Longtime Dayton XC/Track Coach Barry Binkley will be inducted into the LaRosa Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. The Announcement is below:
One of the finest track and cross-country coaches in Greater Cincinnati and regarded as the dean of Northern Kentucky running, Barry Binkley has turned a high school passion into a much-honored career.
Coach Binkley has guided teams to six Kentucky state championships and 15 state runner-up finishes. During his 25-year career at Dayton High School, he led an eight-year run where his girls' teams were either state champs (twice) or runners-up (six times). In his 49-year career, Binkley has coached at seven different schools, including Batavia and Elder in Ohio, and finished this past school year as an assistant coach at Simon Kenton.
Coach Binkley played a crucial role in establishing girls' cross-country as a sport in Kentucky. He formed the first girls' team in Northern Kentucky while at Holmes in 1974 - allowing girls to run races on their own (they previously ran with boys teams). He was instrumental in inaugurating the Kentucky Girls State Cross Country program in 1975.
In 1979, Coach Binkley moved to Dayton, Kentucky, where he enjoyed his greatest success, sparked in part by LaRosa's Hall of Famer Adrienne Hundemer (20 individual state titles) and Stephanie Edgar (14 individual state titles). The Greendevils' program won five state championships - girls state track (1992, 1995), boys cross country (1983, 1985) and boys track (state Indoor 1994) - and recorded 14 state runner-up finishes. As an assistant coach, he won state titles in 2005 (Lloyd girls track) and in 2011 (St. Henry boys cross country).
Coach Binkley has been named Coach of the Year 10 times during his career by various organizations, including the National Federation Interscholastic Coaches Association (1984) and Scholastic Coach Magazine (cross country 1988). He has been inducted in the Kentucky Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame and the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.
As a high school athlete, Binkley was an exceptional runner in his own right. He placed seventh (1957) and fourth (1958) in the Ohio state cross country meets at Woodward. He set the school record in the mile run (4:36) and was district track champ in the 880 as a senior in 1959. He earned a full scholarship to Bowling Green State University, where he set three school records and finished No. 2 in the mile at the 1963 Mid-American Conference championships.
Coach Binkley, and his wife, Janice, currently live in Alexandria and have a daughter (Molly).