Tim Barrett was named Castleton’s Director of Athletics in May 2023 following 22 seasons as the Spartans’ women’s basketball coach and nearly two decades as the Senior Associate Director of Athletics for the department.
Barrett has been at Castleton full-time since 1998, beginning as the men’s basketball head coach for three seasons before moving to the women’s sidelines in 2001. From 1998 through 2005, Barrett was also an Assistant Athletic Director for Castleton before being promoted to Senior Associate Director of Athletics in 2005, a title he retained until stepping into the Director of Athletics role in 2023.
As the Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Barrett provided day-to-day assistance in all areas of the athletic department while overseeing all aspects of athletics field maintenance and equipment management. He was also the scheduling coordinator for Castleton’s 28 varsity programs, oversaw departmental fundraising efforts and represented Castleton athletics on numerous internal and external committees.
Additionally, Barrett was a member of the Castleton Student Initiative Committee, a group charged with the oversight of $30 million to create new facilities on campus while also renovating existing structures. This project resulted in the construction of Spartan Stadium (now Dave Wolk Stadium) and its state-of-the-art artificial turf playing surface, renovated baseball and softball fields, new tennis courts and an expanded Spartan Athletic Complex.
On the sidelines, Barrett is the winningest women’s basketball coach in Castleton history, finishing his coaching career with a 399-185 record in the women’s game. On the men’s side, Barrett had 22 victories in three seasons to give him a career total of 421 victories between the two programs.
His women’s teams saw unprecedented success during his 22 seasons at the helm, finishing above .500 19 times while winning five North Atlantic Conference Championships. In 2013-14, Barrett’s squad made school history when it advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16—the furthest any Castleton program has progressed in any NCAA Championship Tournament.
A six-time NAC Coach of the Year winner, Barrett coached three NAC Players of the Year and had 33 players land All-Conference honors during his tenure. He had four NAC Defensive Players of the Year winners in a row from 2011 to 2014, and coached three Rookies of the Year as well. Five student-athletes have earned CoSIDA (now CSC) Academic All-District honors, with one claiming the prestigious honor of CoSIDA Academic All-America.
His first conference championship came in just his second season at the helm, leading the 2002-03 program to a 21-7 record and a league crown, defeating Maine Maritime on Castleton’s home court. In 2008-09, Barrett returned Castleton to the top of the NAC, going 17-12 overall and leading the Spartans to the title on the road against Husson.
Barrett and the Spartan women’s basketball program hit their stride in 2011, claiming three NAC titles over the next four years while landing an ECAC crown in the stretch as well. In 2011-12, the team went 22-6 overall and 16-2 in NAC play. The team won all three NAC playoff games by 14 points or more en route to the third NAC title.
2012-13 was a record-setting year for Castleton, as the team won a program-best 29 games with only two losses. After opening the season 13-0, Castleton suffered its first loss of the year to Colby-Sawyer. The Spartans then won their next 13 games in a row and found themselves in a rematch with the Chargers for the NAC title. Despite coming up short in the title game, Castleton earned a bid to the ECAC tournament and won three straight games to earn the ECAC Championship.
The Spartans followed up the 2012-13 campaign with an equally-impressive season in 2013-14, going 27-4 with a 17-1 mark in NAC play. Castleton was dominant on both ends of the floor that season, outscoring teams by an average of 21 points per game over the course of the entire season. The NAC Tournament was no different, as Castleton coasted to another NAC Championship with three wins of 24-plus points in a row. The magical season continued in the NCAA Tournament, with an opening-round win over Bowdoin, 64-62. Castleton then won in the Round of 32 against Plattsburgh State in overtime, 76-70, to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. The Spartans fell to No. 5 Tufts in the Sweet 16 but finished the year at 27-4 and concluded the season ranked 23rd nationally by D3hoops.com, its first national ranking ever. His team led the nation in both scoring defense (46.6) and defensive field goal percentage (30.3) and he was honored as the NAC Coach of the Year.
In 2014-15, Castleton made it back-to-back NAC crowns, going 23-5 overall and 17-1 in NAC play once again. After a dominant semi-final victory over Colby-Sawyer, Castleton won a game in true Tim Barrett fashion, using stout defense to shut down the opponent in a 45-40 victory over New England College. Barrett was honored as the NAC Coach of the Year as his team led the nation in field goal percentage defense (30.6) while finishing eighth in scoring defense (49.9).
Barrett saw continued success in the following years finishing with winning records in each of the next five seasons. During the latter two years of that stretch, Castleton moved from the NAC to the highly-competitive Little East Conference, where Castleton went 14-12 in 2018-19 and 16-11 in 2019-20. The 2019-20 campaign saw Castleton win its first LEC women’s basketball playoff game, a 54-46 win over Keene State at Glenbrook Gym, in the quarterfinals.
The 2020-21 season was shortened due to COVID-19, but Castleton returned to the LEC playoffs in 2021-22. In 2022-23, the Spartans once again earned a home playoff game by going 17-10 overall and 9-7 in league play. Barrett’s Spartans topped Southern Maine 70-57 in the quarterfinals before falling on the road in the semifinals to end the season.
Academically, the Spartans were expected to achieve as much in the classroom as they did on the hardwood under coach Barrett, and they routinely did so, winning the Castleton President’s Cup for Academic Excellence in 2003, 2004, 2007, 2013 and 2023. Barrett’s team was recognized in 2013 by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) for having the tenth highest team GPA among all Division III institutions.
Barrett was raised in nearby Fair Haven, Vermont, and currently resides in Castleton.
