The Caldwell County football program has lost a legend.
David Barnes, a former Tiger standout player, longtime head coach and member of the Caldwell County Football Hall of Fame, has died.
Barnes, 59, who had battled Parkinson’s Disease since being diagnosed with the ailment in 2017, fell ill during Caldwell’s football scrimmage at Hopkins County Central on Friday night.
He passed away this morning around 7:50 a.m.
“He was a great man,” said Caldwell superintendent Nate Huggins. “I feel so sorry for the loss of a man who always had everyone’s best interest at heart.”
Barnes, who enjoyed a lengthy high school coaching career, returned to his alma mater in 2006 to take over the Tiger football team.
Barnes amassed 110 wins on the Caldwell sideline, just seven wins short of the school record of 117 held by both Fred Clayton and Pat Gates.
Barnes guided Caldwell to the Class 2A state championship game in 2012, with the Tigers suffering a narrow 30-26 loss to Newport Central Catholic.
Under Barnes, the Tigers became known for their high-scoring offensive attack. Caldwell produced the state’s Mr. Football in 2014 in Elijah Sindelar. Sindelar is now a fifth-year senior and the starting quarterback at Purdue.
Caldwell’s football coach and athletic director, Barnes was a fixture at CCHS sporting events, supporting all of the school’s athletes.
As a player, Barnes was a four-year starter on the Caldwell football team in the 1970s. He held the single-game rushing record at the school for 34 years after running for 280 yards (and four touchdowns) in a 40-0 win at Crittenden County in 1976.
Barnes then coached the player who broke his record. Brandon Sigler holds the current mark with 329 yards (and three TDs) in a 50-25 victory over Reidland in 2010.
Prior to being named head coach at Caldwell, Barnes had been at Daviess County for 22 years, serving the last 13 as that school’s head football coach.
After graduating from Caldwell County in 1978, he attended Georgetown College where he earned a bachelor’s degree, majoring in Biology.
His teaching career began at Daviess County Middle School, where he was seventh grade life science teacher from 1985-95. From 1996-2006 he taught biology and integrated science at Daviess County High School.
From 1986-92 he was varsity assistant baseball coach at Daviess County. Barnes was freshman and varsity assistant football coach there from 1983-84, then from 1985-93 took on additional duties as a varsity assistant. He served as varsity football head coach at the school from 1993-2005.
Barnes is just the fifth head coach in Caldwell County High School football history going back to consolidation in 1954.
Tragedy struck Barnes and the Caldwell football program in 2016.
In September of that year, freshman football player Avery Warfield was killed in a four-wheeler accident.
In October, Barnes’ mother, Evelyn, passed away. She rarely missed a football game, with her obituary even noting that she “was an avid Caldwell County Tiger football fan.”
Then, in February of 2017, another freshman member of the 2016 Tiger football team, DeAryn Hamilton, was killed.
Warfield and Hamilton would have been seniors on this year’s CCHS football squad.
It would be nearly impossible to list all of Barnes’ coaching accolades.
Barnes was named the 2014 Class 2A Coach of the Year by the Louisville Courier-Journal. Barnes guided the Tigers to a No. 1 ranking and an 11-2 record that season, with Caldwell averaging 50.8 points a game.
He was voted the 2017 Class 3A Coach of the Year by the Kentucky Football Coaches Association. The Tigers went 10-3 that year and made the team’s sixth-straight appearance in a regional championship game.
Barnes was also named the KFCA Class 2A state Coach of the Year in 2014 — the same season that Sindelar was named the state Player of the Year by the KFCA prior to winning the Kentucky Mr. Football award.
Barnes was 110-50 in 13 seasons as head coach at his alma mater. He is third on Caldwell’s all-time wins list. Gates went 117-86 in 18 seasons while Clayton was 117-60-10 in 18 years.
Overall, Barnes was 171-126 in 26 years as a head coach.
Caldwell is scheduled to open the 2019 season at home Friday night against Christian County at Tiger Stadium in Princeton.
