By Ottawa Sports Pages, for Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club
Stepping into soccer cleats for the first time is a magical feeling for many footballers.
Most were too young to remember the moment, but it’s a vivid recollection for Lloyd Barker – in part because he was 13 when he finally got his first pair, and also because it represented a new beginning in his life, having just moved to Canada from Jamaica.
Before then, he’d only played soccer barefoot, or with worn-out dress shoes that he’d already outgrown.
“You only had one pair of sneakers, and that’s the one you wore to school and you wore to church and for big occasions,” Barker recalls. “So if you want to play soccer – and all I did was play soccer – then you couldn’t play in those sneakers, because if they got wrecked, you didn’t have another one coming.”
Barker lived in Kingston, Jamaica during his childhood, but with scarce job opportunities available at the time, he moved with his father to Nepean in search of greater opportunities. Getting his first pair of soccer boots was a symbol of hope just as much as it was a tool of the trade.
“I remember that feeling like it was yesterday,” Barker smiles. “It was when I came to Canada, and it wasn’t quite Adidas, it had four stripes on the side instead, but I remember putting it on, and it was the weirdest feeling – the studs on the bottom were high and I was just taller all of a sudden, I’d push back on the ground and I’d have a grip – but putting on a boot for the first time was one of the proudest moments in my life.”
Within three years, the National Capital Pioneers/Ottawa Intrepid of the original Canadian Soccer League were providing boots for Barker, as his talent for the beautiful game began to shine brightly.
The next year, he got a personal sponsorship from Pantofola d’Oro to wear the Italian brand’s boots, and then in 1995, he got a deal with Adidas to wear their genuine three-stripe shoes. Barker later joined Umbro, which gave him all the boots he wanted, so he gave many pairs to Jamaican kids.
“That was a watershed moment for me,” reflects the past professional player of 17 years. “It was really full-circle. Still, to this very day, I send back a lot of boots to give the youngsters that experience that I wish I’d had in Jamaica, that I got once I got here.”
Barker is currently experiencing another full-circle moment. After spending the bulk of his playing career in Montreal and getting his start as a coach there, Barker has returned to his roots to become the new Sporting Director for the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club.
“I played against the Hotspurs, and at the time, the Hotspurs were the team,” notes the past Lynwood Centennials player. “When I first met the coaches here, I told them that I remember this club and the history of this club. I was a part of the opposition, but I know what this club meant to the city. And yes, it’s kind of lost its lustre a little bit, but we’re going to try to get it back there.
“For me, Ottawa has always been my home, even while I was away all those years. This is where it all began, so I’m really excited to come back home and work at completing another circle. The past doesn’t dictate the future, but you can definitely reference it, and you know, if you were once there, why can’t you get there again?”
Embarking on building projects has been a recurring theme in Barker’s career. The appropriately-named Pioneers provided Ottawa’s first taste of pro soccer in 1987. Barker then joined the Montreal Impact for its inaugural American Professional Soccer League campaign.
He won the playoff championship in his second season with the Impact, was named team MVP in his third year, and went on to win three more regular season A-League crown, sharing some of those titles with Hotspurs legend and recent Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame inductee Lyndon Hooper.
Also a Jamaican national team player for four years, Barker concluded his playing career with another A-League playoff championship in his final season of pro soccer in 2004.
He immediately jumped into coaching as an assistant with the Impact’s pro team, and later served as Montreal’s youth development director. A past analyst for Sportsnet, Fox and the Montreal Gazette, Barker has also coached with several other Montreal youth clubs, the Quebec provincial team, the Toronto Lynx and as a private trainer.
He also took over the Concordia University Stingers men after a winless campaign and eventually led the team back to the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons.
Barker says the Hotspurs’ rejuvenation effort matches his style.
“That’s me. I wouldn’t want the top jobs. I want the job where I can be challenged. It’s just what invigorates me,” explains the national B-licenced coach. “I’m very up to date. I’ve been in the game in all facets, in every level in this country, for just about 40 years now, so if I can’t do it, then nobody can.”
Barker has seen other clubs face similar challenges as Nepean’s. He and fellow leaders acknowledge that the Hotspurs’ stature has dropped, influenced in part by aging communities in the club’s traditional home area contrasted by always-growing suburbs, changes to the Canadian youth soccer landscape, and by insufficiently strong past leadership.
“The club can exist as it is, but it’s like a U13 player who has great potential, and they could just float along and play at a decent level, but why not tap into that and try to reach your full potential, and be the best version of yourself?” Barker indicates. “Incrementally, we’ll improve this club. My aim is to make the Hotspurs the #1 soccer club of choice in Ottawa, because really, the sky’s the limit.”
Barker’s top priority as Sporting Director is player development, and reciprocally, coaching development.
“My most important job is to develop the coaches who will then trickle down to better develop the players,” he details. “It’s not really part of my role, but you’ll definitely see me on the field with the players too. I can’t get away from that. That’s my jam.”
Also on Barker’s task list are delivering enhanced fitness training and sport medicine programs, recruiting top coaches, developing scholarship opportunities, getting out in the community and cultivating affiliations.
“I’ll be tapping into my Rolodex essentially,” signals Barker, who made his first call to Sean Fleming, a long-time Canadian youth national team coach.
Fleming helped run a coaches symposium in early January and led Hotspurs U12-U17 teams during a week of indoor training, sharing many tricks and tips with players, but most importantly delivering the message that they should smile and appreciate whenever they’re playing football.
“Right off the bat, I just started this gig, and I wanted to set the tone,” Barker highlights. “This was the first bang, and now we’re going to continue. This is how it’s going to be for the Hotspurs.”
Although his own rise in soccer was fairly uncommon at the time, Barker wants to encourage young players to chase their dreams in a sport where opportunities keep growing, particularly in Canada.
“Nowadays, whether you’re a boy or a girl, this is a viable option to put on that list of careers that you might choose when they ask you at school,” underlines Barker, who used to sneak under the gate as a five-year-old in Jamaica to join the older boys’ game.
“Football has always been my life,” he adds. “It’s the first thing I ever loved. And you can live a great life in this sport.”
Find out more about the Nepean Hotspurs Soccer Club at NepeanHotspurs.ca.
