UW softball commit Barrett leads SPSL 4A champ Rogers basketball into postseason

For the Rogers Rams girls basketball team, the current campaign is providing a redemptive chance. For one of their stars, Raigan Barrett, this season also is providing the opportunity for a last hurrah on the basketball court.

As a group, the Rams still have a bad taste in their mouths from a first-round, overtime loss to Inglemoor at the Class 4A state tournament a year ago.

That loss has left these Rams feeling they have something to prove.

“We’re still a little bitter about losing our first game in the Tacoma Dome,” Barrett said. “This year we’re going to place. It feels different.”

For Barrett, this season always was going to be different.

As a senior, Barrett likely is playing her final games in a basketball uniform. That’s because she made the decision to eschew college basketball for her ultimate dream - college softball.

Barrett is committed to play for Heather Tarr and the University of Washington beginning in the fall.

“My whole life, in my summers I was going everywhere (with softball),” Barrett said. “I knew I was going to have to choose at some point.”

From an early age, Barrett’s talent has shown itself on both the court and the diamond.

“When Reagan and Hailey Van Lith were in the seventh grade, we thought we’d put them with the eighth grade group,” said Bethel coach Tim Brown, who coached both Barrett and the Cashmere High star in AAU basketball. “But when we saw them in action, we had to put them on the top AAU team.”

Van Lith chose basketball, committing to Louisville.

For Barrett, it’s always been softball.

“That was just her love,” Looker said. “I think for a while, she considered both. But it was just a matter of when would softball come calling.”

Softball did come calling, in a big way. Which likely was inevitable.

Both Barrett’s mother and aunt, after all, played the game. Barrett’s mother, Traci Barrett, is now the softball coach at Pacific Lutheran University. Her aunt, well, is her current basketball coach, who played at Rogers when she was Amy Clancy before marrying high school sweetheart Dane Looker.

The Lookers returned to the area nearly 10 years ago.

“The coach at that time was going on maternity leave, so they called me,” Looker said. “I told them I’d give them one year.”

That was nine seasons ago.

Now, Looker’s program has become one of the best in the 4A SPSL. And it’s a team with high aspirations for the coming weeks.

“We have big dreams,” Barrett said.

They are dreams borne of the disappointment of a year ago when Rogers got to the Dome and thought they had a first-round win happening against Inglemoor, only to have things devolve into a 65-54 overtime defeat.

“That was the biggest disappointment of my entire life,” Rogers guard Jasmine Lilly said. “We know we can get further than what we did last year. We’ll be where we are supposed to be.”

How the Rams, who won the 4A SPSL this season, get there is no big secret.

“We just all play really well together,” Lilly said.

Rogers went through league play virtually unscathed, the only blemish coming in a loss to Bellarmine Prep on Jan. 31.

“This team is very fast and very athletic,” Looker said. “This group was left hungry when they lost in OT last year, to prove how good they can be.”

And for Barrett, it’s a chance to enjoy this final basketball ride before she makes her future dreams come true.

“Basketball is so fun for me,” Barrett said. “I am cherishing every moment I get to play this game.”

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 6:00 AM.