Washington’s Barth wins 2026 Clutch Sports Media Girls Basketball Coach of the Year

Family plays a big role in Kim Barth’s life. 

The daughter of a coach herself, the Washington girls basketball head coach had plenty to celebrate during a Class 3A state championship-winning and record-breaking season. That also included creating a team culture where the players were like family members to Barth, each other and their community. 

Every one of them got to cherish an unforgettable season where the Panthers had lofty expectations placed on them before the year and lived up to each one en route to winning the program’s first state title and Barth winning Clutch Sports Media’s 2026 Girls Basketball Coach of the Year. 

Following a 2024-25 season that motivated Washington to improve on its third-place finish at state, Barth led the Panthers to a 35-2 finish all while facing some of the toughest competition the state had to offer. The Panthers beat state runner-up Chatham Glenwood twice, as well as Class 4A state runner-up Wilmette Loyola Academy, Class 2A’s third place team Pleasant Plains, Richwoods, Chicago DePaul, Aurora Waubonsie Valley and Peoria Notre Dame. 

On top of that, Barth led Washington to its second consecutive conference title in the talent-rich Mid-Illini, which featured six teams that went .500 or better during the regular season. Washington was faced with one of the toughest paths in the state to a state title and delivered in dominating fashion, knocking off three teams ranked in the top six in the state, beating a pair of hosts playing in their own gym and winning each playoff game by 15 points or more. 

Barth led a special team that returned eight seniors and had all five starters earn all-state and all-conference honors. Three of those starters — Dani Guedet, Mazzy O’Brien and Becca McDougall surpassed the 1,000 career points mark while Avery Tibbs became Washington’s all-time leading scorer during this past postseason with 2,160 career points. All five of the Panthers' starters earned selections to Clutch Sports Media's 2026 Girls Basketball All-Area team.

Since taking over at Washington prior to the 2016-17 season, Barth has accumulated a 247-63 record, six regional titles — including her fifth straight this year —, a pair of sectional titles, a Class 3A third-place finish and a state title. 

Hear from Barth about this season and her career in our interview with her below. Some answers have been minimally edited for clarity.

What have you been able to reflect on in the days since the season has ended?

“It seems like the last year, even from when we started back last March working out and prepping for this season, we’ve talked about it,” Barth said. “A lot of the things that the UCLA coach was saying in postgame interviews, how she had a group of seniors that came together and had a goal and found a way to get it done, those are all things that resonated with me so much because I feel like we absolutely did the same thing. We talked about it behind closed doors, but we weren't running around saying ‘This is what we're going to do.’ Obviously, people knew what our goal was but to be able to do that and the reflection in my mind has just been so much pride. It almost doesn't feel real still, it honestly doesn't because you set goals in your life and you don't always reach them. And me, as a coach. I was always like, ‘I want to get to Redbird [Arena] and then you get there and it wasn't good enough because I wanted to get back to Redbird.”

“I will tell you something Coach [Kevin] Brown always said to me when I met him early in my years at Washington, he said, ‘If you can get them there, it's like you sprinkle pixie dust on them, because when they get a taste of it, they want to go back every single year,’” Barth said. “I feel like our program has that now. Kate McDougall, since the day after state, is [saying] ‘Coach, when we are starting this? When are we doing this?’ She is roaring and ready to go already so it's crazy to think it's been a month, but there's just been so many things. We were recognized at the city council meeting, we're being recognized at our school board meeting this next week. Doug Lee from the NBA sent us a bunch of gifts today, crystals that have our names on them. We got those today, so that was really fun so it just seems the last month has just been a celebration of these kids and it hasn't stopped. It's been pretty awesome, but we'll have the sign going up in the gym and coming into town. It's just awesome to make history here for these kids. They're just great kids, they work their tails off and I couldn't be prouder.”

After making it to state last year, why was your team able to get it done this year?

“I think that these kids were not going to accept anything except getting back there and finishing the job,” Barth said. “We talked about, you know, this is not just a basketball lesson, this is a life lesson. These kids poured their hearts and energy and soul into this sport ever since they were in third grade and they worked and they worked and they worked and hard work pays off and that's life too. Last year was a huge letdown for us but that didn't turn their path. They knew what they were going to do this year. They refused to get there and not get it done, there was just no way and I think our postseason showed that. We had to beat Dunlap at Dunlap in a regional, we had to beat Galesburg at Galesburg in the sectional and then we had to go play Providence. I think that ending the year against Chatham [Glenwood], who we played early in the year, was just a full circle moment.”

“But this is a credit to the kids [and] their work ethic to have eight seniors make it through four years of high school basketball. [This was] the longest season and I think one of the toughest seasons, and some of them never started a game [and] didn't play a lot of minutes, but they wanted to be a part of this so I think that's just a testament to the kids as well.”

What’s your coaching background? 

“As soon as I graduated Eureka College when I was 21 years old, so 19 years ago, I started coaching at Eureka High School,” Barth said. “I was the JV coach and I also coached at Eureka Middle School where we got second in state [while] I was the seventh grade coach. I did that for four years before I came to Washington and then I was the JV basketball coach here and the JV volleyball coach for five years, then the varsity position opened so this was my 10th year here. That's when I came to Washington. I coached a little college cross country when I first graduated college just for a year, just to get a little bit of experience but Eureka High School and Eureka Middle School is where I started coaching. My dad was my coach growing up and I've had a ton of really great coaches that I still talk to a ton but my 19th year coaching was this year.”

What helps keep you motivated?

“I tell you what, the older you get, the harder it is,” Barth said. “My kids, my girls in my program, keep me motivated. My own kids keep me motivated. They keep me young, they keep me going but just sharing the passion and love that was shared with me ever since I was little and having that opportunity to do that here at Washington has been something that I've been privileged to do and honored to do. I'm just very thankful and lucky that [Herb] Knoblauch took a chance on me 10 years ago to be the varsity coach and I'm forever indebted to him. He gave me this opportunity because not a lot of people would have said, ‘I'm going to take a girl that's never had a varsity position or experience’ and take over a program like Washington's, especially following Maggie Mose, the program’s second-leading scorer. For him to give me that opportunity, I’m blessed beyond words to have that and to spend my time here with great kids and great athletes.”

Aside from winning, what’s a fun memory with your players that you’ve had from this past season? 

“These girls do senior Starbucks runs where our JV coach takes them to Starbucks and we have sponsors that pay for them to go Starbucks, these kids love Starbucks,” Barth said. “I think some of the other fun things that we've done are some of them ran [for] St. Jude with me this past year, because they were 18 and could do that, the camps, the overnight trips in the hotels where they were playing games and running around like crazy. But I think one of my best memories is seeing them with my own kids, because I see my kids look up to them and there is no one better that they could look up to: kids that are making good decisions on the floor and more importantly off the floor.”

What’s a piece of coaching advice you’d give?

“I would say jump in with two feet, don't look back,” Barth said. “If you're going to do it, you’ve got to do it with 110 percent of your heart. You got to give it everything you have. Don't shortcut the kids because they deserve everything you can give them for the time that you're given. And life is short and you never know when things can change so take every opportunity and run with it.”