Today’s “Streaks Alumni Profile” is Barry Mink from Galesburg High School’s Class of 1979. I got to know Barry when he made the switch from football to cross country for his senior year.
Barry was the kind of athlete that a coach dreamed of being able to coach. He was hard working, accepted coaching, and was willing to recognize when he did well and when he did poorly.
At the time he ran cross country, I was searching for ways to get runners motivated to run in the off-season. We had organized the “Galesburg Road Runners Club,” which had runs once a week and which promoted interest in area road races.
I had borrowed my brother old Volkswagen van that was on its last legs and had wooden benches in the back for seats. Early Saturday mornings, anyone who wanted to go to a road race, loaded up in the van and we took off. Barry was always there. If there was a 5k, 10k, and 15k, Barry always entered the longest race. He ran and ran, and then ran some more. Even though it was his first year running cross country, he became one of the top runners in the WB6.
Barry switched careers to become a teacher and coach at A-Town. And A-Town certainly got a great role model for students.
The following is catching up with Barry…
What are some of your favorite memories from high school days?
I have a lot of great memories from high school, from jobs at the bustling mall to sports. I competed in Wrestling and Track all three years, and Football for two years before switching to Cross Country my senior year. In summer, my favorite memories are from working at the Putt-Putt and driving range at the Holiday Inn, which is now the Villas by Lakeside Park, and hanging out with friends at Lake Storeybeach in between two a day football practices. The popularity of running exploded around that time and the revolutionary Nike Waffle trainer came out. The summer before my senior year, I got into running and put in several hundred miles of training and competed in several road races as well as weekly workouts with the Road Runners Club that met at Lincoln Park every week. My favorite running memories are going on evening runs with my younger brother Brandon who I talked into running. Little did I know that my cross country coach, Mr. Massey, would go on to be such a standout basketball coach. That would make a good trivia question about what sport Mr. Massey coached besides basketball.
What were some of your favorite teachers/classes?
In school, my favorite class was drafting and I decided I wanted to go into Architecture after graduating. I went to Carl Sandburg and got an associate degree in drafting and then eventually ended up at the University of Illinois where I got my bachelors degree. My first job after college was working in Joliet for a firm that designed a lot of schools for the quickly growing suburbs of Naperville and surrounding areas. After a few years there, I returned to the University of Illinois to get a Masters in Architecture. In grad school, I was a graduate teaching assistant and discovered I liked teaching and began thinking about pursuing a teaching career while also working in an office. Shortly after graduating I was asked to be an adjunct professor teaching a night class at Illinois which I did for five years.
What has been your career?
My younger brother switched careers from working as an engineer to teaching high school math and I decided I liked the idea of job flexibility and summer break too and got my teaching certification. I have now been teaching computer aided design and traditional shop classes for 25 years. I enjoy teaching my subjects since technology continues to evolve and I have to continue to keep pace with it. When I started working, I was doing all the drawings and model building by hand and now we use computer aided design and 3d printing. Outside of teaching, I have enjoyed coaching cross country for the past 14 years at Abingdon-Avon. Cross country is a difficult mental and physical sportand I like seeing the runners gain confidence as they get in shape and I hope they continue to run their whole lives. My coaches had a great influence on me in school and I hope I help my students have great memories of their high schoolyears
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