There’s not much about wrestling that surprises Allen Henderson. He raised a pair of wrestling twins, including Evan, an All-American at North Carolina. When two combatants grapple on the mat, he knows what to look for and where to look for it.
Yet even a wrestling aficionado can concede surprise, as Allen did to Evan one day recently. They spoke about Evan’s UNC teammate Christian Barber, who pocketed his 23rd win of the season Saturday night against Stanford, good for second-most on the team behind the near-automatic Henderson.
“I think my dad said something like, ‘Holy crap, where did Barber come from?’” Evan Henderson said.
Barber, a junior, hails from Westfield, N.J., but the elder Henderson didn’t care about Barber’s hometown. He wondered, instead, how Barber, a high school titleholder in New Jersey but largely unspectacular in his first two years in Chapel Hill, could catapult to the top of UNC’s totem pole.
“I just feel more confident on the mat,” said Barber, a redshirt sophomore. “Last year, I was too hesitant starting my offense. I think I’ve just become more physical.”
Barber needed every ounce of his physicality against Stanford’s Donovan Halpin. Little more than 24 hours after suffering just his sixth loss of the year in Blacksburg, Va., Barber endured a crawl-through-the-mud affair against Halpin. He coaxed Halpin into a takedown, then anchored his legs into the mat and withstood a final flurry.
“He’s consistent,” said associate coach Cary Kolat, who invoked “consistent” three more times to describe Barber. “It’s nice when you have a guy when he goes out there, you pretty much know what’s going to happen.”
The turnaround began this summer. Barber, who wrestles in the 149-pound weight class, joined Henderson for several months of intensive training. They’d condition themselves physically, then head to the mat and try to piece together the essential elements of successful wrestling.
Barber took Henderson’s suggestions, added them to several more from UNC’s coaches and fortified his on-mat attack. In the interim, it’s good enough to earn the distinction of UNC’s second-best wrestler. But the postseason requires a more extraordinary style, a more exacting resolve, that Barber still seeks.
