Princeton University Athletics
JIM BARLOW
June 16, 2000 | General
As a player on Princeton's soccer team, Jim Barlow '91 enjoyed success the moment he arrived on campus.
He was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 1987. A year later he was part of the Ivy League-title winning Tigers. Then, as a junior, he helped Princeton earn a trip to the NCAA tournament before graduating and receiving 1990 Ivy Player of the Year honors his senior season.
Barlow returned to Old Nassau in February 1996 as the Tiger head coach, but success didn't come as easily at first. That turned this fall when he led Princeton to an 11-5-2 record, its first Ivy title in his four-year tenure and the Tigers' first outright league championship since 1960.
"The whole coaching staff has been trying to get there every year," Barlow says. "The first year I was here, the freshman class had high expectations. The year before they had gone to the NCAAs. It was a frustrating year when we finished 6-8-3. It's been a couple of years getting back to that point, which makes it nice for our seniors."
And nice for Barlow, who guided the team to identical 8-8-1 seasons in 1997 and 1998. In those years Princeton finished 3-3-1 and 3-4-0 in Ivy action, respectively.
"The past two seasons we felt in every Ivy League game, with the exception of one game against Dartmouth, we were in it," Barlow says. "We felt like we've had good teams that just missed winning the close games that really mattered in terms of the league championship."
This season Barlow's squad, which had just four seniors, won those close games. Building off a late-summer trip to England, Princeton made it through the regular season with just one loss before tying Yale 0-0 to claim the Ivy championship and the automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
Princeton then faced Virginia, a team Barlow defeated as a senior, in the first round. The Tigers came within a whisker of pulling off the upset over the Cavaliers before falling in overtime, 2-1, but that didn't diminish Barlow's best year as a head coach.
"I think having played here helps," says the 30-year-old, who returned to Princeton after serving as the full-time assistant at American University while earning his master's degree in education. "It helps to have such strong feelings for the school. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to return to Princeton."
After graduation from Princeton, Barlow coached at The Hun School of Princeton for one year before going to American. Four years later he replaced his former Princeton coach, Bob Bradley.
"After a couple of years at American, I was ready to coach somewhere," Barlow says. "When the Princeton job opened up, Bob encouraged me to apply. He was a great role model in trying to set up the right type of environment to play in."
Barlow worked to maintain some of the same ideals that made Princeton successful under Bradley while also adding his own spin to the team. In his fourth year, it all came together.
"We always talk about becoming a good team as being a process," says Barlow, who resides in Princeton with wife Patty. "It takes some time--getting to know players and their getting to know me. There are three things we harp on--being alert, being responsible and being honest. Those are three principles that have been Princeton standards. This year a lot of things fell into place. Hopefully we can take it even further in the future."
by Justin Feil