Former RHS star takes on Trail Blazing task

WINSTON-SALEM — Building a collegiate sports program from the ground up is a daunting task. There are endless i’s to dot and t’s to cross well before any student-athlete can step on a court or field.

Randleman High School graduate Shelly (Whitaker) Barnes is undertaking that massive project after being named the athletic director of Forsyth Tech Community College in Winston-Salem.

Forsyth Tech announced in December of 2022 its plans to file an application with the National Junior College Athletic Association for teams to begin competition in the 2025-26 sports season. In March, the college hired Barnes as its first athletics director.

With extensive teaching, coaching and administrative experience, Barnes, who spent the past 13 years at Lenoir Community College in Kinston, accepted the challenge at Forsyth Tech. 

“It is different because most people step into an already established program and you don’t have to think about every little thing, those are already in place,” Barnes said. “I felt Lenoir was a great training ground for me. We were always on a skeleton budget. 

“Forsyth Tech is one of the biggest community colleges in North Carolina and after trying to make sports work on a shoestring budget, I’m excited about not being so strapped financially. At the same time, I’m cautioning Forsyth that the sports we do roll out, we want to roll out well. We want to pay our coaches well, have good transportation and have nice facilities.”

Forsyth did have an NJCAA Division III men's basketball program in the past. Known as the Technical Tigers, the program shifted to an intramural program around 2012.  

Barnes was chosen to lead the resurgence.

Barnes, a 1990 RHS graduate who was a member of the school’s first Hall of Fame class, played volleyball and basketball at High Point College before beginning a career she never thought she would have. She said she was planning on becoming a physical therapist after graduating with a degree in Sports Medicine, but her career took an abrupt turn.

“A lot of people thought I should be teaching and coaching, a good coach means a lot of hard work just like a teacher and I wasn’t sure I could do it,” Barnes said. “I met my future husband (Coach) David Barnes at the time and he asked if I would help him coach at Richmond County. I taught math there for a year.”

Barnes said she didn’t enjoy teaching math, so when a health and physical education position opened at Hamlet Middle School, she moved there. She coached volleyball and soccer and then moved with her husband to Scotland County, where she coached volleyball, soccer and track.   

They stayed at Scotland High School for 12 years and when her husband talked about retiring, Barnes said she began thinking about administration.   

She applied to a number of community colleges, looking for a volleyball coaching position as well, and landed one at Lenoir Community College. Midway through her first year there, she was asked to take on co-athletic director duties, so she was teaching, coaching and acting as co-AD for three busy years.

She kept her coaching and teaching duties when she was named fulltime AD. She then gave up coaching, but administrators at Lenoir once again turned to the Barnes couple later to help revitalize a struggling volleyball program, a program that spiraled down after she left.

But then the job at Forsyth Tech opened. 

“It got me closer to home and it was athletic director only,” Barnes said. “At Lenoir, I was over student government, program chair, and this let me focus on one thing. I knew it would be a challenge and there were some hurdles, but they are excited about athletics.”

There were plenty of hurdles. After electing to go the NJCAA Division II route, school administrators had to select the sports that would be offered to student-athletes beginning in the 2024-25 season. After community polls, surveys and input from faculty and students, volleyball, basketball and Esports were scheduled to be offered.

But when Barnes had her in-person interview, she stated starting a women’s basketball program could be risky. She said a lot of community colleges in the region were struggling with women's basketball, with some starting programs only to see them become club sports in the middle of the season or simply dissolve.

“Volleyball was the top women's sport in the survey and that seemed to make the most sense,” Barnes said.  

Forsyth Tech already had a gymnasium, a facility that needed to be worked on but would certainly provide a home for the volleyball and men's basketball programs.  

Barnes said she is currently in the process of hiring coaches for volleyball and basketball. 

“I will feel a lot better when I get coaches in place, especially for volleyball,” Barnes said. “Volleyball is getting ready to start in high school and there’s not a lot of time before we can start signing. Girls seem to commit a lot sooner than boys.”

Forsyth Tech will be allowed to offer scholarships.

Esports will also be offered. Esports is electronic gaming, which Barnes said many colleges have as a varsity sport. It will be offered initially as intramurals with plans to develop competitive teams later in the academic year.

Barnes said she has not only spent a great deal of time building the athletic program but out in the community as well, promoting Forsyth Tech’s athletic program.

“It almost feels a little political right now,” she said of her endless meetings with city officials, the parks and recreation department and area businesses. “I’m more used to being in a gym or classroom than being in front of the Chamber of Commerce or a councilman. It’s stretching me, but that’s OK. I have to get more comfortable in being uncomfortable.”

The school’s nickname is the Trail Blazers and Forsyth Tech will compete in Region 10. Nearly 20 of the schools in the N.C. Community College System has sports teams and 16 are currently NJCAA members, including Davidson-Davie, Guilford Tech, Rockingham and Surry. Region 10 includes colleges in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

Although volleyball, men’s basketball and Esports are the first to be offered, Barnes said soccer, golf and perhaps beach volleyball may be instituted in the coming years.

“It’s a busy time,” Barnes said. “But I love it.”