Signing with Duke in the Spring of 2005, John Barone was one of the most sought after big men in the country. John took visits to several Big Ten powerhouses, but found his home with the Blue Devils and Coach Clar Anderson. Barone finished 5th at Senior Nationals and 2nd in the New York state tournament twice, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. The native of Shirley, New York is the prototype for the Duke student-athlete. As a sophomore this year, he became a team captian and set Duke's single-season win record at 35. John took a moment to give us his thoughts on this past season and his goals for the next two years in a Blue Devil singlet.“When addressing this season in its entirety I am by no means satisfied. I did not accomplish my primary goal of becoming an All-American or of setting the record for most pins in a season. However, I believe I made a name for myself on the national stage and in the ACC which creates a great base to work from in order to achieve those primary goals this upcoming season.
Each week as the Sports Information department would write out articles on the team, they would highlight my accomplishments, saying that I was “assaulting records” and “creating a legacy”. Not only did this motivate me, but I think that it made my teammates proud of me and, as I am sure many of them wanted to be mentioned more, I think it motivated them to work harder as well. I wouldn’t have thought that much about the record for fastest pin and I don’t believe I’d have been aware of my pace for setting the record for most wins in a season had the Sports Info dept, my coaches and my teammates not reminded me of it daily in the practice room. Furthermore, my peers around campus read the articles put out on GoDuke.com and encouraged me to keep on pushing it and to reach towards obtaining more records. As encouraged as I was I was also a bit nervous, I didn’t want to have all the hype around me and not have achieved what people thought I would or were claiming I would. I didn’t want to make anyone a liar and I didn’t want to live below what was expected of me. This helped me to believe in myself a bit more. I had family, teammates, coaches, friends, the local media, and even some professors looking to me and pushing me. All of them wanted to see me achieve big things.
After the season was over one of my teammates showed me that I had made in onto a couple of lists that distinguished me nationally. I was in the top 25 of people with the most wins in all weight classes. I was on the list of most wins by pin and I was given the back handed compliment of achieving the distinction of being on the list of top guys who did not qualify for nationals this year, alongside my teammate Addison Nuding. The things that I accomplished this season and the attention and support I received show me just what I can do and what I am capable of doing. I am right there and I have very little to go until I stand on the podium on the national stage.
I’m doing more than ever this summer in order to continue to build my legacy as I am staying around Duke for 8 weeks to wrestle with the coaching staff and train with the support staff – lifting, running, wrestling, dieting, and training myself mentally to do things no Blue Devil before me has done, and hopefully, what many after me will.
_John”
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