The562’s coverage of football in 2024-25 is sponsored by The Terry Donahue Memorial California Showcase.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
“Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home.” – Mr. Miyagi, The Karate Kid
Invaluable advice delivered in famous movies can change the world, let alone the life of one person. Not only has Wilson receiver Max Barbee received balanced advice throughout his football journey, he also got those life lessons from some famous mentors.
Barbee is the son of professional skateboarder Ray Barbee, and now his receivers coach at Wilson is NFL legend DeSean Jackson, so now the senior is taking full advantage of his symbiotic circumstances after years of searching for balance.
“Circumstances play a huge part in how you manage your passions,” said Ray Barbee. “”I’m grateful that (Max) hung in there.”
After years of searching for the right kind of opportunity on the football field, Barbee is now the go-to playmaker at Wilson as a senior receiver, defensive back and punt returner. The Bruins are 2-1 thanks in part to Barbee and his five touchdowns.
“He’s incredible, sensational and electric,” said Wilson head coach Travis Clark of Barbee. “He’s had an incredible offseason and this kid is a college football player. He’s been working with DeSean Jackson and you can see the improvement.”
Barbee and his dad agree that the recent sweetness of success wouldn’t have come without the sour of feeling unfulfilled athletically.
“Adversity is good,” said Ray Barbee “Your passion is tested by how you persevere through adversity. It’s good for you. And you can’t get to it any other way.”
“It was a self realization,” said Barbee of his own athletic maturation. “I’ve always felt like I had the ability and the talent, but circumstances kind of prevented a night like this from happening, It’s really good for my confidence just actually seeing it happen. I’ve always believed it could happen but it actually happening is nice. Now we just build on it.”
Barbee grew up in Long Beach following his older brother Nolan and friends at nearby skate spots and parks.
“Max was pretty scrappy because he had to hang in there (with older kids),” said Ray Barbee. “He was energetic, not afraid and very determined. We saw that in his personality early. And he was always a good athlete. I remember watching him navigate the playground and getting things a lot of other kids didn’t want to try.”
According to Barbee, that natural athletic balance comes from days spent on a trampoline as a kid. He was already drawn to football so it was a natural combination to throw the ball up, jump up and try to catch it.
“I think that kind of set the groundwork, just jumping up and down and being able to contort my body or running on different angles,” said Barbee.
Barbee played a lot of sports but was always drawn to football. Ray and Stefanie Barbee had him playing Friday Night Lights flag football in kindergarten, Long Beach Pop Warner in second grade and the Snoop Football League in fifth grade. Max flourished in practice, but didn’t have the game impact he desired, so the spark for the sport went away.
After playing mostly basketball during middle school, Barbee was forced to stop team sports during the COVID shutdowns, so when it came time to pick a high school playing football wasn’t a priority. However, Barbee wanted to be part of the CIC program at Long Beach Poly, and that’s where football is taken very seriously.
The balance was off.
According to Long Beach Poly coaches, Barbee showed great potential with the Jackrabbits as a freshman. That also happened to be the same summer high-profile recruit Nico Iamaleava came to Poly. With him came college recruits and a lot of pressure. That’s not why Barbee wanted to play football.
“(The Poly coaches) saw some potential, but I wasn’t ready to buy in,” said Barbee.
Barbee wanted football to be a thing that he does, not who he is, so he searched for the source of his love for the game. That balance came in the form of a Friday Night Lights redux.
Former Rogers Middle School classmates and friends started an FNL team for fun that year, and that’s where Barbee rediscovered the fun of the game.
“It was kind of a reunion,” said Barbee.
That was home for Barbee, and Wilson got him closer to that in terms of distance, so he transferred from Poly just before his sophomore year. It was the Bruins’ practices where Barbee was reinvigorated and reassured that there was still something in football for him. Despite being frustrated with the standard sit out period, and the lack of production once he got into the game, Barbee knew he had something to offer.
However, even when Barbee got on the field for Wilson there wasn’t balance. The Bruins were struggling and Barbee felt unitized and frustrated with only 32 receptions and five touchdowns in 12 games over two seasons.
With the full support of his family, Barbee was questioning his future at the end of his junior year while nursing an injury as a member of the Wilson track and field team. Transferring to a place where his desire for more could come to fruition was waylaid by Travis Clark.
Clark, the new Wilson football coach, found Barbee at a track meet and tried to convince him to stay. Barbee bought the realness of the pitch.
“Anyone can say they can get you offers or that we’re going to win games… He seemed very genuine and like he really cared about me, and we had just met,” Barbee said of Clark. “I was like, ‘I want to play for this guy. I trust this guy.’”
The successful pitch also included the promise of Long Beach Poly legend and NFL receiver DeSean Jackson as a receivers coach and offensive coordinator.
“It wasn’t that I wasn’t buying it, it was more like I’d believe when I see it,” said Barbee. “It just sounded so crazy. Especially for my friends who watch football or play Madden. They had to see it to believe it too.”
Barbee and Jackson first met at a summer workout, and Barbee approached it with an understandable amount of trepidation.
“He wasn’t just there, he really wants to contribute and help out,” said Barbee.
“What a blessing,” said Ray Barbee of the coaching. “It came to (Max), and we didn’t have to move! (Be gets) to be a part of the first year of a big change for Wilson football.”
It was the attention to detail and constant advice that won Barbee over at Clark and Jackson practices.
“I knew he had talent from day one,” said Jackson of Barbee. “We’ve been working on coming out of the breaks with speed and being physical. It’s fast, quick, twitch while still playing big. We’ve spent a lot of time together and he’s been progressing.”
Jackson and Barbee are both aware that early success will bring more attention.
“Guys are going to be shooting for him now so he’s got to excel his game,” said Jackson. “Like I told him, ‘You did something, so now everybody is keyed in on you.’ I faced a lot of that in my career so I kind of just gave him some words of encouragement. Once you can beat double teams you get to another level.”
Barbee looked like Jackson when he scored a pair of touchdowns on his first two touches of the season opener against Portola. He returned the opening punt for a score, and caught an 85-yard touchdown in the first five minutes of a shutout win.
Barbee said that Clark made a comment during a film review session the next day, “You’ve been hanging out with (Jackson) too much.”
That’s an acceptable amount of balance for Barbee.
