This season, “In the Huddle” is going to make you a part of George Mason University's men's volleyball team.  Here you can find game reports, pre- and post-match interviews, and features about different members of one of the most successful athletic programs at Mason, a taste of the ever-long rivalry with Penn State University, and much more. The Patriots are ready for another thrilling season. Are you, Patriots?

Call it a comeback: Barnes overcomes an injury to achieve a long-awaited dream

Jan. 10, 2014…Motivation and excitement rise as the days before the men's volleyball team's season opener wind down…just a few practice days to go, just a few team scrimmages…Here we go, the serve's up… the libero on the other side meets it…the setter sends it toward zone four…the outside hitter goes for it… 

Does he get the kill? Does he commit an attacking error? Do the blockers tame his attack? All of the sudden, it doesn't matter. Freshman Weston Barnes lands on the ground, his left knee gives out and he falls backward with utter anguish depicted on his face and detected in his scream, which fills the RAC gym at George Mason University…

Numerous factors define an athlete's success – titles and matches won are certainly important, amount of playing time means a lot, too, but without good health none of that really matters – an injury could break an athlete's career in a matter of… a jump. Barnes completely ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and suffered a partial tear in his lateral meniscus, an injury that takes “an extended amount of time to get to the collegiate, Division 1- [or] professional level,” according to Joseph Sierzega, the assistant athletic trainer at Mason who works with the men's volleyball team.

“It's probably one of the more common non-contact injuries in sports, it can be seen in almost any sport,” Sierzega said. “It is a little less common in volleyball; you can see more of ankle and shoulder injuries.”

Last February Barnes went through a surgical procedure to have his ACL repaired using the middle one-third of the tendon in the front of his kneecap. Not much could be done for his meniscus, however, and the doctors only removed the portion that was torn. Although this could hinder him later in life, the outside hitter tries to find the positive in the whole situation.

“I got injured a week before our first match,” Barnes recalled, “but looking back on it, the timing could have been a lot worse. I could have been halfway through the season and I would have suffered an entire year of eligibility. This way I was able to get my medical redshirt.”

With the help of Sierzega, immediately after surgery Barnes began intense daily rehabilitation in which up to this day he works hard to regain his leg strength and stamina, to prevent rust on his skills through sport-specific exercises, and to regain his confidence on the court through mental exercises, especially for jumping. One thing that stood out to the athletic trainer from the beginning was Barnes' determination to come back, which made the long hours in the gym, as well as on the spin bike and exam table in the trainer's packed room, more bearable.

“When [the injury] first happened, he was pretty devastated,” Sierzega said. “However, he quickly gained a positive attitude and that's what's been amazing with Weston – he always had a good idea of what his body could do, how much he could push it, and he was always willing to push it to where he needed to be.”

Maria Barnes, the sophomore's mother, explained her son's determination with his love for the sport.

“Weston loves the game so much,” she said. “The sport has taught him that hard work and diligence and focus can pay off. I believe it has taught him that if he puts his mind to something, he will achieve it.”

A natural athlete throughout his childhood, Barnes tried a little bit of everything – baseball, basketball, soccer, etc. However, with volleyball being the family sport, the apple did not fall far from the tree and he soon followed suite under the positive example from his parents and the hot sands of Laguna Beach, Ca., a volleyball heaven 2,500 miles away from Fairfax, Va., a combination that created a life-long volleyball lover. When the opportunity came, he did not think twice about leaving 75 degree winter temperatures in favor of cold and snowy northern Virginia.

“My parents are volleyball players,” said Barnes, who won a gold and silver medal at the Junior National Championship during high school. “My mom played in college [San Diego State University] and my dad played in college for a little bit, too. I grew up on the beach watching them play. That is how I started being around the game. Once I got hooked to volleyball, all the other sports I was playing slowly started to not matter.”

Namely his love for the game made it so hard for the sophomore to stay away from it for such a long time. He missed it the most during the matches, team scrimmages and especially in the summer, when due to the injury he was deprived of playing beach volleyball, which he calls his “ultimate stress relief.” Between the physical therapy that he went through and his part-time job, Barnes needed another way to blow off steam in the summer, so he began to “explore parts of my identity that I didn't really know because I was always too focused on volleyball.” That is when he discovered his passion for electronic dance music.

“I mostly started DJ-ing and doing some music management stuff for friends,” Barnes said in his signature modest tone.

Even now, during the school year, despite volleyball and academics taking up most of his daily agenda, the finance student still finds time for “mixing.” In no time, he hooks up his laptop to the DJ mixer and turns the dining table in his campus apartment into a stage, entertaining his suitemates and visitors with his beats. One of them, Radoslav Popov, who is also a teammate of Barnes, shared with a smile on his face that Barnes even “dances to his beats from time to time.” Nothing wrong with that, considering the fact that after many months of frustration and hard work, recently the sophomore has finally been given a reason to dance.

“Weston was just cleared for full activity [as of Dec. 16],” Sierzega said. “He still has some strength to gain in his quad, but he was given the full go. We'll probably limit his jumping because of his strength and confidence in it, but he's going to play libero and be fully active [at that position].”

Despite his love for hitting and good memories from the time he was an outside hitter prior to the injury, Barnes immediately embraced the challenge of changing his playing position when he was first introduced to the idea in the end of last season.

“Last year, at the end-of-the-year meetings, [coach] told me that [this] year he would look for me to fill the libero spot,” Barnes said. “What I said to him is, 'that's great, I'm happy to get on the court and contribute in any way that is the best way for me to contribute.'”

“I still have [the thought of] playing as an outside hitter in the back of my head and I always will, because I love hitting,” he admitted. “But I found that my skill set can work for a libero and that's where coach needs me, so I am going at libero full force.”

In October, during a preseason tournament in Sterling, Va., Barnes had the chance to show his coach that he “can do anything that any other player can do,” although realizing that his performance would not live up to his personal standards until after the season begins. Yet, the experience in the crammed gym with rubber-covered, undersized courts will stay with Barnes for a while, because it represented a benchmark in his journey toward his ultimate goal.

“[The tournament] was the first time I played in a match-type situation with the jersey on and it felt awesome to have the Mason logo on my chest and the words on the back of my [jersey],” he explained. “Physically, that day I felt like I earned it. I felt like all those days of working out were starting to come together. And the jersey is the symbol of that. I felt like my time away from volleyball and my time out of a jersey will focus me towards every time I put that jersey on [and represent] my school.”

However, the real test for the Mason's now-libero is yet to come. As if a script from nearby Hollywood, the Patriots will start their season with a tour in California to play Pepperdine University, University of California – Irvine, and California State University – Northridge – not far from where a 10-year-old boy and his dad once innocently messed around with a ball on the beach. Barnes made no attempt to hide his excitement about his homecoming experience.

“I think about our first match every single day,” he said. “When I saw the schedule for the first time this [past] summer and I saw that we're flying out to  California for our first matches, I immediately thought of playing in front of my parents and how that will be so special for them and so special for me just because they brought me all this way. I think it is meant to be.”

“The whole neighborhood, all our family and close friends are so excited for Weston to come out West to play in January,” Maria Barnes said. “He will have quite the crew, especially at the UCI matches.  I, of course, will be at all of them.”

Yes, an injury can break an athlete's career. When strong will meets hard work, passion, and determination, however, exceptions could be made. Sierzega, who has gotten to know Barnes better than anyone else throughout his 12-month journey and counting, has no doubt that the sophomore will be one of these exceptions.

“For a freshman [at the time] he had a lot of leadership skills and maybe the injury helped him progress quicker with these leadership skills because he wasn't on the court to help his team so he had to find other avenues,” the athletic trainer said. “I think he's going to surprise some people [this season], I really do.”

Jan. 5, 2015…Motivation and excitement rise as the days before the men's volleyball team's season opener wind down. There are only few practice days left to go, just a few team scrimmages. Here we go… a healthy Barnes is waiting for his moment to step on the hardwood, polished court as a Patriot for the first time. The desire is there, and so is the determination. Now it is only up to him to continue inserting the element of hard work in this equation and strive to make the impact that he's always wanted to make.