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Get Scouted Scouting CareersDalton uses all-around game to garner area’s top award
by Brent Woronoff, Daytona News-Journal staff writer
DAYTONA BEACH — Intangibles rarely win individual awards. Gaudy, eye-popping numbers do. NSR basketball prospect and Father Lopez High School (FL) guard Dalton Barnes is not a stat stuffer. He didn’t lead the area in scoring. He didn’t even lead his own team in scoring. Barnes just did whatever was necessary to help his team win. This year, he helped the Green Wave finish 26-4 and come within a game of the Class 3A Final Four. The senior is The News-Journal’s Boys Basketball Player of the Year, an award he’s eyed for some time.
“It’s a great honor,” Barnes said. “This was one of the things I wanted to accomplish my senior year, along with making it as far as we (could in the playoffs). I thought this would be nice to go out on, winning player of the year. Everyone wants to be recognized for how you play. Finally, people were starting to recognize my skill and what I could bring to the table.”
What the 6-foot-1 Barnes brought to the table this season was a little bit of everything — scoring, stellar defense, rebounding, playmaking and the occasional thunderous dunk that would bring down the house and suck the air out of the opponent’s psyche.
“At Lake Mary Prep (in the district finals), Dalton caught an alley-oop at the end of the third quarter, and right after that we went on a big run,” Lopez forward Matt Panaggio said. “That was a great dunk.”
Barnes finished second on the team to Panaggio in both scoring (14.6 points per game to Panaggio’s 16.0) and rebounding (5.0 to 6.9). Barnes also averaged 2.9 assists and shot an extremely efficient 60 percent from the field and 86 percent from the free-throw line.
“We had a couple of guys,” Father Lopez coach Eddie Miller said. “Matt had a great season, too. There wasn’t much difference separating our team. We had such great balance; we had four guys average in double figures.
“But Dalton’s numbers and the things he did in clutch situations were definitely worthy of player of the year. He shined in a lot of different areas. He’s probably the best all-around guard that I’ve coached.”
Barnes said he and Panaggio “are pretty much the same player.”
“We both just work as hard as we can to get our team to win,” Barnes said.
Panaggio and Barnes have worked out together since they were in elementary school. Panaggio’s father, Mike, a former college player, and his grandfather, Mauro, a former coach with 50 years of experience in high school, college and the CBA, started drilling the boys when they played for the same team in fifth grade.
“His family is a big part of my life,” Barnes said. “His dad always got us together and worked us out.
“We always push each other as hard as we can. A lot of the reason I feel like I got to where I am today is because Matt pushes me.”
While Panaggio attended Father Lopez, Barnes played at Spruce Creek through his junior season and earned a spot on the high-level Florida Elite AAU team, playing alongside some of the best players in the state. After their junior year, Panaggio, among others, helped convince Barnes to transfer to Father Lopez.
“We’d been best friends all through high school,” Panaggio said. “And I wanted to play with him instead of against him. He had been playing with all of us for years anyway. He fit right into our system.”
When Barnes started scrimmaging with the Green Wave last summer, he deferred to others, Miller said.
“He allowed himself to just kind of find his way and let himself fit into a role with the team,” Miller said. “And I think that shows his character and how unselfish he is.”
A lot of Division I teams showed interest in Barnes, especially after he showed he could play point guard in Florida Elite games. But he had a good relationship with Embry-Riddle coach Steve Ridder and decided to sign with the NAIA power.
“I was looking to go up north a little bit,” Barnes said. “But when it all came down to it, I wanted to stay home. I love Florida, I love my hometown. If I have a winning program right in my backyard, why would I leave? My parents and everyone get to watch me. That’s a good thing.”
Barnes plans to redshirt his first season with the Eagles and work on his game, especially his outside shooting. In high school, he was so confident in his ability to drive to the basket and create a shot for himself or a teammate that he rarely took jumpers, though he did hit six of 14 3-pointers.
“Coach Ridder has already talked about me playing more point guard, being like a combo, playing point and two-guard,” Barnes said. “I’m definitely going to have to change how I play, but he still likes how I’m aggressive, going to the rim and stuff. I’ve already started playing with some of the Embry-Riddle guys. I’m really excited to get with them and see how good I can become, and Coach Ridder is obviously a great coach. I want to see how hard he pushes me.”
But Ridder is not sure he can push Barnes as hard as he pushes himself.
“He wants to get much better,” said Ridder, whose son, Reed, was Father Lopez’s point guard. “Dalton is a very dedicated student-athlete with a tremendous drive to win. I can’t say enough good things about him. You build championships with guys who have great talent but even better character and makeup, and that’s Dalton Barnes. I really think he’s going to be a great one for us.”
National Scouting Report is dedicated to finding scholarship opportunities for athletes who possess the talent, desire, and motivation to compete at the collegiate level. We’ve helped connect thousands of athletes with their perfect college.