hours, days and years of hard work colliding in the
split-second hike of a football. And behind the hard work is an
underlying dream: of making it to the next level. For former UCLA
offensive lineman John Ream, with each of the approximately 130
snaps that he saw in 2001, he was placing eight years of playing
football ““ and indeed, his dream of playing professional
football ““ on the line. With the graduation of incumbent
starting center Troy Danoff, a potential starting job was waiting
for the third-year sophomore this upcoming season. Former UCLA
offensive lineman Collin Barker spent the past year as a redshirt.
The soon-to-be second-year spent endless hours in the weight room,
counting the days until he could see his first snap as a Bruin. For
Ream and Barker, playing Divison I college football was a dream
that injuries stopped before it even really began.

The birth of a dream Near the glitz and glamour and lights of
Las Vegas, a city where dreams are born and crushed in the same
night, Ream’s dream was born, and it involved football.
“Just growing up, my dad and I would watched football on
television all the time,” said Ream, whose frame now stands
at 6-foot-4 and 288 pounds. “I finally played Pop Warner in
sixth grade and knew it was the sport for me.” Ream continued
on to Chaparral High School, where he developed a legacy as a star
lineman. The accolades started to rain in, but before Ream had
taken his first snap as a high school senior, he committed to play
center for the Bruins. “I didn’t grow up a Bruin
fan,” Ream said. “But UCLA was definitely the best fit
for me. The offensive line coach and the academics were the perfect
combination.” It was a combination that Ream hoped would
someday lead to employment in the NFL, following the footsteps of
recent great Bruin offensive linemen such as Jonathan Ogden and
Kris Farris. The 6-foot-8, 303-pound Barker hails from Texas. He
picked up football in seventh grade, but in reality, it was a
lifelong ambition. His father played college football, and football
was always considered a part of his future. He decided to attend
Wortham High School, the alma mater of current Arizona Cardinal
guard Leonard Davis. Barker’s athleticism took him to the
realms of basketball and track, but it was football that was his
main love.

The injuries

  Colin Barker

Despite throwing aside defensive linemen left and right and
conjuring comparisons to Davis, Barker wasn’t immune from
injury. During his junior year in high school, Barker dislocated
and broke his ankle. Still, he was able to bounce back. Every major
prep magazine had him pegged as one of the top linemen in the
country, generating offers from Ohio State, Michigan and Georgia.
However, it was UCLA that Barker was waiting for. He committed to
come to Westwood, and the Bruins figured to be gaining one of the
top linemen in the country. UCLA asked him to redshirt, and he
obliged, relishing the day he would finally step onto the field.
Early on in his redshirt season, however, a pile-up occurred near
the line of scrimmage during practice. Barker’s ankle was
caught underneath. Then, he got pushed in the other direction,
causing his ankle to roll. It was the same ankle he had injured in
high school. Barker took the injury upon himself. “I was in
very bad shape,” he said. While Barker’s injury was the
result of a distinct incident, Ream could not recall a single event
that caused his knee pain. Ream’s injury gradually increased
in severity, even as early as sixth grade. Once the decision was
made to redshirt his freshman year, Ream had corrective knee
surgery in hopes of eliminating the nagging pain. However, after
years of gradual wear and tear on the knee, the corrective surgery
could not halt Ream’s ever-increasing knee aches. Still, Ream
moved forward, with the hopes of someday attaining the starting
center job. Ream began his second year of college as a backup to
Danoff, and with his redshirt year behind him, he looked to
establish himself as one of UCLA’s signature offensive
linemen. The plan was simple: one year of redshirting and one year
of backing up the starters, leaving him three years as a starter
and the chance to fulfill his dreams. “It was one of the
greatest thrills ever,” Ream said of his first playing time
during the game against Kansas. “Being able to play in front
of 90,000 people . . . you go from being the high school kid who
watches college football to being the one the kids watched.”
Ream saw his playing time increase, and he eventually got the start
against Washington State. Despite UCLA’s disappointing end to
last season, everything seemed to be falling into place. He was set
to replace Danoff as the starting center. Foot surgery during the
winter kept him out of spring football. However, he had no
indication of how quickly his playing days would come to an
end.

“A sense of unfinished business” “My parents
finally told me I had to take care of it,” Ream said.
“The doctors told me I’d be unable to make it to fall
camp, which was still okay. I’d still be able to play
football.” “Then I asked if I was going to get better.
They told me that I was taking a chance on injuring it further and
paying for it later on in my life.” At that point, Ream
finally knew. “It was really hard for me to admit I had to
quit,” Ream said. “I paid my dues, I learned, I backed
up the starters, I grew as a person, and then to have the doctors
tell me to hang up my cleats . . . It was at my fingertips. I hope
I never have to experience that feeling again.” Barker was
disappointed that he never got the chance to tie up cleats for a
game.

  John Ream

“That’s what you work for (getting into a
game),” Barker said. “Doing all the extra time, lifting
weights, running, your whole redshirt year””mdash;your goal is to
play.” “At the same time, the biggest thing I’ll
ever have is knowing that I made it to the next level. There are so
many memories and experiences, and I’m so lucky to have been
a part of it all.” On July 17, it was officially announced
that Ream and Barker were being demoted to “injured
retired” status. It allowed them to receive a free education,
but essentially guaranteed their early retirement. The pair was
announced together because they had signed the medical release at
the same time, and both have gotten closer as a result.
They’re currently roommates, and as Ream said, “It
would be so much harder if I were the only one.” The
“injured retired” status also means that the two are
cutting all ties with the football team. Both are planning on
moving forward with their academics. Ream is looking into
economics, while Barker is considering gaining a law degree and
seeing where that takes him. “The UCLA degree is all I have
right now,” Barker said. “I have to take advantage of
it.” Ream is now considering going into athletic academic
counseling. Who better to teach athletes about how quickly sports
can be taken away and how vital academics really are? “While
I was with the team, I gave it everything I had, but I still feel I
had years of solid contribution ahead of me,” Ream said.
“There’s a sense of unfinished business, of feeling
that I could have done so much more. Right now, I’m just
trying to move on. It’s so hard, but it’s time to open
a new chapter in my life.”