Dave Barney

In 1967, he was named head of the senior school at Albuquerque Academy, where he coached the track and field team, and taught sixth-grade English.

Alongside his older twin brother Bob, Barney played multiple varsity sports at University of New Mexico (UNM), and served in the United States Air Force during the Korean conflict.

[13] His mother Blanche Geraldine Barney, was a descendant from the youngest passenger of the 1620 voyage by the Mayflower, and a soldier who served in the American Revolutionary War.

[14] As a youth, Barney aspired to become a boxer, the shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, or play gridiron football as a running back.

[3] Due to his father's military service, Barney lived in multiple places as a youth, including Rochester, New Hampshire, Lake Charles, Louisiana, Biloxi, Mississippi, the island of Guam, and the Panama Canal Zone.

[2][3] He coached at the Albuquerque Country Club during summers, after succeeding his brother Bob as the aquatic sports director.

[3] In 1967, Barney was named head of the senior school at Albuquerque Academy, and coached the track and field team for nine years.

[3] He also played a leading role in establishing the Sundance Aquatic Association, New Mexico's largest summer swim club program.

He had coached more than 400 students named All-Americans in either athletics and academics, and won more than 260 individual events and relays at the state championships.

[21] Barney attributes success to his coaching strategy, which avoided "over-training", included a ten-day break at Christmas, and a sprint-specific focus on distances less than 1,000 yards (910 m) in the ten days prior to a state championship.

[3] He felt what mattered more than success, was "the human interaction between a coach and an athlete, and that friendship extends long after kids graduate high school and go on to college".

His brother Bob also served in the USAF during the Korean conflict, and later became a professor of sports history at University of Western Ontario.

[7] Barney played as a winger for the Kirtland Air Force Base Flyers in the Sandia Mountain Hockey League.

[32] Los Federales won a fourth consecutive Amateur Athletic Union state water polo championship for New Mexico in 1964.