There are two types of people at Guyer High School that Joe Barb doesn’t encounter often, if at all — those he won’t talk to, and those that can beat him in a foot race

DRC/Gary Payne

Guyer sprinter Joe Barb IV, left, stands next to his father, Joe Barb III, who also was a runner in high school and went to state his junior and senior year. He also missed out on being part of the 1992 Olympics by less than 1 second while running in the U.S. Army.

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In fact, the junior track star is so talkative with all of his classmates, head track coach Sean Lonergan bestowed upon him a nickname — the mayor.

“He’s popular with everyone and is always friendly with everyone,” Lonergan said. “You’ll never hear a negative word come out of his mouth. He just always has a positive attitude.”

As much of a team player as Barb is, it’s not hard to see why he’s so positive all the time. It’s likely got something to do with the fact that he’s coming off a Class 4A Region I track meet which saw him win the 400-meter run and anchor the gold-medal winning 4x400 relay team, allowing him to return to today’s UIL state meet in Austin, where he finished fifth in the 400 last year as a sophomore.

Out of all of his accomplishments, what he did two weeks ago at the regional meet in San Angelo might’ve been the most impressive.

The Wildcats won the relay in a time of 3:17.47, but for a while things didn’t look too promising.

Third leg Jake Witt got the baton in second place before two people passed him. But Witt’s strong finishing kick propelled him back into second place before giving the stick off to Barb about 10 meters behind Fort Worth Eastern Hills.

The junior gradually gained ground on Eastern Hills before eventually passing the anchor and crossing the finish line in first to give the Wildcats a bit of an unexpected title.

Witt, one of two seniors on the relay team, said he was confident his team would finish at least second, which is what it needed to go to state, but was a bit surprised to get the gold.

“I didn’t know how fast the guy was from Eastern Hills, so I had no idea how close I had to get [Barb to the front], but I knew if we got first or second we were going to state,” Witt said. “I was already celebrating when I gave him the stick and the fact that he ran a 46.9 [split] and passed [Eastern Hills] was icing on the cake.

“He’s just a different animal. That speaks for itself, doing that.”

Barb hasn’t always been such a freak on the track. Just a couple of years ago, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do athletically. He was a freshman at Dickinson and came home in tears one day after being cut from the basketball team.

That’s when he decided to follow in his dad’s footsteps.

His father, Joe Barb III, went to the state meet in 1987 and 1988 while at LaMarque and finished fifth in the 400 both years — the same place as the Guyer sprinter finished last year as a sophomore.

From there, the elder Barb went on to Odessa Junior College and then to the Army where he ran for the All-Army team and missed the qualifying time for the 400 in the 1992 Olympic Trials by nine-tenths of a second.

Barb III passed many traits on to his son, most notably his skills on the track and his affinity for people, both of which have given him his nickname.

“My dad encourages me and motivates me all the time,” Barb IV said. “He gives me encouragement before the race and it helps me do a lot better because I know he has done it, and it makes me believe I can do it too because I’m a part of him.”

The elder Barb said he still trains and occasionally will step on the track with his son, but the days are long gone when he could actually beat him.

“He gives me a head start and I kind of push him, but I can’t mess with him,” Barb III said. “I can’t touch him anymore. If I got out there and trained seriously, I think I could give him a run for his money. He’s strong, though. He’s real strong.”

Barb III remembers the day he met his son’s new coach for the first time and threw out a pretty bold prediction for a kid that finished seventh at his district track meet during his freshman year. So far, Barb IV’s best time in the open 400 is 48.5 seconds, while his best split in the mile relay is the 46.9 he ran at regionals.

“We moved here [to Denton] and I told [Lonergan] he’s gonna go 48 [seconds in the 400] as a sophomore,” Barb III said. “I don’t think [Lonergan] believed me, but I knew what he had. He started running more and more and went 48.89. I told [Lonergan], ‘This year he’s gonna go 46 [seconds].’ He’s not there yet, but the year ain’t over yet.”

If all goes as planned, all of that training will pay off today if Barb IV can do something his father never did at the UIL state meet — bring home a medal.

“No, I wouldn’t throw it in his face,” Barb IV said with a chuckle. “He’d probably cry. He’d be so excited. For me to bring a state medal to him, that’d probably bring tears to his eyes. It’d bring tears to mine, that’s for sure.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com .