Barnwell wins national honor, while Sunrise basketball prepares for championship run
Sunrise Christian Academy coach Luke Barnwell was honored as the 2021 Naismith boys high school basketball coach of the year earlier this month.
Barnwell, a Kingman native and Bishop Carroll graduate, has led Sunrise to a 19-3 record and a third straight trip to the GEICO Nationals tournament. It has arguably been the best season in Sunrise history, punctuated by wins over perennial powers like Montverde Academy and IMG Academy.
“It’s such a prestigious thing to have your name attached to the inventor of the game,” Barnwell said. “I feel like it’s a culminating point of so many things. Over a decade of commitment to our school and to our program.
“And not just myself, but my staff and (former) coach (Kyle) Lindsted. It’s a shared deal with a lot of people who have put in a lot of energy and effort into this. I’m just so happy for all of those guys and the program.”
After finishing runner-up to Montverde at the NIBC Championships earlier this month, Sunrise is now preparing for the biggest tournament of them all — the GEICO Nationals in Fort Myers, Florida. Sunrise, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, is slated to play the winner of Prolific Prep (California) and La Lumiere (Indiana) in an April 1 game at 2 p.m. broadcast on ESPNU.
After losing its first game in the quarterfinals in 2018 and 2019, Sunrise is motivated to pick up its first national tournament win in program history.
“We have a bunch of kids who are extremely coachable,” Barnwell said. “They let us push them and the talent level is there for sure. Sometimes it can be difficult at this level, but these kids have committed to helping each other and working together. When you have the talent and are coachable, then playing the game is a lot of fun.”
Sunrise has arguably the most talented starting five in the country, as all five starters are committed or signed to high-major programs. Kennedy Chandler, a 6-foot-1 point guard, and Kendall Brown, a 6-foot-8 forward, are both five-star prospects in the class of 2021 with Chandler signed to Tennessee and Brown signed to Baylor. Big man Kenny Pohto is inked with Minnesota, while the other two starters, both four-star prospects, are committed to Kansas in 2022 guard Gradey Dick and 2021 forward Zachary Clemence.
There’s no doubt Sunrise has the potential to make a championship run, but the road will be a difficult one. A potential rematch with IMG Academy looms in the semifinals, while No. 1 seed Montverde Academy is the favorite to reach the finals on the other side of the bracket. Montverde has won two of the three games it has played against Sunrise this season, including earlier this month in a 61-57 win in the NIBC championship game.
Regardless of what happens in Florida next weekend, Barnwell said this season has been a memorable one for him.
“It’s kind of surreal because you don’t really ever stop and reflect,” Barnwell said. “You just kind of keep your head down and keep sprinting and try to get better each and every day. You don’t work for awards. You don’t set out to accomplish them. You just try to be great every day and that’s what coach Lindsted established in this program a long time ago and it’s really the same approach today.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 5:02 PM.
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