Barlow Runs for More Than Yards

By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Nov. 22, 1997

LIVERMORE -- Bud Bartlow was running as hard as he could, his weathered tennis shoes striking the paved road with rapid blows: thump, thump, thump, thump.

Following behind was a boy carrying a gun.

"Bud, wait up!" he wailed. "Bud!"

Bartlow didn't listen. He wanted nothing to do with his acquaintance, who had fired a shot through the roof of a mutual friend's Livermore home minutes earlier, after a fight erupted.

Unwittingly, Bartlow had shouldered the loaded gun -- his friend had stashed it in his backpack -- from school to the house. He was deceived.

Bartlow didn't stay long after seeing the weapon. It wasn't his kind of trouble. So he bolted, hearing the blast as he rounded the corner.

In that moment, it was hard to determine if Bartlow, then 16, was running for his life or from it.

"That was probably the scariest run I've ever been through," said Bartlow, certainly a veteran of many others as Granada High School's senior running back.

Now a month shy of his 18th birthday, Bartlow is nothing like the careless youth he used to be a boy on a collision course with commotion.

"I realized I had to change this whole thing," said Bartlow, who spent 20 days in Alameda County Juvenile Hall after the gun incident.

"The element can affect you, even if it's not your fault," said Bartlow's father, David. "Bud is blessed to have another stab at his life because he could have really gotten caught up in the system."

When Bartlow is focused as he appears now he is not only an amiable human being, but a phenomenal football player. The numbers he has compiled heading into tonight's North Coast Section 2A playoff game against Moreau Catholic at 7 are staggering.

Through 10 games, the running back/cornerback has amassed a region-high 1,419 rushing yards, 19 rushing touchdowns and five defensive scores. He has rushed for at least 110 yards in nine of those contests, including two 200-yard efforts.

He set a school record last year by running for 365 yards in a single game; this year he's running even better, while taking night classes to ensure that he graduates in June.

"It's amazing how much he's grown up from his freshman year to now," said Granada coach Aaron Gingery, who has played a vital role in Bartlow's maturation.

Part II
When he was a child, growing up in Richmond, the realities of "running the streets" hardened Bartlow. Fistfights were as common as handshakes. Passing glances were held a second longer. He had an edge.

"I had this attitude. I didn't care about anyone," Bartlow said. "If someone looked at me wrong, I was ready to go off and fight."

It was just a matter of clearing the turmoil inside his head.

"I said Hold on Bud, slow down.' You keep doing this and you won't be able to play football,' " he said.

"My parents were always in my ear, telling me things. But they were telling me for a reason."

Part III
Shortly after Bartlow moved to Livermore, he joined Granada's freshman football squad and immediately raised eyebrows. But he also had a standoffish demeanor. A sense of distrust. And he wasn't a fan of authority.

"He didn't always make the best choices," Granada athletics director Jeanne Rogers said.

Gingery, at the time, told his freshman coach that a spot was not waiting for Bartlow at the varsity level unless his attitude changed.

"I was young," Bartlow said, "and people were saying Do this, do that.' I didn't want to listen to them. They weren't my parents."

Eventually, he began to change; he began respecting his coaches, trying to remove the weighty chip from his shoulder. He knew football would not be part of his life unless he did.

On the field, though, he matured quickly. "He was like a bolt of lightning that hit the field" was the way Gingery described Bartlow's impact.

A starting varsity cornerback as a sophomore, Bartlow was also an explosive runner with crafty instincts. As a junior, Bartlow juked and carved his way to a 365-yard show against Acalanes on homecoming night in a 48-18 Granada victory. By the half, Bartlow's 257 yards already had eclipsed the school mark set by Tom Soto (252 in 1994).

"I saw the back of his jersey," Acalanes coach Pat Smith recalled. "That's all I saw; that's what we all saw."

It was the kind of night that Bartlow will always ride, always fall back on.

"Every time I touched the ball, I knew I was going to get some good yards," said Bartlow, who scored four times. "At the end of the game, I couldn't believe I only had 21 carries."

As a result, Bartlow's reputation as a threat soared. For the first time, he had an identity. He had respect.

This year, Smith, the Dons' fourth-year coach, suited a junior varsity player in a black jersey, wearing No. 25 -- a Bartlow imitation -- and basically had his players stalk him.

For Bartlow, such tactics are an honor; for opposing coaches, they are a chore. "I want other teams to say That little guy has a heart,' " Bartlow said.

Part IV
Off the field, too, Bartlow has made for a charming presence.

Mary Ann Klos, Granada's vice principal, has worked with Bartlow closely over the past two years, ensuring that he finishes all of his required course work.

"When he graduates, I should be on that stage with him," Klos said, laughing.

Many people, including Gingery, Klos and Bartlow's parents, have helped illuminate his path. But he ultimately made the choice when that path forked at an early age.

Maybe success has altered his perception; maybe it took a stint at juvenile hall. Whatever it was, people noticed.

"If he has an enemy in the world, I'd like to see him," Gingery said.