Plenty of words describe Dave Barnes.

“He was fair, a man of tremendous integrity,” Butler Country Club tennis pro Whitney Snyder said.

“A very caring, intense person,” Butler High School athletic director Bill Mylan said.

“Sportsmanship,” said BCC tennis player Judy Barkley. “That was what he wanted to teach more than anybody’s forehand or backhand.”

Barnes died Saturday at age 76. He was a physical education and history teacher at Butler for 35 years and is a member of the Butler High School, Slippery Rock University and Butler County Sports Hall of Fames.

But the word his name is most identified with?

Tennis.

“Say the word tennis and everybody around here says Dave Barnes,” Barkley said. “He pretty much taught two generations of people in this community how to play the game.”

One of those was Alisa Green, Butler’s current girls tennis coach who Barnes described as the best female player he’s ever coached at Butler.

Barnes coached Butler High boys tennis for 35 years and the girls team for 24. His combined won-loss record with those programs was 741-280.

“He was such a competitive coach,” Green recalled. “The bus trips home were very quiet whenever we lost.

“He would get pretty hot ... He’d pull weeds out of the ground during a match that wasn’t going well as a means of calming down. But, my gosh, I respected that man so much. He dedicated his life to growing the sport.

“Dave would always go the extra mile, do whatever was needed to get people involved in tennis,” she added.

Barnes served as a member of the WPIAL Tennis Committee from 1970-99 and often ran WPIAL tournaments. He formed the Butler Country Club tennis program and was pro there from 1975-81.

“I still hear stories from those days,” Snyder said. “No matter what he did, Dave Barnes brought an old-fashioned work ethic to the table. He once painted the roof of a gymnasium all by himself. It took him all of a summer to do it.

“But he volunteered to do it and it got done.”

Barnes’ office as BCC tennis pro was a metal trailer — with no air conditioning — parked next to the courts.

“The roof got so hot in the summer, he fried an egg on it once,” Snyder said. “But the man never complained.”

Barkley said Barnes gave lessons to every member of the country club interested in learning the game.

“He put together tournaments all the time,” she said. “We’d have husband-wife, mixed tennis socials on a weekend, followed by dinner.

“We were a bunch of young gals who were taking up tennis for the first time. Dave put up with all of us crazy women. I adored the man.”

Green described him as “old-school, very traditional.”

Snyder agreed.

“He held kids accountable. You had to earn things playing for him,” Snyder said. “At the same time, he had a tremendous link to his former players. He knew them forever.

“He influenced so many different kids’ lives in a positive way.”

Green recalled Barnes taking members of the team to different tournaments, on his own time, using his own transportation.

“We went to Philadelphia with him one time to watch the Virginia Slims tournament,” Green said. “I saw Billie Jean King, Tracy Austin, Chris Evert ... That was when tennis was booming. It was such a thrill.

“After I had surgery when I was 15, Dave and his wife Judy came to visit me in the hospital. I’ve never forgotten that. He was tough, but he was compassionate.”

Butler boys tennis coach Dave Hartzell met Barnes one time. He ran into him while getting the kids ready to play a tournament on the Butler courts.

“We spent an hour or so just talking. I could tell how much he loved the game,” Hartzell said. “And I’ve always known of his reputation and legacy here.

“You’d have a hard time finding anybody with anything bad to say about him.”

Barnes was passionate as a school teacher as well.

“He always pushed his students, trying to get the best out of them, right up to the day he retired,” Mylan said.

Barnes specialized in something else — home-made ice cream.

“His ice cream was always a part of his socials at the country club,” Snyder said. “He was meticulous in his detail when making it. He took so much pride in everything he did.

“He grew this (country club) program through effort ... sheer effort. When this club looked for somebody to start that program, it hired the right guy.”

Barkley couldn’t help but chuckle when visualizing Dave Barnes on a tennis court.

“Always a big smile on his face ... with a lot of sun-screen,” she said, laughing. “Just a real class act, a real nice man.”

Prior to being inducted into the Butler Area School District Athletic Hall of Fame in 2011, Barnes reflected on his coaching career at Butler.

“Tennis is different up here,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of kids being raised on the game like they have in Mt. Lebanon or Upper St. Clair.

“Most of our high school players haven’t taken lessons or anything. They go out on the court and battle. It was a pleasure coaching kids like that.”