Coached one of the first track dynasties in North Carolina, leading Charlotte Central High to seven state titles in eight years from 1923-1930 (winning in 1923, ’24, ’25, ’26, ’27, ’29 and ’30), and coaching 30 individual state champions during that eight-year span – all without being paid for his role. He was a pathologist for Presbyterian, Saint Peters and Mercy hospitals, and received an award for his “distinguished service to the people of the city of Charlotte” in 1927, recognizing him for his work as a doctor and as a coach. 

A 1940 Charlotte News article (by sports writer Burke Davis) after Dr. Barret passed away, said he was “…a quiet and unassuming man who was famous all over America for his work as a pathologist. In his field he was known as one of the best–but the people who will miss him most and hold his memory longer are those young men who were kids at Charlotte’s Central High in the Twenties; the boys who made Charlotte track teams the finest in the South, because he was there with them. This man was a coach of another day, and he was known as the father and dean of Dixie’s scholastic track because he built winning teams of almost any boys who came to him. His teams were teams, not collections of point-making stars; and the Barrett legend among Charlotte athletes says there was never a man who knew better the psychology of handling boys, and leading them patiently to fine performances and championships.” 

“There was no money in those days to buy good equipment for teams as there is today, and Dr. Barrett, with the help of a few friends, equipped the team himself, took his boys off on trips at his own expense. His method of training were the finest yet evolved, and a long friendship with Coach Bob Fetzer at Chapel Hill led to the use of many of his methods at North Carolina. As his kids grew up, wanting to see them have every chance they could, he continued to send many of them to college, enlisted friends to help. Many a Charlotte boy owes his education to The Doctor.” 

Besides the seven state championships, Central also won the Carolinas Championship in 1930, and finished third, second and first at the Southern Championships in Maryland, and was unbeaten in dual meets during his tenure.