Dave Barney

David Ellsworth Barney was born on January 5, 1932, in Winthrop, Massachusetts.[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2] His father Robert S. Barney, was a colonel in the United States Air Force (USAF), and a veteran of World War II and the Korean War.[8] His mother Blanche Geraldine Barney, was a descendant from the youngest passenger of the 1620 voyage by the Mayflower, and a soldier who served in the American Revolutionary War.[1]

Barney is the younger of mirror image twins to his brother, Bob Barney. As children, they played baseball and swam at the family's summer home on Newfound Lake near Bristol, New Hampshire.[9][lower-alpha 2] As a youth, Barney aspired to become a boxer, the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, or play gridiron football as a running back.[2]

Due to his father's military service, Barney lived in multiple places as a youth, including Rochester, New Hampshire, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Biloxi, Mississippi, the island of Guam, and the Panama Canal Zone. While living in Mississippi, he reached the state tennis doubles semifinals with his brother, and first became involved in swimming and water polo while living in Panama.[2] In 1949, he graduated from Balboa High School in Panama.[2][10]

Barney enrolled at University of New Mexico (UNM) to play football for the New Mexico Lobos in 1950.[6] Placing school on hold, he served with the USAF during the Korean conflict from 1951 to 1955.[2][6][10] He returned to university in 1955, playing football with assistance from the a G.I. Bill, in addition to the baseball and swim teams.[2][6] Barney and his brother Bob participated in intramural sports, won multiple swimming events, and were offered a scholarship for books and tuition to join the Lobos swimming team in 1957.[2] According to Barney, the recruiting coach saw the name "Barney" winning many races, but did not realize they were twin brothers.[10]

Barney began his coaching career in 1960.[11] For six years, he taught at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was an assistant coach for football, and the head coach for ice hockey and baseball. He coached at the Albuquerque Country Club during summers, after succeeding his brother Bob as the aquatic sports director. In six years, Barney grew the country aquatics team from 25 to more than 200 members.[2]

Albuquerque Academy aerial view

In 1967, Barney was named head of the senior school at Albuquerque Academy, and coached the track and field team for nine years.[2][11] His teaching duties included sixth-grade English and creative writing.[10] When the academy became co-educational in 1973, Barney felt that the girls made "a significant impact on the school in terms of, they brought a certain sense of civility to the school that was not present before".[10]

Barney established a swimming program for girls at the academy in 1975, while his younger brother Peter coached the boys' program. After his brother's death in 1982, Barney coached both teams. In 1983, he achieved his first state championship with the girls, then won with both championships with the boys and girls in 1986.[2] He also played a leading role in establishing the Sundance Aquatic Association, New Mexico's largest summer swim club program.[11]

Retiring from teaching in 1995, Barney continued to coach swimming.[2][11] He then designed the new pool installed at Albuquerque Academy, and subsequently designed five additional pools in the Albuquerque region. He spent 10 months working on designs for the pool at Albuquerque Academy, later known as the "David E. Barney and Peter B. Barney Competition Pool".[2]

As of 2015, Barney's swim teams had set or held 70 New Mexico state records. He also coached five champions of the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association.[2][12] When Barney announced his upcoming retirement, he had won 41 state championships with Albuquerque Academy—21 with the boys and 20 with the girls. He had coached more than 400 students named All-Americans in either athletics and academics, and won more than 260 individual events and relays at the state championships. His teams won 1,236 swim competitions, and failed to finish in first place at only 77 competitions.[11] His final coaching appearance at the state championships resulted in his 21st title with the girls, and 42nd overall in his career.[13]

Barney attributes success to his coaching strategy, which avoided "over-training", included a ten-day break at Christmas, and a sprint-specific focus on distances less than 1,000 yards (910 m) in the ten days prior to a state championship.[2] He felt what mattered more than success, was "the human interaction between a coach and an athlete, and that friendship extends long after kids graduate high school and go on to college".[11] He retired at the end of the 2020–21 season, and was succeeded as swimming coach at Albuquerque Academy by his assistant of the last two seasons, John Butcher.[13]

The New Mexico High School Coaches Association named Barney a coach of the year for swimming and diving in 1990, 1995, and 2009.[14] He has been named New Mexico State swim coach of the year in 28 seasons, and was the inaugural girls swimming coach of the year chosen by the National Federation of State High School Associations in 1995.[2] In 2018, he received the National Collegiate and Scholastic Swimming Trophy from the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association for "contribution to swimming as a competitive sport".[15]

Barney has been inducted into multiple halls of fame, including the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame in 1995,[11][16] the UNM Athletic Hall of Honor in 2000,[11][17][lower-alpha 3] and the New Mexico High School Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009.[11] In 2010, he was inducted into the New Mexico Activities Association's Hall of Fame, the first swim coach to receive the honor.[11][12] He was inducted into the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013,[11] and into the National High School Hall of Fame in 2015, only the third swimming coach to be recognized at the time.[11][18] In 2022, he was inducted into the Albuquerque Academy Sports Hall of Fame.[19]

Barney and his brothers served in the military, before careers in coaching and teaching. His brother Bob also served in the USAF during the Korean conflict, and later became professor of sports history at University of Western Ontario.[20] Their young brother Peter served in the United States Navy, before working at Albuquerque Academy.[21] Barney and his brother Bob were baseball teammates in university,[9] and in semi-professional ice hockey.[6] Barney played as a winger for the Kirtland Air Force Base Flyers in the Sandia Mountain Hockey League.[22][23]

During university, Barney was married to Jeanne and had children.[2][8] He also worked part-time delivering 500 newspapers each morning, and delivered mail during Christmas holidays.[2] In his spare time, Barney is a poet, essayist and memoirist.[19] He also listens to classical music, he taught sailing classes in the summer, and owns a Herreshoff 12½ keelboat.[2]