Blessed With Speed Post Falls Grad Will Soon Be Using Her Skills To Race After Her Own Baby

Barb Kerns made the decision to run through a process of elimination, realization and a bizarre exorcism during a basketball game.

“Running was the only sport that didn’t have a ball,” she said. “I remember my coach put his hands on my head at halftime and said `Please God, give her the ability to have hands like her little sister, Jen.”’

Barb wasn’t insulted, but the 1991 Post Falls High School graduate didn’t need to be hit in the head with a shovel to realize her talents lie elsewhere.

She was blessed with speed and her home was a perfect training ground to hone her agility and durability to run until the cows came home.

“Sometimes the cows would get out and we would have to chase them back in,” she said. “We learned to watch where we ran and I tell you, getting those heifers back probably helped my endurance.”

Kerns ran cross country in the fall and the mile and two-mile in track in the spring.

At state her senior year, a bad start ended her shot at a state title.

“I was tripped at the starting line and crashed,” said Kerns. “I thought it was an injured muscle which takes forever to heal.”

She was offered a scholarship to North Idaho College for cross country. On her first day of practice her coach took one look at Barb’s injury and told her to seek medical attention.

“She knew there was more to it,” said Kerns. “It turned out my hip was broken and required surgery. My bone was reset and it healed perfectly and I was able to go back by spring.”

While rehabbing, she developed a heart condition, a flutter if you will. Mead graduate Bill Anderson, a gifted cross country runner on scholarship, was rehabbing an injury, too. Both were spending a lot of time in the weight room and eventually with each other.

She competed that spring running the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races. She didn’t win much, but it was a healing year. Her teammates took notice of her efforts and by season end awarded her “most inspirational.”

“I think they give that to the person with the biggest mouth,” she said with a laugh.

The next year she was a team captain and graduated with a degree in general studies. She had a reputation for making great time, except once for dinner during Christmas break.

Bill sent his parents with his four-year old brother, Adam, to the movies and had everything prepared for an engaging evening, including candles.

“I was getting ready to go except all my friends from college kept dropping by for a visit,” she said. “He called a couple of times and I told him I was on my way. Bill got on the phone with one my friends and told her to stop talking so he could propose. They left right away.”

Kerns arrived three hours late, the candles were down to the nub and… “He got down on a knee a big time!” she said. “It was great until his parents came home carrying Adam, who fell asleep in a restaurant while they were waiting for word that they could come home.”

They were married in 1993. After graduating from NIC, Kerns wasn’t eager to jump into a four-year school and took a year off.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she said.

In 1995 she walked on to Eastern Washington University’s track team and studied elementary education. She was given a scholarship for three years and qualified for the Big Sky championships for the 1,500.

“I didn’t place but I did make it there,” she said. “Not bad huh?”

She finished her education degree and moved to Seattle after Bill took a job with Boeing. She worked every day as a substitute but it was she who got the education.

“I would invest my time with these kids and wanted to see them through and would have to leave.”

The following year she was hired as a reading specialist and became disenchanted.

“The kids weren’t used to having someone care about them, including their parents,” she said. “One child was abandoned by her parents for a week while they vacationed in Las Vegas.”

The Andersons relocated to Denver when Bill landed a job with Equus Software in 1999. Barb wanted to keep teaching but felt there was a bigger need that she could provide to keep kids in school and make sure that there is some proper adult supervision.

“It’s a before-and-after program,” she said. “The parents drop their children off before school. I get them dressed and fed and ready. After school they come over and do their homework and I can help them to make sure it’s done. There is such a need for it now with all the latch-key kids. I feel I could have an important part in their life.”

Those plans will have to wait until next year.

“I am three months pregnant with our first,” she said. “That is why I want to do the before-and-after program. That way I can still work and also be home with our baby. I can’t wait to be a mom.”