Barker Makes Good on Family Tradition : North team: He helped Kennedy win a 3-A title and will follow in his brother’s footsteps in today’s game.

Every summer at Kennedy High School’s basketball camp, the kids play a game called “Beat the Superstar.”

Coach John Mayberry will pick a youngster to play an imaginary game of one-on-one against one of his heroes.

Most of the kids imagine they’re playing against NBA stars Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan or Larry Bird.

If the kid makes a shot, he scores a point. If he misses, it’s two points for the superstar. The first to reach 11 wins.

Mayberry has watched hundreds of youngsters play the game hundreds of times over the years, but he will never forget the first time Jim Barker stepped up to play.

“I asked Jim, ‘Who do you want to beat?’ ” Mayberry said. “He told me, ‘I want to beat my brother.’ ”

The other kids laughed, but Barker always thought his older brother, Rick, was a superstar at Kennedy High.

When he was 12, Jim watched Rick, an 18-year-old senior, score 24 points for the North team in the 1983 Orange County All-Star basketball game.

Later that summer, Jim helped Rick pack his bags for college at BYU Hawaii on the North Shore of Oahu. He collected clippings as his older brother became a four-year starter and the career scoring leader at BYU Hawaii.

Now, seven years later, Jim Barker is following in his brother’s footsteps. Barker will play for the North team in the 25th Orange County All-Star basketball game at 4 p.m. today at Cal State Fullerton.

Barker was selected after averaging 22.6 points and 9.1 rebounds in leading Kennedy to the co-championship of the Garden Grove League.

He set school records for best free-throw percentage in a season (87%) and at one point made 36 consecutive free throws. He also holds the school mark with 16 free throws in one game.

Barker was a three-year varsity member, helping Kennedy win two league titles and the 3-A division championship in 1988. He said his most memorable moment came in the 1988 semifinals, when he made a three-point basket that later became known as “The Shot Heard Round the School” against Rolling Hills.

In a game that went from embarrassing to bewildering, Kennedy overcame a 23-point halftime deficit to gain an 83-80 triple-overtime victory.

Barker’s three-point basket came with two seconds remaining in the second overtime period and Kennedy trailing, 74-71. Kennedy went on to beat Tustin for the 3-A title, the first basketball championship for any school in the Anaheim Union High School District.

Barker said he never realized the impact of his shot on the improbable victory until long after the game.

“There were teachers here who went home before the game was over and they were apologizing to me the next day for leaving early,” he said. “I was only a sophomore reserve, and basically, I was just a guy out there on the court.

“I had this idea we were going to repeat as champions the next year. When we didn’t, that’s when I realized how special the championship was. That’s when I realized the impact of that shot.”

Barker is the youngest of six brothers who attended Kennedy; five played basketball for Mayberry.

“Jim is the most consistent and successful player in the history of our school,” he said. “All six boys earned the Eagle Scout award, so you know it’s a special family. Their father has been in our booster club for 12 years.

“Jim’s final project to gain his Eagle Scout was painting our school’s baseball bleachers. He organized an entire crew when he was a sophomore and got the job done.”

Jim plans to continue in Rick’s footsteps. He has applied at BYU Hawaii and is hoping to earn a scholarship with a good performance in today’s game.

It could be a long shot, but then Barker knows all about them.