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BARNSDALE, Okla. (AP) — Joe Gilbert seems as ageless as the Osage County hills surrounding the Barnsdall community where he has coached high-school athletes for 61 years.
Gilbert admits to being in his low 80s. Though retired from teaching, he still coaches girls' basketball, fast- and slow-pitch softball and serves as Barnsdall High School's athletic director.
Will he ever give it up?
"I don't think so. I think he loves it too much," said Skyla Graham, a senior guard on the basketball team, which faces South Coffeyville to open Class A playoff action Friday at Woodland High School.
"He never talks about (retirement)," junior guard Alyssa Babb said. "He still goes out to rake the field when it's scorching hot in the summertime and the rest of us are in the (air conditioning). I think he'll do it forever."
Trying to find a legend? Look no further than the gym on the hill that bears his name — Joe Gilbert Fieldhouse. That's usually where you'll find him. The trophy case is so stuffed with championship hardware that Gilbert has long since run out of room to store it all.
"I've got boxes and boxes of trophies," he said. "A few years ago, I told the principal there wasn't any point in winning more of these if we weren't gonna have any place to put 'em. He said, 'You need to keep winning.'?"
Gilbert never needed such advice. He's nearing 3,700 wins in six varsity sports, not to mention numerous district and regional championships, state runner-up finishes and state titles in baseball (1980) and slow-pitch softball (2013).
"There'll never be another like him," said Brad Bell, who starred on the 1980 baseball team and now sells truck tops in Denver. "When I heard that (Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski) had won his 1,000th game, I had to chuckle. I wondered how far he was behind Joe."
Along the way, Gilbert has given Panther athletes the best example of a gentleman they are likely to find, The Tulsa World (http://bit.ly/1A6L7ij ) reports.
"He's a man of honor and high morals," retired Barnsdall teacher and librarian Jane Javine said. "You couldn't have a better person to be around your kids."
Gilbert's influence extends through the generations. He once commented that "I've known quite a few guys who coached the sons and daughters of former players. I'm probably the only one I know who has coached the grandsons and granddaughters of former players."
Babb's grandmother played for Gilbert. Javine's husband (Dale), son (Cleve) and granddaughters (Cortney and Nakeesha) did, also.
"He was the best baby sitter a mother could want," Javine said. "For years, he took care of the city pool in the summertime. The kids would go to the gym and play ball in the mornings, come home for lunch and then they'd be at the pool all afternoon with Joe."
A native of Buffalo, Missouri, Gilbert says he never intended to say so long in one place when he arrived fresh from Northeastern State College (now NSU) in 1954.
He had ample opportunities to go to larger high schools and resisted the lure of the junior college ranks because he didn't fancy recruiting.
"I'd go to an interview and think I was leaving Barnsdall, and then I'd come back home and look around and say, 'I've always liked this place, so I might as well stay where I am.'" he said.
Barnsdall was larger and more prosperous in the wake of the Osage County oil boom of the 'teens and '20s. Today, many of the city's 1,300 residents work in Bartlesville or Tulsa or at the nearby Baker-Hughes facility.
Gilbert says the town might boom again if someone would ever straighten narrow, twisty Oklahoma 11, the main access road from Skiatook, about 20 miles to the south.
Winning is fine, but Gilbert remembers the losses more. A runner-up finish in last year's 3A slow-pitch tournament still grates. The Panthers had the tying runs on base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Hinton's center fielder made a spectacular catch to end the game.
"You hurt for the kids because they play their hearts out for you," he said.
Does anything bother him more than losing?
"Somebody with a lot of ability and their attitude is no good," he said. "You plead with them and wonder why you can't get through. A lot of times, they'll come back after several years and say, 'You know, I wish I had listened to you.'"
Gilbert is the first to acknowledge the folks who have helped him over the years. He's grateful to current assistant Lisa Marshall, who also is an assistant principal.
Deryl and Patti Wyrick are longtime softball supporters whose daughters, Julie and Cheryl, were All-State for Gilbert in 1989 and 1999, respectively. The Wyricks have worked tirelessly in the background and funded improvements at the softball field, including a new digital scoreboard and thousands of dollars-worth of concrete work, in conjunction with matching funds from Conoco Phillips.
And then there is Joyce, a retired teacher at Barnsdall and Pawhuska who is Gilbert's wife going on 51 years. She runs the concession stand at the gym and performs dozens of other behind-the-scenes tasks.
Said Brad Bell: "I'm sure nobody even mentioned how many hours she's put in and what she's given up to stay in that town, stand behind him and run the clock and make him baloney sandwiches."
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Information from: Tulsa World, http://www.tulsaworld.com
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