Hornets under new athletic director as school year begins

Beatty High School coach Travis Barron has taken over the athletic director position beginning this school year.

“I wanted to take it because there are a lot of little things that I want to see done differently,” Barron said of getting the position. “Being in that position, it gave me that chance with coaching. We have a new principal this year… he agreed with a lot of my ideas and what I wanted to do, so we were on the same page.”

Barron, who has been with Beatty High School for the last five years, is stepping into the position as former director Leo Verzilli will be retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

Barron coaches the girls basketball and boys baseball teams at the high school level. In addition to coaching, he is also a science teacher.

“There’s one thing that Leo had told me – the responsibilities for AD go in waves,” Barron said in terms of juggling AD, coaching, teaching and a home life. “You’re really, really busy for a couple of weeks, then there’s a lot of down time with your AD responsibilities.”

Two things Barron is hoping to improve among the students and student-athletes is their educational performances and their school spirit.

“There’s a lot of traditions that Beatty has that we haven’t done in a couple of years because we were shut down,” Barron said. “We kind of look around and we don’t see a lot of kids wearing Beatty shirts or Beatty clothes. So that’s one thing we’re doing. Every athlete is getting shirts and things to represent our school a little more, have pride in our school a little more.”

In terms of increasing students and student-athletes’ educational performances, he mentioned that student-athletes just need to pass their classes, however, he wants players to have to maintain a C average or higher.

Any student that gets lower than a C will be ineligible to play until they lift their grades.

Before coaching and teaching in Beatty, Barron also coached in Michigan and in Clark County.

Contact sports writer/editor Danny Smyth at dsmyth@pvtimes.com. Follow @the_dannysmyth on Twitter.