PV's Barnes to take place in ACBF
Before the mid-1970’s and the effects of Title IX took place, girls basketball as an interscholastic sport didn’t exist. That makes Pymatuning Valley’s Kyle Barnes, along with players like Geneva’s Lori Korver and Harbor’s Sue Pokelsek, a pioneer in Ashtabula County. Barnes, a 1976 PV graduate, was a starting guard on one of Beth Helfer’s first Laker teams.
Barnes will join her former coach in the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation’s Hall of Fame April 12. According to Helfer, reached by phone in Florida, where she is now retired, Barnes “was a nice guard who had a good jump shot. She was a solid defensive player who could drive and shoot.
“She was one player who always wanted to learn more, a good player, no doubt about it. She wore the maroon and gold proudly. Everyone liked Kyle.
” Barnes, in turn, was complimentary to her coach. “Beth Helfer and [track coach] Joanne Mechling taught me fundamental skills, team skills, how to be a leader and the importance of having good grades,” Barnes said Barnes first learned to play basketball by shooting at a hoop her father built in her backyard. “I’d play until after dark, until my mother made me come in,” she said.
“I had to get in that last shot. ” She honed her skills by playing against her brother and his friends in pick-up games in her backyard. One of those boys was Don King’s son, Carl, then known as Carl Renwick.