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Fauquier’s 18 century scorer
Miceile Barrett started scoring field hockey goals as a Fauquier High freshman in 2008 and never stopped. Her 106 goals ranks third in state history. Coach Brooke Settle was on hand Jan. 6 when FHS retired Miceile's jersey. Times-Democrat Staff Photo/Randy Litzinger.
Miceile Barrett plans to play college field hockey, perhaps at Johns Hopkins, MIT or Yale where she’ll study pre-med.
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At the beginning of every field hockey season, for the past three seasons, Miceile Barrett contemplated exchanging her No. 18 jersey for one with different digits.
She stuck with No. 18 every time, though, and that’s why no Fauquier High field hockey player will ever wear that number again.
Fauquier retired Barrett’s number Jan. 6 during a ceremony in its gym between games of a basketball doubleheader.
“She deserves any accolades we can give her,” Fauquier activities director Allen Creasy said of the senior from Delaplane. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments we’ve had.”
In four seasons as a starting forward, Barrett scored 106 goals, which set the career goals record at Fauquier and made her one of the top scorers in the history of Virginia High School League field hockey. According to the VHSL Book of Records, Barrett finished just short of the 109 goals scored by Lakeland’s Kendell Combs, who ranks second all-time behind Kim Miller of Frank Cox (160 goals).
“One hundred goals wasn’t even on my radar until halfway through my senior season,” Barrett said. “I never expected any of this to ever happen.”
Barrett began wearing the No. 18 jersey at the beginning of her freshman season in 2008. It was an unwanted leftover.
That number was printed on an extra-large red jersey and came accompanied by an extra-large red skirt. It didn’t fit the fancy of any player when the Fauquier Falcons chose their jerseys during a preseason practice.
Barrett missed that practice. She instead attended a family wedding in Maine.
An unknown 5-foot-8 freshman at the time, Barrett got stuck with that big No. 18 jersey when she returned to Fauquier.
“I contemplated changing my number every year, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t.”
The ceremony
Barrett walked to center court of the Fauquier High gym on Jan. 6 followed by a group of about 25 friends and relatives.
Well over 100 people sat in the stands, many there for the girls and boys basketball doubleheader against rival Liberty. That was an unusually large audience for her.
During field hockey season, Barrett would have needed a pencil and paper to draw a crowd that large. In that gym, however, she drew widespread applause when it was announced that her number was being retired.
“It felt amazing,” Barrett said. “It was very exciting to have it done publicly….To have other people come up and say congratulations.”
Barrett signed and dated her No. 18 jersey that night, and it will soon hang in the gym lobby, which also serves as Fauquier High’s athletic Hall of Fame.
Barrett became the first Fauquier field hockey player to have a jersey retired. Previously, 2009 graduate Scott Biegert had his No. 2 boys lacrosse jersey retired, 1976 graduate Mike Budd had his No. 72 football jersey retired and 1984 graduate Marielle Walker had her No. 30 girls basketball jersey retired.
“It’s a huge honor,” Barrett said. “It was a great moment.”
Not only did she set the career scoring record with 106 goals, Barrett lapped previous record-holder Star Cope, who finished with 53.
“I don’t really see that ever being attained by anyone in the future,” Fauquier field hockey coach Brooke Settle said. “For her to pass the 100 mark, it’s pretty incredible.”
Fauquier also posted impressive numbers as a team during Barrett’s career. It amassed a 54-22 record from 2008-11, won three district regular season championships, won three district tournament championships, twice finished as region runner-up and twice qualified for state.
Barrett made the Group AA all-state first team as a junior and senior. She also earned the title of Region II Offensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior, and made both the all-region and all-district first teams in each of her four seasons.
All those accolades led to Creasy’s decision to retire her number.
Anna Peyton and Hailey Miller were among Barrett’s friends at the retirement ceremony.
“It’s really good that she gets recognized [for] these groundbreaking records and achievements,” Peyton said. “I’m just really proud of her for all she’s accomplished.”
The nerd
Barrett’s favorite TV show is “The Big Bang Theory.”
“I find it to be hilarious,” she said. “A bunch of nerds that get together and try to interact socially.”
In some ways, Barrett can relate. She holds a 4.25 GPA, has completed 13 advanced placement courses and finished 42 college credits as only a high school senior. She can solve the Rubik’s cube in fewer than three minutes and has done two research projects on the puzzle.
However, Barrett also has many interests outside academia. She comfortably carries a social umbrella much larger than any character on that TV show.
“She’s a big nerd,” Peyton said.
“But she’s like a cool nerd,” Miller said.
“She dresses fashion-forward, she’s smart, she’s hilarious,” Peyton said.
She dances, too.
In March of her junior year, Barrett performed a seven-minute solo “dance evolution” routine in front of a large crowd at the Fauquier High talent show. The 21-song soundtrack of samples included “Old Time Rock and Roll,” “Thriller,” “Teach Me How to Dougie” and “Walk it out.”
“I’m known as this nerd who just likes to play field hockey,” Barrett said. “I think it changed the way a lot of people viewed me. I think they look at me as a much more fun person.”
Barrett’s friends saw her in that light long before the talent show.
“Very energetic, really outgoing, really nice,” Miller said. “Just a really awesome person.”
“She’s the most polite person I’ve ever seen in my life,” Settle said. “She carries herself well. She doesn’t fall into the normal things high school kids will get into.”
Barrett’s dance routine was such a hit that she performed it again in front of 600 people at the Virginia Girls State seminar at Longwood University.
Her performances ended up on YouTube, so she started including web links to them when emailing college admissions offices and field hockey coaches during her application process.
“Just to get to know me,” she said. “They write back funny comments, and they seem to like it….I guess I’ll find out when they either accept or reject me.”
Barrett is also a designer — of dresses and rockets.
For Mountain Vista Governor’s School, she built rockets for the Team America Rocketry Challenge. For her Technology Students of America club at Fauquier, she came up with a bio-technology advanced dress.
Plus, Barrett has participated in five different sports at Fauquier — cheerleading, swimming (state qualifier, 2009-10), tennis (No. 2 singles player, 2009), track and field and field hockey.
“It’s funny to see how she’ll go out and be totally in your face and intense on the field and then she’ll go solve the Rubik’s cube,” said Miller, who was a field hockey co-captain with Barrett last season. “It’s really interesting how many different sides there are to her.”
Pure scorer
Barrett began her high school career as a freshman left midfielder during Fauquier’s first game of the 2008 season.
Midway through that game, Sarah Talomie, Fauquier’s coach at the time, moved her to left forward.
Barrett scored five goals.
“That pretty much sealed my position as forward on the left side for all four years,” she said.
Barrett went on to set Fauquier’s single-season scoring record with 23 goals as a freshman. Two seasons later, as a junior, Barrett scored 44 goals to break her own record. That number also ranks third all-time in VHSL state history for goals scored in a season. Kendell Combs of Lakeland scored 44 in 2010, too.
Midway through that season, Barrett also broke Cope’s career goals record of 53 at Fauquier.
“The one thing that makes her such a good goal scorer is…she’s really good about redirecting shots,” Settle said. “She gets a lot of goals quickly because she reacts.”
With many shots often taken from the right side of the field, Barrett was able to quickly redirect the ball into the goal from her left forward position, or she’d gather deflections for scoring opportunities.
“She’s very good at reading the defenses and puts herself in the spot where she needs to be,” Settle said. “That’s something you can’t really coach — that head sense. She’s a smart player.”
She’s a smart person, actually. In college, Barrett plans to major in mathematics, minor in philosophy and follow a pre-med path with the goal of going to medical school.
Despite finishing her high school field hockey career as one of the leading scorers in state history, Barrett didn’t receive any athletic scholarship offers from colleges. She’ll likely rely on academic scholarships instead.
Barrett said some universities, like Virginia, and William and Mary, don’t allow athletes to pursue a pre-med path because of the time commitment required. Others, like Ivy League schools, simply don’t offer athletic scholarships.
Barrett was recruited by 11 colleges, though. She has since narrowed her choices to Johns Hopkins University, MIT and Yale.
“I feel pretty decided on JHU,” Barrett said.
She is still waiting to find out if MIT and Yale have accepted her, but she plans to play field hockey wherever she ends up.
“Johns Hopkins, or whoever she goes to, is pretty lucky to have her,” Miller said.
Fauquier High's retired jerseys
2012 - Miceile Barrett - 18 - Field hockey
2009 - Scott Biegert - 2 - Boys lacrosse
1984 - Marielle Walker - 30 - Girls basketball
1976 - Mike Budd - 72 - Football
Fauquier’s career goal-scoring leaders
Miceile Barrett - 106
Star Cope - 53
Ellie Barrett - 38
Lindsay O’Bannon - 35
Barrett’s goals by year
2011 - 20
2010 - 44*
2009 - 19
2008 - 23
*single-season school record
Fauquier had a 54-22 record during Barrett’s four seasons
Year - Record - District - Region - State
2011 - 11-3 - Evergreen champ - II runner-up - AA/A quarterfinalist
2010 - 18-4 - Evergreen champ - II runner-up - AA/A semifinalist
2009 - 12-9 - Evergreen champ - II semifinalist - None
2008 - 13-6 - Cedar Run champ - Northwest quarters - None
Barrett's bio
-Family: Father Dan works at Computer Sciences Corporation; mother Denise is the CFO of Salesblade; bother Danny, 20, is a sophomore at West Virginia University and a Fauquier High graduate; sister Micensie, 13, attends Marshall Middle School; brother Joe, 10, attends Coleman Elementary School.
-Breaking 100: Barrett scored the 100th goal of her career Oct. 19 during a Fauquier win over Kettle Run, 3-2, that clinched the Evergreen District regular season championship. With 30 seconds remaining in the game, Barrett broke a 2-2 tie by scoring on a penalty stroke. “That was the first time I’d ever taken a stroke in a game. It was also for winning the district championship, and my 100th goal, and all my friends and family were there. All of it built up and made it such a memorable moment.”
-Favorite athlete: “I really like watching tennis on T.V., and Rodger Feeder is an all-time favorite of mine. He used to be a gymnast, and I used to, so I thought I could relate to him….Field hockey isn’t broadcast nationally.”
-Favorite place to vacation: Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort. “I love skiing. That’s the absolute best place that I’ve been.”
-Favorite restaurant: Panera Bread. “By far. I just love their sandwiches. I go there so many times during the week it’s embarrassing.”
-Favorite movie: Saving Private Ryan. “It was really good and I love matt Damon.”
-Favorite music artists: Journey, Eminem and Luke Bryan.
Follow Jeff on Twitter.
She stuck with No. 18 every time, though, and that’s why no Fauquier High field hockey player will ever wear that number again.
Fauquier retired Barrett’s number Jan. 6 during a ceremony in its gym between games of a basketball doubleheader.
“She deserves any accolades we can give her,” Fauquier activities director Allen Creasy said of the senior from Delaplane. “This is one of the biggest accomplishments we’ve had.”
In four seasons as a starting forward, Barrett scored 106 goals, which set the career goals record at Fauquier and made her one of the top scorers in the history of Virginia High School League field hockey. According to the VHSL Book of Records, Barrett finished just short of the 109 goals scored by Lakeland’s Kendell Combs, who ranks second all-time behind Kim Miller of Frank Cox (160 goals).
“One hundred goals wasn’t even on my radar until halfway through my senior season,” Barrett said. “I never expected any of this to ever happen.”
Barrett began wearing the No. 18 jersey at the beginning of her freshman season in 2008. It was an unwanted leftover.
That number was printed on an extra-large red jersey and came accompanied by an extra-large red skirt. It didn’t fit the fancy of any player when the Fauquier Falcons chose their jerseys during a preseason practice.
Barrett missed that practice. She instead attended a family wedding in Maine.
An unknown 5-foot-8 freshman at the time, Barrett got stuck with that big No. 18 jersey when she returned to Fauquier.
“I contemplated changing my number every year, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t.”
The ceremony
Barrett walked to center court of the Fauquier High gym on Jan. 6 followed by a group of about 25 friends and relatives.
Well over 100 people sat in the stands, many there for the girls and boys basketball doubleheader against rival Liberty. That was an unusually large audience for her.
During field hockey season, Barrett would have needed a pencil and paper to draw a crowd that large. In that gym, however, she drew widespread applause when it was announced that her number was being retired.
“It felt amazing,” Barrett said. “It was very exciting to have it done publicly….To have other people come up and say congratulations.”
Barrett signed and dated her No. 18 jersey that night, and it will soon hang in the gym lobby, which also serves as Fauquier High’s athletic Hall of Fame.
Barrett became the first Fauquier field hockey player to have a jersey retired. Previously, 2009 graduate Scott Biegert had his No. 2 boys lacrosse jersey retired, 1976 graduate Mike Budd had his No. 72 football jersey retired and 1984 graduate Marielle Walker had her No. 30 girls basketball jersey retired.
“It’s a huge honor,” Barrett said. “It was a great moment.”
Not only did she set the career scoring record with 106 goals, Barrett lapped previous record-holder Star Cope, who finished with 53.
“I don’t really see that ever being attained by anyone in the future,” Fauquier field hockey coach Brooke Settle said. “For her to pass the 100 mark, it’s pretty incredible.”
Fauquier also posted impressive numbers as a team during Barrett’s career. It amassed a 54-22 record from 2008-11, won three district regular season championships, won three district tournament championships, twice finished as region runner-up and twice qualified for state.
Barrett made the Group AA all-state first team as a junior and senior. She also earned the title of Region II Offensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior, and made both the all-region and all-district first teams in each of her four seasons.
All those accolades led to Creasy’s decision to retire her number.
Anna Peyton and Hailey Miller were among Barrett’s friends at the retirement ceremony.
“It’s really good that she gets recognized [for] these groundbreaking records and achievements,” Peyton said. “I’m just really proud of her for all she’s accomplished.”
The nerd
Barrett’s favorite TV show is “The Big Bang Theory.”
“I find it to be hilarious,” she said. “A bunch of nerds that get together and try to interact socially.”
In some ways, Barrett can relate. She holds a 4.25 GPA, has completed 13 advanced placement courses and finished 42 college credits as only a high school senior. She can solve the Rubik’s cube in fewer than three minutes and has done two research projects on the puzzle.
However, Barrett also has many interests outside academia. She comfortably carries a social umbrella much larger than any character on that TV show.
“She’s a big nerd,” Peyton said.
“But she’s like a cool nerd,” Miller said.
“She dresses fashion-forward, she’s smart, she’s hilarious,” Peyton said.
She dances, too.
In March of her junior year, Barrett performed a seven-minute solo “dance evolution” routine in front of a large crowd at the Fauquier High talent show. The 21-song soundtrack of samples included “Old Time Rock and Roll,” “Thriller,” “Teach Me How to Dougie” and “Walk it out.”
“I’m known as this nerd who just likes to play field hockey,” Barrett said. “I think it changed the way a lot of people viewed me. I think they look at me as a much more fun person.”
Barrett’s friends saw her in that light long before the talent show.
“Very energetic, really outgoing, really nice,” Miller said. “Just a really awesome person.”
“She’s the most polite person I’ve ever seen in my life,” Settle said. “She carries herself well. She doesn’t fall into the normal things high school kids will get into.”
Barrett’s dance routine was such a hit that she performed it again in front of 600 people at the Virginia Girls State seminar at Longwood University.
Her performances ended up on YouTube, so she started including web links to them when emailing college admissions offices and field hockey coaches during her application process.
“Just to get to know me,” she said. “They write back funny comments, and they seem to like it….I guess I’ll find out when they either accept or reject me.”
Barrett is also a designer — of dresses and rockets.
For Mountain Vista Governor’s School, she built rockets for the Team America Rocketry Challenge. For her Technology Students of America club at Fauquier, she came up with a bio-technology advanced dress.
Plus, Barrett has participated in five different sports at Fauquier — cheerleading, swimming (state qualifier, 2009-10), tennis (No. 2 singles player, 2009), track and field and field hockey.
“It’s funny to see how she’ll go out and be totally in your face and intense on the field and then she’ll go solve the Rubik’s cube,” said Miller, who was a field hockey co-captain with Barrett last season. “It’s really interesting how many different sides there are to her.”
Pure scorer
Barrett began her high school career as a freshman left midfielder during Fauquier’s first game of the 2008 season.
Midway through that game, Sarah Talomie, Fauquier’s coach at the time, moved her to left forward.
Barrett scored five goals.
“That pretty much sealed my position as forward on the left side for all four years,” she said.
Barrett went on to set Fauquier’s single-season scoring record with 23 goals as a freshman. Two seasons later, as a junior, Barrett scored 44 goals to break her own record. That number also ranks third all-time in VHSL state history for goals scored in a season. Kendell Combs of Lakeland scored 44 in 2010, too.
Midway through that season, Barrett also broke Cope’s career goals record of 53 at Fauquier.
“The one thing that makes her such a good goal scorer is…she’s really good about redirecting shots,” Settle said. “She gets a lot of goals quickly because she reacts.”
With many shots often taken from the right side of the field, Barrett was able to quickly redirect the ball into the goal from her left forward position, or she’d gather deflections for scoring opportunities.
“She’s very good at reading the defenses and puts herself in the spot where she needs to be,” Settle said. “That’s something you can’t really coach — that head sense. She’s a smart player.”
She’s a smart person, actually. In college, Barrett plans to major in mathematics, minor in philosophy and follow a pre-med path with the goal of going to medical school.
Despite finishing her high school field hockey career as one of the leading scorers in state history, Barrett didn’t receive any athletic scholarship offers from colleges. She’ll likely rely on academic scholarships instead.
Barrett said some universities, like Virginia, and William and Mary, don’t allow athletes to pursue a pre-med path because of the time commitment required. Others, like Ivy League schools, simply don’t offer athletic scholarships.
Barrett was recruited by 11 colleges, though. She has since narrowed her choices to Johns Hopkins University, MIT and Yale.
“I feel pretty decided on JHU,” Barrett said.
She is still waiting to find out if MIT and Yale have accepted her, but she plans to play field hockey wherever she ends up.
“Johns Hopkins, or whoever she goes to, is pretty lucky to have her,” Miller said.
Fauquier High's retired jerseys
2012 - Miceile Barrett - 18 - Field hockey
2009 - Scott Biegert - 2 - Boys lacrosse
1984 - Marielle Walker - 30 - Girls basketball
1976 - Mike Budd - 72 - Football
Fauquier’s career goal-scoring leaders
Miceile Barrett - 106
Star Cope - 53
Ellie Barrett - 38
Lindsay O’Bannon - 35
Barrett’s goals by year
2011 - 20
2010 - 44*
2009 - 19
2008 - 23
*single-season school record
Fauquier had a 54-22 record during Barrett’s four seasons
Year - Record - District - Region - State
2011 - 11-3 - Evergreen champ - II runner-up - AA/A quarterfinalist
2010 - 18-4 - Evergreen champ - II runner-up - AA/A semifinalist
2009 - 12-9 - Evergreen champ - II semifinalist - None
2008 - 13-6 - Cedar Run champ - Northwest quarters - None
Barrett's bio
-Family: Father Dan works at Computer Sciences Corporation; mother Denise is the CFO of Salesblade; bother Danny, 20, is a sophomore at West Virginia University and a Fauquier High graduate; sister Micensie, 13, attends Marshall Middle School; brother Joe, 10, attends Coleman Elementary School.
-Breaking 100: Barrett scored the 100th goal of her career Oct. 19 during a Fauquier win over Kettle Run, 3-2, that clinched the Evergreen District regular season championship. With 30 seconds remaining in the game, Barrett broke a 2-2 tie by scoring on a penalty stroke. “That was the first time I’d ever taken a stroke in a game. It was also for winning the district championship, and my 100th goal, and all my friends and family were there. All of it built up and made it such a memorable moment.”
-Favorite athlete: “I really like watching tennis on T.V., and Rodger Feeder is an all-time favorite of mine. He used to be a gymnast, and I used to, so I thought I could relate to him….Field hockey isn’t broadcast nationally.”
-Favorite place to vacation: Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort. “I love skiing. That’s the absolute best place that I’ve been.”
-Favorite restaurant: Panera Bread. “By far. I just love their sandwiches. I go there so many times during the week it’s embarrassing.”
-Favorite movie: Saving Private Ryan. “It was really good and I love matt Damon.”
-Favorite music artists: Journey, Eminem and Luke Bryan.
Follow Jeff on Twitter.
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