Ability, Guidance Made Barnett a Good Coach

By TOMMY PRIDDY
P-I Sports Editor

 

While Barry Lee Barnett has the athletic ability to be successful on the playing field, it may have been the guidance of coaches such as Jim Cullivan, Chick King, Coleman Crews and Joe Casey that helped mold Barnett's life as a high school coach.

Hi prowess on the field along with his highly successful run as a coach and educator before his retirement in 2002 have earned him a spot in the Paris-Henry County Sports Hall of Fame.

barnettb.jpg (6205 bytes)Barnett will be inducted at the 6:30 p.m. April 1, 2004 Hall of Fame Banquet being held at the Elks Lodge.

One of Barnett's former coaches, David Loudy, will receive the Hall of Fame's Distinguished Service Award at the Banquet.

Barnett began playing ball on the sandlots and asphalt courts near the old Lee and Atkins-Porter.

He moved on to play Biddy Basketball and was an all-sports letterman at Grove Junior High School and lettered in track, football and basketball at Grove High School.

Other coaches who helped mold Barnett were Sam Seawright, Bob Jarvis, Bill Robinson, Jim Talbott and Lacy Downey.
His junior high days were highlighted by Grove's football team going undefeated.

In high school, Barnett became the first Grove player in modern times to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season and score 1,000 points.

He was an All-Big Ten Conference selection as a defensive back in 1967.

Baseball was the sport Barnett played in college. He started at Jackson State Community College where he was an All-Conference selection and an All-Eastern District pick, encompassing seven states of junior college players.

He graduated from Jackson State to play baseball at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He was part of the 1972 UTM squad that won the VSAC title and player in the NCAA Tournament.

After college he began a long and rewarding career as a coach and educator.

He spent two years as an assistant coach and offensive coordinator at Houston County High School in Erin from 1976-78.

He moved on to Obion Central High School in the fall of 1978 for a four-year stint as a football assistant coach and the baseball head coach.

After starting with a loosing record, his last two baseball teams had a 53-7 record and finished fifth in the state in 1981.

Barnett began a seven-year stint as head football coach at Camden Central High School in 1982.

In 1983, the Lions posted a 10-1 record and a top 10 ranking. The 1986 Lions teamed earned its first state playoff birth.

After leaving the high school in Camden in 1988, Barnett taught physical education at Camden Elementary School and coached the Special Olympics in Benton County.

From 1995-2002, he served as principal at Briarwood School in Camden.

He is now retired and resides with his wife Lee Anne in Camden.

April  2004

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Reprinted from the P-I ~ March  2004 ~ Used by permission

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