Former Coaches Say 'Bachelor' Ben Higgins Is The Good Guy He Appears As On TV
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
The 20th season of the romantic reality show premiered Jan. 4, with the second episode airing Monday on ABC 57.
But before Higgins was being seen in millions of homes across the country, before he was appearing on talk shows like “Live with Kelly & Michael” or “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” he was a kid in WCHS Principal Troy Akers’ neighborhood. He was a member of Akers’ and David Bailey’s football team and coach Ben Barkey’s golf team. He was a junior in David Hoffert’s history class, before Hoffert became the Warsaw Schools superintendent.
Tuesday afternoon, Akers, Bailey, Barkey and Hoffert sat down to talk about the twentysomething Higgins who is garnering worldwide attention but who, they say, still reflects his Warsaw roots.
“My first interaction with Ben was when he was a kid in our neighborhood,” Akers recalled. “We moved from the Wawasee district down to Warsaw. They lived in Deed’s Creek and Ben falls right between my daughter Tara and son Tyler. My kids entered Harrison. Tyler was a fifth-grader and Tara was a third-grader, so Ben would have been a fourth-grader at Harrison when I first met him.”
Barkey remembers first meeting Higgins as a seventh-grader at Edgewood Middle School while he taught eighth grade.
“Ben has a tall stature so even in middle school he stuck out. But I didn’t really get to know him, know him until he was a junior on the golf team,” Barkey said.
Since the middle school is only two grades, as a teacher Barkey knew every student, but Higgins made an impression early on.
“This is probably a common theme with him, he’s very easy to talk to, even (when he was) at that age,” Barkey said. “Easy to talk to and have conversations with adults, even though you’re a 13-, 14-year-old kid. You build that relationship with him pretty quick.”
Hoffert said Higgins was a junior in his U.S. history class that he had at WCHS when they first met. Higgins also was a good friend with a number of the kids on Hoffert’s track team. “So he was kind of always in that influential circle of athletes and just great kids at Warsaw Community High School that were always seen around the community and seen as positive role models inside the school,” Hoffert said.
Akers remembered watching Higgins play elementary basketball.
“Of course, that’s such a big thing in Warsaw anyway,” he said. “And like Ben (Barkey) said, he’s the tallest guy on the court.”
The Akers family got to know the Higgins family also through church and still are in small group meetings with Higgins’ parents.
As Higgins moved on to high school, Akers said, “Ben could throw a football. And being tall, it was a matter of ‘could he fill out?’ and, back then, ‘was he tough enough?’ Or ‘is he just a tall kid who has a good arm?’ And, he’s real sharp and real intelligent.”
From eighth to ninth grade, there was a question of whether or not Higgins would play football or just stick with basketball, Akers said. Higgins also enjoyed golfing then, too.
Barkey said, “He did that in the middle school. Not for the team, but just something the kids would always talk about. ... They all kind of played together. As a coach you want any kind of athlete to show interest in your sport, and it happens that basketball and football was what he worked on early on. And then there were some injuries.”
Akers said Higgins had a couple of knee surgeries and that hurt his development and what might have “done him in” with basketball. “Because coming off those injuries in the hard court, it was tough, and I know he loved basketball. Then in football, we had him and he really stepped up and became a starter his junior year. Not long after starting, he was injured, so that was tough. I think he worked so hard he was in a position to go out for golf at the end of his junior year after coming off knee surgery,” Akers said.
In golf, a player has to try out and Higgins did in his junior year after those injuries. He “barely” made the team, Barkey recalled.
“I always tell him that he was a better golfer than a basketball and football player because at that time we were ranked fourth in the state. To make a team without playing for two years is really impressive,” Barkey said.
Each injury he sustained, Akers said Higgins took them in stride. He fought back and didn’t cast blame, keeping his chin up.
“As a golf coach, when you have somebody that is athletic and a good leader, if he’s going to play for two years, what’s he going to be like his senior year?” Barkey said. “We know we’re going to get a good kid who’s a leader and make the team fun to be around, which is an important chemistry aspect, but as an athlete if you’re going to catch lightning in a bottle, you never know with somebody.”
Barkey said Higgins developed into a fine golfer and would have been able to play for a lot of teams in Indiana, but the Warsaw golf team was always pretty strong. In Higgins’ senior year, he was shooting mid-40s at Stonehenge Golf Course.
Teacher David Bailey met Higgins through coaching him in football.
“Talking to Jeff Grose, he always still brings up that Ben was the best basketball player he ever coached in middle school,” Bailey said, using words like “football player,” “lanky tall kid” and “great sense of humor” to describe Higgins.
“I just remember him being kind of a glue, in a good way, a lot of times. Just for a laugh. We worked with him through the offense, Coach Akers and I,” Bailey continued. “You need a quarterback that’s got an even keel, but also who you can rely on.”
“There wasn’t much he couldn’t do athletically,” Akers said. “I remember when we would go to the pool every Saturday after a varsity game, he’d show off and he would always talk about Michael Phelps – a tall guy. And whenever we had swimming relays, they wanted Ben on the team because he could get across to the other side pretty well. ... He was a really good swimmer, too. I don’t know that there wasn’t much of anything he couldn’t do. Always coachable. Good humored. Quick witted, but always a gentleman. I just remember the same attributes he has now. Very humble.”
Before the official announcement that Higgins would be the latest “Bachelor,” there were rumors going around that Higgins was going to be picked, Hoffert said. The WCS Central Office gave Higgins a call and he came right in to the administration building.
“He spent a couple of hours just here with our secretaries, going around. And all of them knew him from his time in school or had kids that went to school with him, or just wanted to meet Ben Higgins who might be the next ‘Bachelor,’” Hoffert recalled. “He was just so gracious with his time.”
Higgins was asked who, if the media calls, did he want speaking about him from WCHS. He named Barkey, Bailey and Akers because they know him “better than anyone else,” Hoffert said. “I think it’s really a reflection of his character when you see the three educators here that made such a huge impact on his life. Again, whether it was growing up with him, or whether it was through football or golf or just along the way just as role models, but I think that’s near and dear to Ben. As you see that representation, I think that’s a representation of Warsaw that really comes out on the show.”
Watching the first episode of “The Bachelor” Monday night, Bailey said he was worried about how they were going to portray Higgins.
“I was just really proud of him, at least the way they cut it up. Because the way he was portrayed was the Ben I remember – the gentleman. And even with that crazy girl (Lace) that wanted to kiss him and stuff, he was like, ‘That’s not really what I want to do right now. I want to get to know you.’ That’s the kind of guy I remember,” Bailey said.
Akers said Higgins isn’t shy about sharing his faith, and Akers loves it when young people are “good with where they are in their walk.”
“When he went to I.U., he struggled a little bit with I.U. being I.U.,” Akers said. “And I just thought it was pretty impressive that after his freshman year, he came back and spoke at our baccalaureate the night before graduation. That was probably one of the more powerful things – when he came back and challenged the kids, talked about how fast that first year went, and the decisions that you make and the choices that you make. That was very impactful, to me. He is definitely a servant leader.”
Hoffert said he thought it was unique that at the beginning of Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor,” when Higgins drives by all the places he can take people in Warsaw, he drives by his elementary school, Harrison, sharing his fond memories there, and then past the high school.
“When we talk about Warsaw Community Schools, that’s the fond memory that we want every kid to have. And so, I think, personally, I am really proud that he still associates himself with our school system, with our community; sees our schools even and the teachers as the role models that he sees,” Hoffert said.
He continued that WCS was happy to accommodate the show back in September to allow Higgins to be in the homecoming parade.
“It was something that we were very happy to accommodate and very happy to have him be a part of it because we’re proud of what he’s been able to do with his life to this point, and he’s proud to be a Warsaw Community Schools graduate,” Hoffert said.
Akers said originally they had concerns with “Hollywood” and the “spin of that show,” but they never flinched about what they believe about Higgins and who he is.
He said he’s talked to Higgins since the filming of the show finished.
“He feels really good about that and had some really neat experiences in the Rose Bowl Parade. His parents ended up going out there, sharing it with him, too. Mom’s helping build the float, which in a million years, they never would have thought (would happen),” Akers said, chuckling about how Higgins went from the homecoming parade to the Rose Bowl Parade.
“I know he feels that everything’s been a blessing, and he’s taking it all in, but he’s definitely thought some things through. And I know that the producers commented more than once that they really thought – when they got to know Warsaw more – that he definitely ... takes a part of Warsaw with him everywhere he goes, on what we stand for as a community. So that should make everyone in the community proud,” Akers said.
Through the television shows, Hoffert said Higgins was able to bring some things that were near and dear to his heart to a mass audience, including a missions trip to Honduras and the Baker Youth Club.
“He said it was interesting because it used to be you put something out on social media, and your friends see it. You put something out on social media now and all of a sudden it’s raising funds for organizations that he feels were making a difference. So he saw it as a way to make a difference in some things that he felt strongly about,” Hoffert said.
Another characterization of Higgins, Barkey said, is that “he’s so fun to rib. He takes it so well, and he doesn’t dish it back. He laughs at himself all the time. ... You can rib him all you want and he doesn’t get mad. He takes it all in good stride. That’s what’s fun about him. You can give him a hard time.”
Akers added that Higgins always has been confident in himself, but not cocky.
“He loves, loves, loves kids. Little kids especially. I know (Baker Youth Club Executive Director) Tracy Furnivall can talk to you for a week about Ben and his work over there,” Akers said.
One of Higgins’ really good friends from high school, Riley Fuller, turned his life around and started the organization Humanity & Hope, an outreach program in Honduras, Akers said. Higgins had numerous trips there. With some exposure from Higgins about the program, the funding and contacts Humanity & Hope has received has grown substantially, he said.
“They just have so many things happening now. A lot of it wasn’t planned. Ben just happened to (support it). They’re getting phone calls from all over the world about how they can help,” Akers said.
Barkey said he was sure the show will be life-changing for Higgins. Bailey said he thinks Higgins changed “The Bachelor” in that on the first episode he called his parents about how it was all going.
“I’ve never ever seen that happen where he calls home and says, ‘Hey, the women all came, it’s going pretty good.’ I just thought that was really neat. ... I thought that was awesome that he called home and how involved the parents were early,” Bailey said.
Akers said with the Higgins family dynamic, “There’s a deep, deep love between he and his parents, big time.”
Even on the show, Higgins talks about wanting a relationship like his parents have, and they’ve been married 32 years, Akers said. “They have been good examples, and they’ve been through a lot of things. They’re just wonderful people.”
Akers said he hopes the show just lets Higgins be who he is, and if he finds the person he thinks he wants to spend the rest of his life with, “that would be wonderful.”
“As a coach and teacher, it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about Ben, or the quiet, shy student, you want all your students to be happy,” Barkey said. “You want them to continue to work toward their goals and have a happy and fulfilled life. With Ben being in a unique situation, you hope for the same, however that happens for him.”
Hoffert said, “He’s choosing his fame not just for himself but also for others, and I think that’s a true value of Warsaw. ... We want all of our graduates to make a difference, not only in their own lives, but also in others’ lives. So as (Higgins) is doing that, I’m excited to see how that blossoms out of this.”[[In-content Ad]]
The 20th season of the romantic reality show premiered Jan. 4, with the second episode airing Monday on ABC 57.
But before Higgins was being seen in millions of homes across the country, before he was appearing on talk shows like “Live with Kelly & Michael” or “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” he was a kid in WCHS Principal Troy Akers’ neighborhood. He was a member of Akers’ and David Bailey’s football team and coach Ben Barkey’s golf team. He was a junior in David Hoffert’s history class, before Hoffert became the Warsaw Schools superintendent.
Tuesday afternoon, Akers, Bailey, Barkey and Hoffert sat down to talk about the twentysomething Higgins who is garnering worldwide attention but who, they say, still reflects his Warsaw roots.
“My first interaction with Ben was when he was a kid in our neighborhood,” Akers recalled. “We moved from the Wawasee district down to Warsaw. They lived in Deed’s Creek and Ben falls right between my daughter Tara and son Tyler. My kids entered Harrison. Tyler was a fifth-grader and Tara was a third-grader, so Ben would have been a fourth-grader at Harrison when I first met him.”
Barkey remembers first meeting Higgins as a seventh-grader at Edgewood Middle School while he taught eighth grade.
“Ben has a tall stature so even in middle school he stuck out. But I didn’t really get to know him, know him until he was a junior on the golf team,” Barkey said.
Since the middle school is only two grades, as a teacher Barkey knew every student, but Higgins made an impression early on.
“This is probably a common theme with him, he’s very easy to talk to, even (when he was) at that age,” Barkey said. “Easy to talk to and have conversations with adults, even though you’re a 13-, 14-year-old kid. You build that relationship with him pretty quick.”
Hoffert said Higgins was a junior in his U.S. history class that he had at WCHS when they first met. Higgins also was a good friend with a number of the kids on Hoffert’s track team. “So he was kind of always in that influential circle of athletes and just great kids at Warsaw Community High School that were always seen around the community and seen as positive role models inside the school,” Hoffert said.
Akers remembered watching Higgins play elementary basketball.
“Of course, that’s such a big thing in Warsaw anyway,” he said. “And like Ben (Barkey) said, he’s the tallest guy on the court.”
The Akers family got to know the Higgins family also through church and still are in small group meetings with Higgins’ parents.
As Higgins moved on to high school, Akers said, “Ben could throw a football. And being tall, it was a matter of ‘could he fill out?’ and, back then, ‘was he tough enough?’ Or ‘is he just a tall kid who has a good arm?’ And, he’s real sharp and real intelligent.”
From eighth to ninth grade, there was a question of whether or not Higgins would play football or just stick with basketball, Akers said. Higgins also enjoyed golfing then, too.
Barkey said, “He did that in the middle school. Not for the team, but just something the kids would always talk about. ... They all kind of played together. As a coach you want any kind of athlete to show interest in your sport, and it happens that basketball and football was what he worked on early on. And then there were some injuries.”
Akers said Higgins had a couple of knee surgeries and that hurt his development and what might have “done him in” with basketball. “Because coming off those injuries in the hard court, it was tough, and I know he loved basketball. Then in football, we had him and he really stepped up and became a starter his junior year. Not long after starting, he was injured, so that was tough. I think he worked so hard he was in a position to go out for golf at the end of his junior year after coming off knee surgery,” Akers said.
In golf, a player has to try out and Higgins did in his junior year after those injuries. He “barely” made the team, Barkey recalled.
“I always tell him that he was a better golfer than a basketball and football player because at that time we were ranked fourth in the state. To make a team without playing for two years is really impressive,” Barkey said.
Each injury he sustained, Akers said Higgins took them in stride. He fought back and didn’t cast blame, keeping his chin up.
“As a golf coach, when you have somebody that is athletic and a good leader, if he’s going to play for two years, what’s he going to be like his senior year?” Barkey said. “We know we’re going to get a good kid who’s a leader and make the team fun to be around, which is an important chemistry aspect, but as an athlete if you’re going to catch lightning in a bottle, you never know with somebody.”
Barkey said Higgins developed into a fine golfer and would have been able to play for a lot of teams in Indiana, but the Warsaw golf team was always pretty strong. In Higgins’ senior year, he was shooting mid-40s at Stonehenge Golf Course.
Teacher David Bailey met Higgins through coaching him in football.
“Talking to Jeff Grose, he always still brings up that Ben was the best basketball player he ever coached in middle school,” Bailey said, using words like “football player,” “lanky tall kid” and “great sense of humor” to describe Higgins.
“I just remember him being kind of a glue, in a good way, a lot of times. Just for a laugh. We worked with him through the offense, Coach Akers and I,” Bailey continued. “You need a quarterback that’s got an even keel, but also who you can rely on.”
“There wasn’t much he couldn’t do athletically,” Akers said. “I remember when we would go to the pool every Saturday after a varsity game, he’d show off and he would always talk about Michael Phelps – a tall guy. And whenever we had swimming relays, they wanted Ben on the team because he could get across to the other side pretty well. ... He was a really good swimmer, too. I don’t know that there wasn’t much of anything he couldn’t do. Always coachable. Good humored. Quick witted, but always a gentleman. I just remember the same attributes he has now. Very humble.”
Before the official announcement that Higgins would be the latest “Bachelor,” there were rumors going around that Higgins was going to be picked, Hoffert said. The WCS Central Office gave Higgins a call and he came right in to the administration building.
“He spent a couple of hours just here with our secretaries, going around. And all of them knew him from his time in school or had kids that went to school with him, or just wanted to meet Ben Higgins who might be the next ‘Bachelor,’” Hoffert recalled. “He was just so gracious with his time.”
Higgins was asked who, if the media calls, did he want speaking about him from WCHS. He named Barkey, Bailey and Akers because they know him “better than anyone else,” Hoffert said. “I think it’s really a reflection of his character when you see the three educators here that made such a huge impact on his life. Again, whether it was growing up with him, or whether it was through football or golf or just along the way just as role models, but I think that’s near and dear to Ben. As you see that representation, I think that’s a representation of Warsaw that really comes out on the show.”
Watching the first episode of “The Bachelor” Monday night, Bailey said he was worried about how they were going to portray Higgins.
“I was just really proud of him, at least the way they cut it up. Because the way he was portrayed was the Ben I remember – the gentleman. And even with that crazy girl (Lace) that wanted to kiss him and stuff, he was like, ‘That’s not really what I want to do right now. I want to get to know you.’ That’s the kind of guy I remember,” Bailey said.
Akers said Higgins isn’t shy about sharing his faith, and Akers loves it when young people are “good with where they are in their walk.”
“When he went to I.U., he struggled a little bit with I.U. being I.U.,” Akers said. “And I just thought it was pretty impressive that after his freshman year, he came back and spoke at our baccalaureate the night before graduation. That was probably one of the more powerful things – when he came back and challenged the kids, talked about how fast that first year went, and the decisions that you make and the choices that you make. That was very impactful, to me. He is definitely a servant leader.”
Hoffert said he thought it was unique that at the beginning of Monday’s episode of “The Bachelor,” when Higgins drives by all the places he can take people in Warsaw, he drives by his elementary school, Harrison, sharing his fond memories there, and then past the high school.
“When we talk about Warsaw Community Schools, that’s the fond memory that we want every kid to have. And so, I think, personally, I am really proud that he still associates himself with our school system, with our community; sees our schools even and the teachers as the role models that he sees,” Hoffert said.
He continued that WCS was happy to accommodate the show back in September to allow Higgins to be in the homecoming parade.
“It was something that we were very happy to accommodate and very happy to have him be a part of it because we’re proud of what he’s been able to do with his life to this point, and he’s proud to be a Warsaw Community Schools graduate,” Hoffert said.
Akers said originally they had concerns with “Hollywood” and the “spin of that show,” but they never flinched about what they believe about Higgins and who he is.
He said he’s talked to Higgins since the filming of the show finished.
“He feels really good about that and had some really neat experiences in the Rose Bowl Parade. His parents ended up going out there, sharing it with him, too. Mom’s helping build the float, which in a million years, they never would have thought (would happen),” Akers said, chuckling about how Higgins went from the homecoming parade to the Rose Bowl Parade.
“I know he feels that everything’s been a blessing, and he’s taking it all in, but he’s definitely thought some things through. And I know that the producers commented more than once that they really thought – when they got to know Warsaw more – that he definitely ... takes a part of Warsaw with him everywhere he goes, on what we stand for as a community. So that should make everyone in the community proud,” Akers said.
Through the television shows, Hoffert said Higgins was able to bring some things that were near and dear to his heart to a mass audience, including a missions trip to Honduras and the Baker Youth Club.
“He said it was interesting because it used to be you put something out on social media, and your friends see it. You put something out on social media now and all of a sudden it’s raising funds for organizations that he feels were making a difference. So he saw it as a way to make a difference in some things that he felt strongly about,” Hoffert said.
Another characterization of Higgins, Barkey said, is that “he’s so fun to rib. He takes it so well, and he doesn’t dish it back. He laughs at himself all the time. ... You can rib him all you want and he doesn’t get mad. He takes it all in good stride. That’s what’s fun about him. You can give him a hard time.”
Akers added that Higgins always has been confident in himself, but not cocky.
“He loves, loves, loves kids. Little kids especially. I know (Baker Youth Club Executive Director) Tracy Furnivall can talk to you for a week about Ben and his work over there,” Akers said.
One of Higgins’ really good friends from high school, Riley Fuller, turned his life around and started the organization Humanity & Hope, an outreach program in Honduras, Akers said. Higgins had numerous trips there. With some exposure from Higgins about the program, the funding and contacts Humanity & Hope has received has grown substantially, he said.
“They just have so many things happening now. A lot of it wasn’t planned. Ben just happened to (support it). They’re getting phone calls from all over the world about how they can help,” Akers said.
Barkey said he was sure the show will be life-changing for Higgins. Bailey said he thinks Higgins changed “The Bachelor” in that on the first episode he called his parents about how it was all going.
“I’ve never ever seen that happen where he calls home and says, ‘Hey, the women all came, it’s going pretty good.’ I just thought that was really neat. ... I thought that was awesome that he called home and how involved the parents were early,” Bailey said.
Akers said with the Higgins family dynamic, “There’s a deep, deep love between he and his parents, big time.”
Even on the show, Higgins talks about wanting a relationship like his parents have, and they’ve been married 32 years, Akers said. “They have been good examples, and they’ve been through a lot of things. They’re just wonderful people.”
Akers said he hopes the show just lets Higgins be who he is, and if he finds the person he thinks he wants to spend the rest of his life with, “that would be wonderful.”
“As a coach and teacher, it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about Ben, or the quiet, shy student, you want all your students to be happy,” Barkey said. “You want them to continue to work toward their goals and have a happy and fulfilled life. With Ben being in a unique situation, you hope for the same, however that happens for him.”
Hoffert said, “He’s choosing his fame not just for himself but also for others, and I think that’s a true value of Warsaw. ... We want all of our graduates to make a difference, not only in their own lives, but also in others’ lives. So as (Higgins) is doing that, I’m excited to see how that blossoms out of this.”[[In-content Ad]]
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