Rick Barnes comes to the rescue of Georgetown boys home

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GEORGETOWN -- Rick Barnes did not merely give money to the Tara Hall Home for Boys in sums totaling over $125,000. For the University of Texas basketball coach, it was never as simple as matching delivery trucks with the needs of troubled kids.

File/AP

University of Texas basketball coach Rick Barnes

Barnes got down on his knees and scrubbed. He swept floors. He worked for 12 hours on Labor Day.

"I asked him if he sweeps much back in Texas," said Tristan, a 13-year-old Tara Hall resident. "He said, 'No, I have people that do that for me.' "

Barnes, a former Clemson coach averaging 21-plus wins per season over 25 years, has a salary of $2.4 million per year at Texas. He and his wife Candy also have a vacation home nearby at DeBordieu Colony, where the family was staying last June when Candy Barnes read a magazine story about rural Tara Hall.

She learned that Father Owen O'Sullivan started the home in 1969 to give wayward boys a path to success, and that executive director James E. Dumm Jr., fresh out of Penn State, began working at Tara Hall in 1971. He has seen more than 600 boys -- most voluntarily placed by a family member -- come and go.

"Candy called and said she wanted to do some volunteer work over the summer and wanted to come out and look around," said Dumm, 62. "I said 'sure' and when Candy arrived with her husband, I said, 'are you the Rick Barnes that used to coach at Clemson?' He said, 'Yeah, that's me.' "

Dumm gave Rick, Candy and their son Nick, 27, a tour of a beautiful, wooded 11-acre campus along Black Mingo Creek that includes a residential hall and school for 15 boys ranging in age from 6 to 13.

"I fell in love with the place," Barnes said by phone from Austin. "I saw that God was working through my wife to put Tara Hall in our hearts."

Early into the tour, Barnes stopped and turned to Dumm.

"What is your biggest need?" Barnes asked.

'Let God work'

Tara Hall knows generosity, and sports. Tom and Jean Yawkey, the charitable late former owners of baseball's Boston Red Sox, provided Tara Hall with land near their other Georgetown properties. Mrs. Yawkey used to send the boys to Atlanta Braves playoff games. Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore has conducted clinics for the boys and given them tickets and T-shirts.

Photo Gallery Tara Hall

Tara Hall where Rick Barnes, former Clemson basketball coach now at Texas, has a special relationship.

But Dumm rarely sees anything quite like Rick Barnes.

"We had been fighting a bed bug problem with bugs in wooden beds throughout our living quarters," Dumm said. "We were saving up for some metal beds. Within a couple weeks of coming out here, Rick had a friend of his ship 24 steel-framed beds."

Two days later, Barnes showed up at Tara Hall with a contractor. The two men walked through outdated rooms with Dumm in tow.

Barnes: "Jim, you're not asking for enough."

Dumm: "Well, Rick, I just met you. I don't want to appear greedy."

Barnes: "Jim, just stand back and let God work."

Tara Hall was "totally transformed" over a six-week period last summer, assistant director Patsy Morris said.

Every piece of furniture is new in the living quarters. New plumbing and lighting. New flooring. Flat-screen TVs. The recreation room was renovated. Two new pool tables. Video game systems. Barnes had satellite television installed on a campus that previously didn't even get cable, and paid the bill for a year.

"They did a lot of neat things for us," said Tara Hall resident Andrew, 12. "Everything is so new and a lot more fun."

Pain before fame

Clemson fans remember Rick Barnes, 57, for taking the Tigers to three straight NCAA tournament appearances (1996-98). They loved it when he argued nose to nose with legendary former North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Rick's Barnestormers held up "Barnes is God" signs at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Barnes grew up in Hickory, N.C., and played ball at Lenoir-Rhyne College across town. Barnes was a toddler when his father left home. They lost touch. Barnes' dad died without ever meeting his grandchildren. Barnes tried to look to his older brother Toby as a role model, but Toby became an alcoholic and died of liver cancer while Barnes was coaching at Clemson.

Sandy Barnes, Rick's only sister and strongest leader in his life, died in a car accident when he was 18.

The former Candy Rhyne, also a Hickory native, was adopted as a child. She is related to a founder of Lenoir-Rhyne. Rick Barnes worked during college summers at a Hickory mill owned by her father, Preston Rhyne.

Candy, Rick says, was his "dream girl" and he fondly recalled their first date.

They rode bicycles down a country road. Rick asked for a first kiss. First, Candy had to remove her chewing gum.

"Before you knew it, I had that ball of gum in the back of my hair," Rick Barnes said. "It was really a mess."

Barnes is a famed prankster who enjoyed giving $5 to strangers to get them to walk up to former Clemson athletic director Bobby Robinson in restaurants and ask, 'Hey, aren't you the (bleep) who fired Danny Ford?' "

But he is very serious about Tara Hall.

"It has been a group effort; we didn't do it alone," Barnes said. "We knew people wouldn't be able to give a lot in this economy, but a friend from Lenoir-Rhyne donated the pool tables."

Candy Barnes last summer jumped off the dock and into Black Mingo Creek to swim with the boys. Nick Barnes, now in Egypt on a church planting mission, stopped by often and had a blast.

"We're not doing this for publicity," Rick Barnes said. "God has blessed us in more ways than we can ever share with people."

'Pretty amazing'

There is a baseball field at Tara Hall, and kayaks for use on Black Mingo Creek. Every boy has a bike. But the rehabilitation mission is no-nonsense -- enrollees are required to stay at least two years.

"We believe it takes that long to have any long-term impact," Dumm said. "You can change attitudes and behaviors in a few months, but to make it really stick, it takes longer. These kids are coming from such dysfunctional situations that we felt that we had to make them strong enough to withstand various pressures when they return home."

Most new arrivals at Tara Hall are one to three years behind academically. With four full-time teachers, four child care workers and a computer lab, they catch up quickly. The boys have daily chores and earn extra free time by reaching discipline levels. Five of the 15 boys are in public schools, and some participate in outside sports and other activities.

Tara Hall has a chapel and weekly worship services.

"We believe in exposing kids to Christianity," Dumm said, "but at the same time we don't try to shove it down their throats."

Dumm calls the Barnes family connection to Tara Hall "miraculous."

The boys seem to agree.

"When you think about it," 13-year-old Tristan said, "it really is pretty amazing what he did for us."

Reach Gene Sapakoff at 937-5593 or on Twitter at @sapakoff.

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Rick Barnes comes to the rescue of Georgetown boys home