A standout prep school athlete, Paul Barren became involved in water polo while attending college at West Chester University. While swimming competitively for the West Chester swim team, he began to learn to play water polo with the school’s club team. After graduation, Barren played with the Philadelphia Water Polo Club, a team composed mostly of German and Hungarian ex-patriots. The level of play he encountered with the team piqued his interest in the sport and he began to pursue it with vigor.

While teaching math and serving as an assistant football coach at Lower Moreland High School in Huntington Valley, Pa. in the late 1960’s, Barren received permission from the school’s athletic department to start a water polo program. He coached the team for the next twenty years, taking his athletes on trips to Europe to compete in Germany and the Netherlands and compiling a record of 444-117-5

Barren began officiating collegiate water polo games in the early 1970’s for the newly formed Mid Atlantic Conference. He also officiated AAU games during the summer and earned national certification in 1973. As Barren’s stature in the officiating community grew, he was able to earn a FINA rating as an international referee in 1978.

For his contributions to the sport of water polo, Barren was elected to the National Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1995 and inducted at a ceremony in Seattle, Wash. in 1997.