An unexpected journey

Barrett Herring sat in coach Mike Chase’s office, and he laid out her future.

Chase, the head girls basketball coach at Spain Park High School, told Herring — a freshman at the time — that she would eventually sign a scholarship to become a Division 1 basketball player. 

Herring laughed. Maybe, if she was lucky, she would be able to play at the Division 2 or Division 3 level.

After all, Herring rarely saw the floor as a player at Berry Middle School in seventh or eighth grade. She struggled to catch the ball and admittedly was completely unable to dribble with her left hand. 

“Coach Chase, I don’t know how, but he believed in me,” said Herring, now a 6-foot-3 senior forward. “I kept pushing, kept pushing, kept pushing, and then I just worked hard to this point.”

She’s referring to the moment she signed to play at the University of South Carolina Upstate. Through several years of hard work, she had transformed herself from a fledgling player struggling to make her mark to one capable of earning that Division 1 scholarship.

She made the call to inform USC Upstate of her commitment in Chase’s office, the same place he had told her just over three years prior that this day would come.

“It’s crazy,” Herring said. “I’m so excited.”

After her two years of school ball at Berry, it would have been easy for Herring to give up on the sport. But Herring is a self-proclaimed perfectionist, and that wasn’t an option.

“If I’m not good at something, I’m going to work and work and work until I get to the point [I want to be],” she said.

The first step for her was to simply see the floor. She moved up to the varsity squad as a sophomore and carved out a starting role during her junior season, when the Lady Jags advanced all the way to the Class 7A state championship game.

“I’ve always been pushing myself to get better, and I just love this sport so much,” Herring said. “I never want to quit.”

In her senior season, Herring is aiming high personally and collectively. As part of the team, she hopes to help Spain Park back to the Final Four. She realizes that she plays a big role in whether or not that happens.

“I started realizing, when I have bad games, we all don’t play well. If I’m not on my game, that’s bad for the team,” she said.

Her role with the Lady Jags is to be a force under the basket, as a rebounder most often but with the ability to score when needed. As far as what she’s trying to improve on as her high school career comes to a conclusion, she wants to continue to expand her game along with solidifying the skills she’s already formed.

“I always have stuff to improve on,” Herring said. “I’ve got to work on being strong when I drive. I’ve got to work on shooting different shots that I don’t normally shoot. I’ve got to work on perfecting those things so that I’ll be ready for the college level.”

Chase lauds Herring’s perseverance, and already takes every chance he gets to use her story as an example for the younger players that will soon rise through his program.

“She’s set up to have a great senior year and the sky’s the limit for what she’s going to become,” Chase said. “I think her best basketball is ahead of her.”

Herring’s journey was unexpected, but it’s taught her something that will stick with her forever.

“Hard work pays off,” she said. “If you work hard for what you want, then you can get it.”