BRIDGEWATER, Va. -- Bridgewater College Head Football Coach Scott Lemn announced the additions of Kevin Barr '17 and Adam Shaker to the 2024 coaching staff on Thursday afternoon.

Barr, a 2017 graduate and four-year varsity letterman for the Eagles, comes back to Bridgewater following a five-year stint at Guilford College. Beginning in 2019, Barr was a member of the Quakers' staff as the wide receivers coach and co-special teams coordinator. During his tenure, he also picked up pass game coordinator duties for Guilford in which he guided Bailey Baker to be one of the best passers in team history. In total, Barr coached three players to all-conference accolades and saw the Quakers' offense jump dramatically in several statistical categories.

"I would like to thank Coach Lemn and the rest of staff for giving me the opportunity to return home and coach at my alma mater," said Barr. "I'm eager to get to work and make an impact both on and off the field with our student-athletes, coaches and the community."

Prior to Guilford, Barr was a member of the coaching staff at James Madison and was a part of the 2017 FCS national runner-up team, which claimed the CAA championship. While with the Dukes, Barr worked with the outside receivers and was part of the offensive quality control personnel. He previously worked as a coaching assistant at Bridgewater during the Spring 2017 season following his graduation. A former team captain for the Eagles, Barr made 21-consecutive starts for the team and worked as a punt returner. He finished his career with 49 catches for over 500 yards with a pair of touchdowns between 2013 and 2015. 

Barr earned a degree in buisness administration from the College in 2017. 

Barr will serve as the tight ends coach and will be heavily involved in working with the special teams unit.

"Kevin obviously brings a familiar background having played here and is someone I have known for a long time," said Lemn. "Being away from Bridgewater but competing against him, he has been someone you knew was going to have a well-coached position group. I'm looking forward to him helping keep special teams "Our Edge" and continuing the history of strong specialists units here." 

Shaker comes to Bridgewater with a wealth of knowledge stemming from a career across all three levels of the NCAA. Most recently, Shaker was the offensive coordinator for Catholic for the 2023 season where he guided the team to a 26-point per game average with over 300 passing yards per game. His offense led all levels of NCAA football in completions with 350 compared to just nine interceptions.

"I am grateful to be at Bridgewater," said Shaker. "I'm excited to get to work with the talented student-athletes and coaches."

Before working with the Cardinals, Shaker was an assistant wide receivers coach at Mississippi State from 2020-23. He worked within all aspects of Mike Leach's offense and helped in the development of Makai Polk who paced the SEC in catches and touchdowns in the 2021 season. Prior to working with the Bulldogs, Shaker spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons at Concord University, which is a Division II institution in the Mountain East. He served as a special teams coordinator and a wide receivers coach. He tutored a punt return unit that finished sixth in the nation in 2018 and a kick return team that was also among national leaders. The wide receivers' production increased three-fold from the time Shaker took over the wide receiver corps to the 2019 season going from just 500 yards to nearly 2,000 yards in his final season.

No stranger to the area, Shaker also had stints with Southern Virginia as a special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach and UVA as quality control personnel. Shaker has also coached at Division-I institutions BYU, Georgetown and ODU. 

Shaker holds a degree in psychology from Old Dominion.

"Adam's energy to coach the wide receiver position came through immediately and has shown up in his short time with the program," said Lemn. "He has a unique background of experiences that he brings with him having coached at a variety of levels and variety of roles having coordinated offenses, coached the position and an assistant position coach."

"I'm really pleased to be able to add two more quality coaches to our staff," said Lemn. "In the coaching search, I wanted to find coaches that could bring in new ideas and in Adam [Shaker] and Kevin [Barr], we were able to find that."

The Eagles start off the 2024 season on the road at Susquehanna, which finished the 2023 season 10-1 and ranked No. 14 in the country. Kickoff is set for Friday, September 6, at 7 pm.