Bill Barry began his basketball coaching career in 1957 at Downstate Bethany High School. Forty years and 705 victories later, the 63-year-old coach retires from Marengo tied for seventh on the all-time Illinois victory list.
Barry, who has coached at Marengo for 29 years, turned in his letter of resignation Friday to Supt. Jerry Trickett.
“I think I need to sit back right now and enjoy my family,” he said. Barry and his wife, Dorcas, have four children and three grandchildren.
“I’m also recommending that my assistant, Roger Cannon, who has been with me for 27 years, replace me. I wanted to leave him with a pretty good ballclub.”
Barry, who had a career record of 705-345, won his 700th game in February, beating Stillman Valley.
“I look upon that as a nice accomplishment, but I’ll do more reflecting on it as time goes on,” he said. “Everything came on suddenly: the 700th victory, the postseason and then retirement.
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“I’ve been contemplating (retirement) since the end of the season. I weighed the positives and the negatives, and I thought it was time.”
Barry retired as Marengo’s dean of students three years ago but remained head coach. Under him, Marengo advanced to the Class A quarterfinals in 1990. The Indians played in five supersectionals.
The Indians went 26-2 this season, leaving Barry tied with Dolph Stanley for seventh all time in victories. Bob Dallas of Junction Gallatin County, with 716, is the only active coach with more than Barry.
Top QB: Zak Kustok hadn’t thought much about football during the past week. He was enjoying a family vacation in North Carolina.
But according to the Sandburg senior, that relaxed attitude was the perfect frame of mind to bring into Saturday’s Foot Action NFL High School Quarterback Challenge at Oak Park-River Forest High School.
“Honestly, I was just going out there to have fun and challenge myself to see how well I could do,” said Kustok, who won the Challenge title, a competition co-sponsored by Nike and the Princeton Review, to earn one of 15 berths in the National High School Challenge April 12 at Disney World in Orlando.
“I threw the football a couple of times on vacation, but nothing very seriously. When we came back on Friday, I threw with my friend Jim DeLisa for a while, and he showed me some of the things I would have to do at the Challenge. That was pretty much all of my preparation.”
The competition, which had 12 QBs–including Palatine’s Ken Stopka and Mt. Carmel’s Jeff Welsh–came in three categories: accuracy, speed and mobility, and distance. Kustok won the first two and finished second in the third. Andrew’s Aaron McGuire was second.