Article reposted from The Gleaner
Author: Kevin Patton
Tim Barron spent 18 years taking care of the athletes at Henderson County High School.
A 1977 graduate of Henderson County, Barron became the school’s athletic trainer, a position created by Methodist Hospital in 1996. He worked with all of the school’s sports until giving up that position in 2014.
“I think sometimes we almost take it for granted because Tim is so amazingly consistent. He’s there all the time, ” Henderson County boys’ basketball coach Tyler Smithhart said at the time of Barron’s retirement.
“His work ethic was unbelievable. If you had an injured player, he’d meet them multiple times during the week to give them treatment or check on them to make sure they were getting treatment,” said former Henderson County football coach Clay Clevenger. “His availability was second to none. He was willing to come in on Saturday morning and Sundays. He’d talk to parents at night or go to the hospital if he needed to.”
Before returning to his hometown, Barron working in similar positions at Southeast Missouri State University and Jackson High School in Missouri.
While some sports are more prone to injuries, Barron’s responsibilities covered all of the school’s 21 sports teams and beyond.
“He always makes sure the opposing team’s needs are taken care of too, ” Henderson County girls’ basketball coach Jeff Haile said.
He tried to treat all of the teams and athletes equally.
“If Tim has a favorite sport, I don’t know what it is,” said Smithhart, whose relationship with Barron went back to the coach’s days as a player. “He treats everybody the same whether it’s a guy that’s getting 20 to 25 minutes or it’s a guy who might get two or three minutes.”
Coaches repeatedly offered examples of things that Barron did that were not part of his job.
“He does so much that people don’t even realize. He’s not just a trainer, ” former Henderson County football coach Tony Lewis said. “He does the laundry for the football program.”
Barron filled up the water coolers before practice every day, Haile said, and also had a tradition of buying pizza for the team during the postseason.
“He went above and beyond what he was paid to do. Those types of people are few and far between, ” Clevenger said.
This is one in a series of profiles on the 2016 inductees into the Henderson County Sports Hall of Fame. The induction ceremonies and banquet will be at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Henderson County High School cafeteria. Tickets, which are $15 apiece, are available at O’Daniel’s Flower Shop and the HCHS bookstore. The inductees will also be honored at halftime of Friday’s football game at Colonel Stadium between Henderson County and Reitz.