Boys cross country, track: Tars’ Barry steps down

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Bim Barry, a Newport Harbor High alumnus who has

coached boys cross country and track and field at the school since the

1989-90 school year, has resigned to take a job at a school in Lima,

Peru.

Barry will become the athletic and activities director at Collegio

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a K-12 school with nearly 1,300 students. He

will teach physical education and plans to remain active in coaching

track and field. The school does not offer cross country.

Barry will be replaced at Harbor by longtime Newport assistant and

former Sailor track and field teammate Nowell Kay, who becomes a walk-on

head coach for boys cross country and track and field.

“Bim will be missed,” said Newport Boys Athletic Director Eric Tweit,

who worked closely with Barry as coach of the girls cross country and

track and field teams. “The kind of dedication he brought to both

programs is something you’re just not going to replace.”

Barry also brought consistent success to his Harbor teams, which have

won at least a share of five straight Sea View League cross country

titles and at least a share of the last three Sea View track and field

crowns.

Barry’s tenure also includes a CIF State Division III cross country

title in 1992, the program’s lone state championship. The 1992 squad also

won the CIF Southern Section III-A title, while the 1993 team won the

section Division III-AA championship, as well.

Barry guided the Sailors to section runner-up finishes in 1997

(Division III) and ’98 (Division II). The Tars were also fourth (1997)

and sixth (‘98) at the Division II state finals. Harbor finished third in

the Division III-AA section finals in 1994.

In addition to the league title streak in track and field, the Tars

finished second in Division II at the Southern Section finals in 2000.

“Bim was a great competitor in high school and he brought that to his

coaching,” Tweit said of the 1981 Newport Harbor graduate.

Barry, who leaves for preliminary training in Houston July 24, said he

is making the move to seek a new life experience.

“I’m sure I will miss them more than they will miss me,” Barry said of

the Harbor faculty, staff and student-athletes. “But that’s also one of

the reasons I’m leaving. My roots are deep at Newport and in this area

and, personally, I believe I needed to uproot myself a little bit, so I

could face new challenges.”

Barry, a Costa Mesa resident, taught computer classes, math and was

also the advisor for the student newspaper at Harbor.