BIO

Hal Cornforth arrived at Barnstable High School in the fall of 1967 after several successful years as a coach and teacher at Fairhaven High School. For the next 15 years, he steered Barnstable track sports down a course of greatness not seen before or since, highlighted by three consecutive undefeated seasons, a Class C State Championship in 1970, two D-Y Invitational victories and much. much more.

Perhaps the most significant earmark of his tenure at BHS was that each season for five straight seasons from 1968 to 1972, over 100 boys participated in spring track & field – a number not seen before or since. His tenure included a nearly four-season long undefeated dual meet streak from 1968 to 1972 that netted three Capeway Conference Championship titles and his tutelages captured five prestigious Knute Andersson Memorial Trophies.

Cornforth was also the founder of winter track at BHS, as the educator went before the Barnstable School Committee, successfully, and convinced the committee to add the sport in 1968. Coach Conrforth’s service as a freshman football coach from 1967 to 1972 is fondly remembered by Red Raider gridders of that era. His teams lost very few games but more importantly, many young athletes learned lasting lessons in sportsmanship and leadership under his kind and knowledgeable tutelage. He was inducted into the BHS Hall of Fame in 2009.