Barb Sickler - Class of 2025

(Lake Linden)

Barb Sickler was a physical education teacher in Gwinn and Munising who began her coaching career at Lake Linden-Hubbell in 1964. At that time, there were no high school teams – instead, there were three “Sport Days” allowed for girls by the MHSAA. From 1966 until 1985 she was head coach for both gymnastics and track and field at Lake Linden-Hubbell, guiding them to a Class D U.P. track championship in 1983 after finishing runner-up in 1982. Sickler was also responsible for training gymnastics judges in those early years and conducting her own track meets. She represented the U.P. at the First Institute for girls and women’s sports at Eastern Michigan University and conducted a clinic for girls track coaches in the late 1960s. Sickler was herself a volleyball referee and state-accredited gymnastics judge and was inducted into the first class of the Lake Linden-Hubbell Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.