BARRY SARTZ

 

Mead High School, Newport High School, Deer Park High School, Lakeside High School

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Barry Sartz is best known for his incredible love for kids and a genuine passion for track and field. He believed that Track and Field was the greatest sport on earth and he used that strong belief in his attempt to get every kid involved! It was his unwavering view that every kid mattered and had ability that made him such a powerful force in each athlete’s life! Barry believed that a positive experience in athletics was a great way to teach life lessons that would help kids grow into responsible adults. From the time he began coaching high school athletes as an assistant sprint coach at Shadle Park High School until his untimely death in 2018, he used the platform he was provided as a coach to impact the lives of the athletes he coached and the lives of the coaches he called colleagues. A football player and track sprinter at Shadle Park in the early 1970’s, he went on to compete at Spokane Community College and Eastern Washington University. To many, it was obvious that Barry was going to be a sprint coach. He began his coaching career at his Alma mater, Shadle Park but eventually accepted a position as an assistant coach at Mead, one of the best programs in the state at that time. It was when he made a commitment to teaching and took a job at Newport, a tiny school in eastern Washington in 2001 that he developed into a coach worthy of Hall of Fame recognition! As a track coach, it wasn’t easy! Going from Mead to Newport was like a culture shock! When it came to track at Newport, he was the only one. Soon, his infectious enthusiasm for the sport spread to the kids he got to turn out. With only a dirt track that was designated as not being able to host home meets and without any coaches, Barry set out to build a team and program. At one time, he was coaching every event while teaching volunteers how to coach. His teams had to face much larger schools. Barry took on the task of rallying the community to build a track by coordinating fundraisers, reaching out to people in the community, turning to the resources of local businesses and the talents of local citizens, and a grant from Nike. Not many coaches can say they built the track at their school but that is exactly what Barry Sartz did as the head coach. How did he follow that up? He started the Newport Relays to showcase the proud accomplishment of what he considered a true community achievement! Coach Sartz built Newport High School into a track and field powerhouse! The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that before Barry became the coach, Newport boys had scored a total of 18 points in the previous 15 state meets and never had a state champion. In his first eight years at Newport, Barry coached eleven state champions, guided his boys to scoring 249 points at state and mentored the 2005 team helping them achieve a team title by scoring a record 98 points. By the time he left Newport in 2011, six more state champions had been added to the list. That included two athletes that would eventually compete in the NCAA championships, become All-Americans, and go to the U.S. Olympic Trials. There are other state champions and state placers he has mentored as an assistant coach at other schools. The statistics are too numerous to print! But, that wasn’t Barry. He was competitive, enthusiastic, and a true proponent of the sport. More importantly, he was dignified, very well respected and one of the most decent men you could ever meet! Above all, he was a family man who didn’t sacrifice the true blessings of life for the sake of his sport. Barry is proof you can do it right, and still win! It is hard to lose those we respect and love the very most so let it be known that it is with great honor that we welcome Barry Sartz into the Washington State Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame. His tireless commitment to the sport, his important mentorship of his athletes, his collaborative work with all his coaching colleagues, his important contributions to his community, and his service to the WSTFCA, provide us with the opportunity to recognize him with this honor!