Hanks’ Career Finds New Life at Valley

These are good times for Barry Hanks--son of a former mortician--who spent a year on the graveyard shift before resurrecting his football career.

The starting quarterback for the undefeated Valley College football team is a happier, self-described “better person” than the one who graduated from El Camino Real High in 1985 and quit football when he realized he wasn’t going to be handed a position at Pierce College.

Hanks spent a year as a night stock clerk at a supermarket before realizing it would be more fun stacking up passing yardage than soup cans and cereal boxes--no matter how long he had to wait.

He enrolled at Valley last year and was a starter by the fourth game of the season.

The Monarchs haven’t lost since.

“My strength is how well people play around me,” Hanks said. “I think these guys believe in what I can do.”

Hanks, 6-1, 190 pounds, is no Jack Armstrong. Off the field, his brownish-blond hair hangs to his shoulders and his eyes are often hidden behind white-rimmed, wraparound sunglasses.

“I tell him every day to get a haircut,” Valley Coach Chuck Ferrero said. “With that mustache and hair, he looks like Charles Manson. He doesn’t look real Ivy League.”

On the field, however, Hanks looks more and more like a major college prospect.

Last season, Hanks passed for 1,567 yards and 11 touchdowns and threw only 2 interceptions in 6 games as a starter. This season, he has passed for 581 yards and six touchdowns without an interception. Hanks has helped Valley, which plays at Harbor tonight, to a No. 7 ranking in the state.

“Barry’s tough,” said linebacker Joe Zacharia, who plays against Hanks every day in practice. “He doesn’t cry like some quarterbacks. He’ll lead a play and if you’re not looking he’ll knock your butt in the dirt.”

James Reaves, a sophomore wide receiver, played with Hanks in youth football and in high school. Hanks talked him into transferring to Valley from Moorpark and he’s become Hanks’ No. 1 target.

“He takes control and he’s calm and cool,” Reaves said. “He just doesn’t screw around. He’ll stay back there and take the hit.”

Hanks was toughened by a football career that began when he was a child and featured nightly scrimmages against three older brothers in the family’s living room. The Hanks boys would toss their baby brother a pair of rolled-up socks and challenge him to run past them or through them, using the room’s furniture as interference.

That kind of background qualified Hanks as a seasoned player by the time he was old enough to play in organized leagues. At 9, he passed for more than 1,000 yards. By the time he was 14, he was throwing for more than 3,000 yards a season.

Hanks had a good career at El Camino Real under Coach Skip Giancanelli, leading the Conquistadores to an 8-2 record his junior year and a 6-3 record as a senior. Still, many coaches and players believed he never fully achieved his potential. Some blamed an offense that didn’t take full advantage of Hanks’ passing ability. Others pointed fingers at Hanks.

“Back in high school, I was a different individual,” Hanks said. “Back then I didn’t give a crap about the person sitting next to me. It was me, my family and a few close friends. Giancanelli told me the JC level would make me grow up, see the light and see what I had.”

Hanks, 21, was still recalcitrant when he arrived at Pierce. He wasn’t used to waiting his turn for a chance to play and showed no interest in finding out what it was like.

“I was young then and it just kind of caught me by surprise,” Hanks said. “So, I got out of football and maybe I shouldn’t have. But that year was good for me. I got hungry again.”

Hanks also digested some advice from his brother Maury, who is an assistant basketball coach at San Diego State.

“Barry needed to make some changes and not just in football,” Maury said. “He had his friends and he didn’t know what respect was. With maturity, he’s grown up. He’ll never say anything bad about anyone. If he doesn’t have something good to say, he doesn’t say anything.”

Hanks enrolled at Valley and waited for his opportunity. He opened the season No. 3 on the depth chart behind sophomore Josh Davis, who had been the starting quarterback at Pierce before the school dropped the football program, and freshman John Watkins, who helped lead Canyon High to consecutive unbeaten seasons and Southern Section conference titles.

Hanks ran the scout team in practice and watched the other quarterbacks from the sidelines as Valley began its season with consecutive losses. The Monarchs were on their way to being trounced by College of the Desert in the third game of the season when Hanks approached Ferrero in the middle of the third quarter.

“I went to him and said, ‘You want to win this or what?’ ” Hanks said. “He looked at me and said, ‘Go sit down.’ ”

By the start of the fourth quarter, however, Ferrero was desperate to get his under-achieving team fired up. Enter Hanks, who passed for 232 yards in the fourth quarter of a 44-30 loss.

“It was an eye-opener,” Ferrero said. “I said, ‘Let’s go.’ He went. And that was it.”

Hanks, a vocal leader, has a completion rate of 69.2%. He is comfortable in the film room, in the pocket, or even leading a sweep. Valley’s favorite play is an off-tackle pitch to the tailback. The key blocker on the play is the quarterback.

“Barry throws a great finesse chop block,” Bausley said. “It’s not like an offensive lineman’s, but I can always rely on it to be on time.”

Hanks credits Ferrero and offensive coordinator Jim Fenwick for helping him develop as a quarterback. Fenwick, who was the coach at Pierce when Hanks went out for the team, joined the Valley coaching staff this season and admitted to being apprehensive about working with the Hanks he remembered.

“I was concerned because the only time I saw him, I thought he needed maturity,” Fenwick said. “But he’s become a student of the game. He’ll take criticism and he pushes himself to improve. I think he’s just starting to see that he doesn’t know as much as he thought--and I mean that in a good way. He still wants to learn.”

Hanks feels the biggest lesson already has been learned.

“When things didn’t happen for me out of high school, it all kind of hit me like a bombshell,” Hanks said. “I was working graveyard and that’s just not where it’s at for me.

“My brother taught me that what you give to people is what you get back. If I had learned that a little bit earlier in life, I think I would have been better off. But just that I learned it, is probably the most important thing.”