ERIC BARON: A FRIEND AND MENTOR TO ALL

BY AUDREY WALKER Reporter

Balancing his job as a teacher, his devotion to family and his passion for running and coaching is tough, but Eric Baron handles it with patience. He is a dependable figure for students, athletes and his family all at once, and he has positively impacted the people around him.

Baron is a well-known name amongst Kaneland students and staff. He has accumulated a combined 25 years in education by teaching Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses at Kaneland Harter Middle School and Kaneland High School, but he didn’t always want to be a teacher. He majored in architecture for three years at Eastern Illinois University before realizing he wanted to teach.

“When I was in college, I worked at Mooseheart as a summer recreation counselor, and that’s where I saw how much I loved working with students and kids,” Baron said.

He ultimately switched from architecture to education after an internship where he spent the summer drawing windows for garage doors. He realized then that architecture wasn’t for him.

With the variety of different classes that he teaches, including engineering, Computer-Aided Design/Drafting (CAD), applications of technology and construction courses, Baron interacts with many students. Out of all of these classes, though, engineering is his favorite to teach.

“I just really like the problem-solving and creativity that comes with [engineering],” Baron said.

Not only does he enjoy teaching engineering, but his students enjoy learning it as well. Out of a group of 20 seniors from the 2010 boys track team, which was recently inducted into the Kaneland Hall of Fame for their second place finish at the State meet, six of them are engineers. Among these six individuals are one aerospace engineer working for NASA and the chief engineer for the city of Minneapolis. The success of Baron’s students shows how much impact he has through teaching, though not all of his former students have had to work at NASA to prove that.

Physical education teacher, health teacher and head boys track coach Andy Drendel was Baron’s student during his first year of teaching in the Kaneland district. Drendel was in Baron’s industrial technology class, where one project was to work with drywall.

“I still remember how to repair drywall, specifically from that class in sixth grade,” Drendel said.

Drendel also touched on the passion Baron has for teaching.

“He cares about the kids,” Drendel said. “You could tell that he wanted the kids to be successful.”

This observation is consistent among people close to Baron, including his wife. Deborah Baron, who has been married to Baron for almost 24 years, said three of his defining characteristics are his determination, caring nature and outspoken passion.

“He has a genuine desire to help, teach and support people,” Deborah Baron said.

Baron started coaching right out of college at Tinley Park Middle School as the assistant cross country coach and the head girls track coach. In his first year of coaching track, he had only seven girls on the team, yet they placed second in the conference. By year two, there were 200 girls and they won the conference meet. In his first year teaching at Kaneland, he was a volunteer track coach.

In 1999, he started coaching cross country at KHS, and that team placed second in the state. He began coaching boys track in 2000 as an assistant coach and took over as head coach in 2006. He continued coaching cross country until 2012 and track until 2016, when he stepped away from the programs to spend more time with his family. He started coaching cross country again in 2019, and the boys team won the State championship. He started coaching track again too, this time for the girls team.

He ultimately ended his time as a Kaneland coach when he took the position of head girls and boys cross country coach at Waubonsee Community College in 2022. This was a tough decision for him but was ultimately what he needed to do to prioritize himself.

“It was really a difficult choice because, for the first time in my career, I was choosing something for myself instead of [for the] good of my students or my athletes,” Baron said.

Throughout his ever-shifting coaching career, one thing has stayed the same: Baron’s impact on athletes that reached beyond giving instruc - tions and taking times. Deborah Baron described the positive effect he has on the student-athletes he has worked with.

“The impact that he has on his runners and students goes far beyond [athletics] and academics,” Deborah Baron said. “Through developing relationships with athletes and students, he shows that he values them as people. The number of former runners and students who maintain a relationship with him after high school is very telling.”

Drendel, who has coached and taught with him, shares similar sentiments.

“Probably the biggest takeaway that I’ve [gotten from having] him as a coach and teacher was ‘talk to every kid,’” Drendel said. He explained that Baron knew every athlete, regardless of talent or ability. “He knew what your passion was, what your goals were [and] what you wanted to get out of [sports]. That’s something that I’ve carried over for myself because I saw the value in it, and I saw how much kids responded to it when they know the adult cares about them as a person.”

Aside from his love for interacting with kids, Baron’s own running career played a part in his decision to coach.

“I had good coaches throughout my career,” Baron said. “I think seeing what they did and how they impacted so many lives guided me into coaching.”

Baron first started running in his physical education class when he was in fifth grade at Kaneville Elementary School and continued to run as a student at what is now St. Charles East High School. He had an extremely successful running career, as he ran under 15:00 for three miles and made the All-State team twice. To this day, he still holds the fastest freshman mile time at St. Charles at 4:30.20.

Although his high school career didn’t end as he had hoped, as his team did not quite perform to the level of expectations at the start of their season, he continued running at Eastern Illinois University where he received an athletic scholarship. There, he was a 14-time All-Conference performer and ran an impressive time of 24:09 for 8,000 meters. After college, he ran unattached while he was completing his student teaching. During this time, he ran 4:02 for the mile. Although his racing career tapered off after he graduated college, he didn’t stop running. Running has al - ways been a way for Baron to release stress and anxiety, although now he incorporates other activities into his exercise routine, such as biking and yoga.

Baron’s tendency to teach extends outside the classroom. He urges athletes to learn from their sports. One of his fondest memories of his family comes from his senior year cross country State meet. His team was ranked first in the state, but didn’t perform well and finished ninth. His dad walked with him afterwards and gave him guidance.

“His comment to me was, ‘It’s a sport. What did you learn today?’” Baron said. “That was some of the best advice my dad ever gave me because I learned a lot about who I was from failure.”

Along with his dad, Baron has some of his own wisdom to give. In sports, mental health is often overlooked, but Baron thinks that it is important to be open about it.

“Don’t be afraid to talk about [mental health],” Baron said. “It was something that I wish I would have learned when I was in school.”

He urges people to understand the importance of putting not only mental health but also family above athletics.

“The world never ends with sports. Your family [and] your well-being are way more important than your performance at a meet, or any sporting event,” Baron said.

He’s had to prioritize himself and his family before. In 2016, he stepped away from being the head boys track coach.

“I stepped away for my family,” he said. “[When] ranking the things that are most important to me, my family would always be first. That’s one of the things that I’m trying to teach to my student-athletes too. You [have to] love and take care of [your family] because they may not always be there.”

Deborah Baron agrees that it is tough for her husband to balance so many commitments but that he “reminds himself that much of being a good coach and teacher relates to the personal relationships and values you foster with your team.”

To achieve proper balance, Baron lives by the philosophy of being patient. Handling the various facets of his life is a big undertaking, but Baron goes on to make a positive impact on those around him. After all, he believes, “If I can make one student smile each day, I’ve achieved the greatest gift.”

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