Brothers Ryan and Bryce Barnes hadn’t even entered kindergarten when they stepped onto the football field for the first time. Now, the Barnes brothers are both football phenoms.
Ryan, a 2021 Quince Orchard High School graduate, is a college freshman, playing Division-1 football at the University of Notre Dame. Bryce, who’s just 15 months younger than Ryan, is a senior at QO, and a star defensive back for this year’s Quince Orchard football team, who recently won the 2021 4A State Championship and received multiple offers to play Division-1 football himself.
Although Bryce is slightly younger than Ryan, he would usually play up in age on Ryan’s teams when they were younger. With Ryan and Bryce on the field, the rest of the family also found a way to become involved in games. Their father, Dennis, and older brother, Christopher, would help coach their teams. Their mom, Kristin, would take pictures on the sidelines, with their younger sister Jalynn (now a freshman volleyball player for Quince Orchard) also encouraging them as a mini-cheerleader.
Looking back, Kristin cherishes the close bonds the family developed through football.
“To watch your kids have relationships with each other and create memories within themselves,” she said. “That’s pretty special.”
Dennis made highlight tapes of some of the best plays from Ryan and Bryce’s early football years, providing priceless memories for the two of them.
“Every year, there would be one play where we both were in on the same tackle,” Ryan remembers. “It was just us two, and we’d always called it the ‘Barnes Bros Crunch’, which I always thought was funny.”
Playing together as kids, healthy competition became a huge key to the success of the Barnes brothers. Outperforming each other would always be an incentive to improve their game.
“I would always want to be lifting more weights than him or doing better on the field,” Bryce said. “It was always like a good motivation and competition thing.”
Through the years, a constant for Ryan and Bryce has been the love and support from their parents. “They both support us no matter what, it really doesn’t matter what we’re doing,” Ryan said, “whether that’s through school, extracurricular activities, sports, learning how to do new things, they’re always there to support us.”
As football became a huge priority in their lives, Dennis and Kristin always wanted to ensure that their kids were grounded.
“Football is what you do,” she always told them. “It’s not who you are.”
The Barnes parents have also helped both Ryan and Bryce navigate the intricacies of the college recruiting process. By the end of his junior year of high school, and within a span of five months, Ryan had received more than thirty D-1 offers, ultimately committing to play at Notre Dame.
Now, Bryce is going through that same college recruiting process. Still uncommitted, Bryce has been receiving support and advice from his brother. Ryan has emphasized to Bryce the importance of having full conversations with college coaches and recruiters, as they end up vastly impacting the life of each player that enters their program. The entire family feels a great sense of gratitude and excitement about the process for both Ryan and Bryce.
“This whole process honestly has been very surreal for us,” said Kristin. “It’s like, how did this even happen?”
With Ryan leaving Gaithersburg for South Bend in February of 2021 for early enrollment, and living on his own for the first time, the entire family “miss[es] him like crazy,” as Kristin put it. The brothers had shared a room their entire lives, and were always together when they were younger, so when Ryan left for college, both brothers had to make adjustments, learning to operate more independently when it comes to football.
“He’s always been there and we’ve always been around each other, and we’re only 15 months apart,” Bryce said. “It’s kind of been new, just learning things on my own, helping me grow as a person individually.”
Although they’re not in the same household anymore, the football support system that Ryan and Bryce built over the years is still very much alive. They still talk on the phone frequently, and Ryan watches Bryce’s highlights when he has time. From the time they were just kids, their commitment to each other as brothers, as well as to the game of football, has helped them succeed.
“When you commit to something, you commit to it fully,” said their mom. “That’s what you do…If you have a goal, go for it, just go. Like you have a dream, go for it.”
And that’s exactly what Ryan and Bryce did. Like many high school and collegiate football players, they have long had the goal of competing at the highest level. When asked where he wants to be in five years, Ryan had a very clear goal in mind.
“I see myself playing in one of the greatest sports the world has ever seen,” he said.
Only time will tell if the Barnes brothers achieve their goal of reaching the NFL, but many of the goals they have worked for are already being realized. A few months ago, Ryan had his first home game at Notre Dame, a moment he had long awaited. Leaving right after Bryce’s Quince Orchard game (where he made a game-saving tackle against Paint Branch), the Barnes family drove through the night, stopping at a hotel along the way. And after a few hours of sleep, they were back on the road, arriving at the game just in time to see Ryan run out of the tunnel at Notre Dame for the first time.
“I’m not gonna lie, I cried when Ryan came out on that field,” Kristin said. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is happening.’”
Watching from the stands, seeing Ryan at Notre Dame, got Bryce thinking about his own future as a D-1 player, wherever it may be.
“It was cool seeing his dreams coming true,” he said. “And it also showed me this could be me next year.”
Article by Sammy Krimstein of Quince Orchard High School
Photos by Ryan Barnes and Bryce Barnes