SUNY Cortland Athletics

An exceptional student-athlete and administrator at SUNY Cortland, Kay Shanks Barton ’66 has devoted her professional career to creating and advancing opportunities for girls and women to compete in sports.

A native of Hamburg, N.Y., and a Frontier Central High School graduate, Barton served as president, vice president and secretary of the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) at SUNY Cortland. She was a member of the Officials Club, the Intramural Board and her class volleyball team throughout her undergraduate career. She was voted the WAA Outstanding Senior in her final year at the College.

As a senior, Barton was president of the New York State Athletic and Recreation Federation of College Women (N.Y.S.A.R.F.C.W.) and chaired its annual conference held in Cortland that year. As a junior, she was a representative to the National Athletic and Recreation Federation of College Women Conference held at the University of Nebraska.

Barton was treasurer of Alpha Sigma sorority and voted Queen of Spring Weekend for her service to the organization. She was selected to Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities as a senior. During her summers, she was a recreation supervisor for the Town of Hamburg (N.Y.), where she started a popular softball program for girls under 16. Her team, the Blasdell (N.Y.) Sparks, captured countywide honors and still exists today.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and hygiene from SUNY Cortland in 1966 and a master’s degree in health education from Adelphi University in 1973.

In 1966, Barton became one of the first female physical educators in the William Floyd School District in Mastic Beach, N.Y., where she taught girls in grades 7-12 until 1972. She helped to rewrite the curriculum to include folk dance, ballroom dance, gymnastics, volleyball, tumbling, field hockey, track and archery, in addition to soccer, basketball and softball. Barton established and coached the girls soccer team there.

Barton officiated volleyball and basketball on Long Island from 1966-72 and, from 1975-86, was a field hockey, volleyball and softball official in the Finger Lakes region.

Barton coached the Central Square (N.Y.) girls' volleyball coach for 23 seasons from 1986 until her retirement in 2008 with a combined record of 294-179. She also started the boys' volleyball program at the school in 1992 and won 195 matches, six league titles and four sectional crowns. In addition, she guided the school's softball team from 1994 to 2005. In 2000, she received the Central Square Coaches Award for service to the high school’s sports program.

From 2006-08, Barton coached the Onondaga Community College softball squad. She inherited a program that had folded five times in the six years prior to her arrival. She received the Mid-State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honor in 2006.

A certified Physical Best instructor, Barton was honored in 2006 by the Oneida Shores Rotary Club for her longtime service to that community. A former softball youth league coach in both Auburn, N.Y., and Skaneateles, N.Y., Barton was also a church elder at First Presbyterian Church in Skaneateles.

UPDATE- March, 2015: Barton volunteers her time for Ambulance for Saves in Skaneateles, Florida. In the Fall of 2011 she became a certified NYS EMT and volunteers her time at the Ambulance Corp. every Tuesday. Barton drives a minibus one day a month to help transport senior citizens to their appointments and daily activities.