By Warren Kozireski —
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Buffalo State senior defenseman Charles Barber had scored more goals this season than in his first three season’s combined and set a career high with 12 points with two regular season games plus any postseason contests remaining in his collegiate career.
The Queensbury-born Barber spent his first three collegiate campaigns with Plattsburgh State, but headed west for this, his final go-round prior to what he hopes is the launch of his professional hockey career.
“He has been phenomenal for us,” Buffalo State head coach Steve Murphy said. “The kid is logging 30 minutes a game here at the end of the year. He’s been a great kid and phenomenal teammate that all the guys like and helped us a big amount this year.
“It’s unfortunate that we only get him for one year, but he’s given us a good, steady presence back there and a guy that we can count on that works hard every day, does things the right way and brings energy and a great pickup for us.”
“I had a little bit of a disagreement with the coach at Plattsburgh and reached out to a couple of SUNY schools and coach Steve called me within 20-25 minutes and offered me a spot,” Barber said in mid-February. “I wanted to think about it because I was thinking of going to Castleton where my younger brother (sophomore defenseman Andrew) plays. But I like the area so I figured I would go and enjoy my senior year. He offered me a lot of playing time, which he has come through with.
“It was a little different and I had to adjust to a little different playing style, but after a few weeks I got used to it and he’s put a lot of faith in me and let me play my way.”
The 6’2”, 205 lb. left shot stood tied for 11th in the SUNYAC conference in points. He began his hockey journey with five years in the CP (Clifton Park) Dynamo program in the Albany region before spending two seasons with the New York Bobcats in the Eastern Hockey League, the last featuring an offensive burst of 12 goals and 12 assists in 35 games leading to upstate New York with the Cardinals.
“I started playing for them (CP Dynamo) when they were a brand-new program when I was 13 (years old) I believe. We brought it up a little bit and won a state championship—kind of snagged it from the Jr. Sabres actually.
“Then Eisenhower Twin Rinks down in Long Island (for the Bobcats). I like the coach a lot, went down there a played a lot and he got me a spot with Plattsburgh.”
“As a senior I hope we pull off a nice winning streak heading into the playoffs. After that I’m hoping to maybe get a bit of a sniff (professionally) with team and I’m going to have to prove myself to them and coach Steve has helped me as much as he can, so we’ll see if we get a bounce from that.”
“Out of school I might try to go to flight school down in Florida and be a pilot (for commercial airline) or try to become a state trooper back home.”
But first there are still games left to make a last-month impact with his adopted senior year team.
