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Yellow
Springs coach and Versailles native Tim Barga talks to his team
Saturday before
the Tri-Village game at Tipp City. CNO photo
by George Starks
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Barga turning heads at Yellow Springs
By George Starks
TIPP CITY- When it comes to producing some of the best coaches around,
Versailles has done it.
Versailles native Tim Barga is one of the best.
After putting together one of the best programs around, Barga left
Versailles and surfaced at Fairlawn.
Now, in only his second year at Yellow Springs, Barga has taken a
struggling program to the top.
For the first time in school history, the Lady Bulldogs has won a
conference title as well as their first ever sectional.
During the season, Barga picked up career win number 500 as the head
coach of the Bulldogs
Barga’s Bulldogs entered the district final game at Tipp City Saturday,
giving Tri-Village a run for its money before falling to the Patriots,
55-31, in a game that was much closer than the score indicates.
With only eight girls in uniform, Barga’s kids gave it all in the loss.
“I’m disappointed with the loss but in no way am I disappointed with
these kids,” said Barga after Saturday’s loss. “I looked out on the
floor with about 12 seconds left in the game and there was Maryah
Martin pounding on the Tri-Village big girl in the post. She played 32
solid minutes. I had girls in foul trouble and they know they can’t
come out. If they foul out, it’s their fault. We had two foul out today
but there’s no way I can be disappointed in these kids.”
Coming in with a 15-8 mark, Barga was all business before the game,
knowing his starting five was going to have to weather the storm for 32
minutes.
“We got five kids that play 30-32 minutes every single game and that’s
all we got,” Barga pointed out For these kids to come away with a
sectional title and a league championship with four girls being named
all-league with two being all-district, it’s just incredible.
It’s pretty satisfying to sit back and watch what they’re doing over
the years at Yellow Springs, the attitudes have really changed there.”
In just two years, the program at Yellow Springs has done a complete
180 under Barga.
What made the difference?
“Attitudes,” said Barga. “Last year, I would drive an hour and 15
minutes to get there and didn’t have a clue if I was going to have two
girls or seven girls at practice. This year, I knew all seven of them
were going to be there, every day and I knew that. Last year was a
carryover from the years before. This year, they wanted to play. Last
year, they came out just to play and didn’t care if they won. This
year, they wanted to win.”
Down 15-6 at the end of the first quarter, the Dogs came back to close
the gap to 20-15 at the half.
Barga credited on thing for the comeback. The one word that best
describes Versailles, now Yellow Springs hoops.
“It was our defense,” said Barga. “We still continued to play our
defense and that got us right back in the game. That’s the way we
played all year. We got some steals, some rebounds and hit a couple of
big shots but we work hard on our defense.”
At this point, it’s all about numbers and off-season preparation.
“If these girls want to be successful, they’re going to have to work in
the off-season,” Barga said. “We have the numbers in the junior high so
the numbers are there. They just have to work at it.”
Over the years, Barga has earned the respect of a lot of people and at
Yellow Springs, it’s no different.
“These are great people,” Barga stated. “There’s not a bad apple in the
bunch.”
Not only does Barga have the respect of his people but Tri-Village
coach Brad Grey as well.
“Tim’s a good guy and I’ve known him ever since I got into
coaching,” said Grey. “This is the first time we’ve ever played each
other but he’s always been very helpful. He’s always been willing to
share his knowledge of other teams we had in common. The man has over
500 wins and I have a lot of respect for him. Yellow Springs was a
struggling program and he was driving over an hour to get there. I
think that says a lot about the man and what he’s willing to go through
in taking over a program like that and getting them here. That speaks
volumes.”
“He had a great game plan today,” Grey continued. “I told my kids this
week that he will have his kids ready to play and will have them in the
right spots. I knew his kids would be sound defensively and they were.
This was one of the best defensive teams we’ve seen all year. Give him
a lot of credit for coming in with a great game plan and his kids
executed that game plan. I just have all the respect in the world for
him.”
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