TRYING VIRUS TIMES
way out of place. Back then there were no GPS in cars and things like that. I had to cut my losses.”
So he walked away, understanding that he wasn’t also walking away from the business of running youth programs.
Barros ran his first youth camp in Boston as an NBA rookie — “My mom (Stephanie) basically made me do it to give back to the community, and it became a staple and we built it into a business” — and did this every summer, finally springing for his own facility after retiring following his second stint with the Celtics in 2004.
He moved on from Mansfield to run a facility in Walpole for four years and another on the Dedham/ Norwood line for three.
“I’ve always rented small gyms,” he said. “Those were small two-court facilities that I just ran myself, and it was all personal training and clinics. I always made my living off those things at the time, and I wanted to see if I enjoyed the basketball coaching part of it. I just went back 100% to the personal, basketball business side.”
And until Barros opened at his present location in the fall of 2017, he tried his hand at coaching, joining Bill Coen’s Northeastern staff in 2006, and realizing almost immediately that the job of recruiting wasn’t for him.
“I wasn’t really comfortable with contacting kids continuously,” he said. “The recruiting thing was difficult for me. I was more handson. I wanted to be a trainer-type coach at that time. So I tried it out.
“Not a lot of YouTube videos and social media back then like there is now, so there was a lot of hand-tohand combat. It was totally weird for me to be in that situation. Needed for that position, and (Bill) Coen was an absolutely great guy. I just wanted to make sure I gave him 100%. I just more wanted to be on the court.”
He took another brief step into coaching in 2017, taking over Newbury College’s Div. 3 program for one season, and learning a lot about how the majority of college athletes live. The Newbury experience was revelatory for someone who had always been treated as a dignitary as an athlete.
“You have some kids who were just there to play basketball, but 12 of the 15 kids I had were just good kids who loved to play the game and were struggling to even get to practices and games,” he said. “Some of them had kids, some weren’t living on campus and lived 30 miles away. Many different situations — kind of an eye-opening experience for me. I was on the side where you have everything done for you as an athlete.
“That was a great experience, because I have a tremendous amount of respect for those D-3 athletes. Some of those kids would go to school, go to work, then come to practice and games. That was a different experience, to where I gained a lot of respect for kids who just love the game.”
Responsibilities at the new Stoughton facility quickly consumed his time, though, ending his college coaching career. Understanding past mistakes, Barros took on a partner, Travis Roach, to handle the business side.
“I’m a basketball coach and a teacher, that’s what I do best, and you get somebody else on the other side of it to do what they do best,” said Barros.
“I’m not a talker, so I just stayed in the cut, and when I was ready to come back I came back super big, you know?”
The same families, now with an additional generation or two, were waiting for him, too.
“I see guys in the stores,” he said. “I’ll be in Home Depot and this guy with a gray beard comes up and says ‘hey, I went to your camp.’ And I’m like, whoa, he’s 35.
“There were 150 kids who went wherever I went. I had kids from Plymouth following me to Dedham, from the time they were in third grade to the time they were in 11th grade. It’s kind of sustained my whole plan. In the past 20 years I’ve had 15 families that have sent me 40 or 50 kids, all by themselves. They’ve just been dedicated and followed me wherever I was. I’ve been blessed with that.”
Those blessings will be especially needed now, whenever the severe business restrictions from COVID-19 lift, and people attempt to normalize their lives.
Whether Barros is now too big to fail in this endangered environment is anyone’s guess, though, as he readily admits.
“I’m not going to say everything is great, but right now we’re healthy and going forward with the business,” he said. “I don’t anticipate that changing, but you never know.”