NCPS Division Teacher of the Year Announcement:
Yesterday, May 4, the NHS Faculty and NCPS School Board marched to the track to "reveal" the NCPS Teacher of the Year. Coach Barnes was busy coaching at the track & field meet, and it only seemed appropriate that he receive this "surprise" announcement in the presence of his family, colleagues, and student athletes from Northumberland, Lancaster, Essex, Washington & Lee, and Rappahannock.
Today, as a school division and school family, we celebrate the contributions of Mr. Eddie Barnes, our 2017 NCPS Division Teacher of the Year!
Congratulations, Coach Barnes, from all of us!
Mr. Eddie Barnes Jr. aka “Fast Eddie" or “Eddie B" hails from Bay Shore, Long Island, New York, where he attended and graduated from Bay Shore High School in 1973. He graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana State University, where he ". . . had the awesome experience of meeting a then unknown young basketball player, whose name was Larry Bird."
Mr. Barnes began teaching at the elementary level in New York for two (2) years prior to coming to Northumberland in 1981, where he was hired to teach art at the former Northumberland Junior High School. Mr. Barnes left Northumberland in 1986 and returned to New York to work on his Master’s degree at New York Institute of Technology.
Mr. Barnes returned to Northumberland in 1988 as the high school art and photography teacher. Mr. Barnes stated, "I have been continually refining the art curriculum at the high school to meet the needs of my students." He added digital photography to the photography curriculum and graphic design to help keep pace with a changing world.
In 1996, he married his beautiful bride Ruscell Wiggins “who is the most understanding wife in the world.” Mr. Barnes is extraordinarily proud of his son Tony and daughter Keana and his five (5) grandchildren who "are a joy and the key to keeping me young at heart."
Anyone who knows Eddie Barnes knows of his passion for track & field and cross-country. In 2015, Coach Barnes was inducted into the Northern Neck Wall of Fame. "I have had the pleasure to touch and mold the lives of young people through these sports programs provided by Northumberland County," Barnes stated.
Mr. Barnes is a member of Galilee United Methodist Church where he serves as lay leader and plays bass guitar for the choirs. Through his faith, he has been led "to focus on the good in yourself and other people rather than to dwell on the negative."
“If you believe it, you can achieve it.” -- Coach Eddie Barnes, Jr.