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Sarah Ashlee Barker became the third member of her family to play athletics at the University of Alabama but stepped out of their shadows with her successful three-year career. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

The loss of Barker's "Nonie" to COVID-19 in 2021 led her down a journey that strengthened her faith and brought her back to her home state. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

Pictured here on her senior day, Sarah Ashlee Barker has overcome injuries and personal challenges with her hard-working nature and deep faith, going from Miss Basketball at Spain Park to creating her own legacy at Alabama leading its women’s basketball renaissance. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

Standing underneath the basket at Coleman Coliseum on Sunday, Feb. 23, Sarah Ashlee Barker locked arms with her parents Jay and Amy staring down the end of a journey.

It was a journey that took her from basketball courts around the Hoover area and Spain Park High School to Athens, Georgia and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. One that went from the exhilarating highs of state championship buzzer-beaters and the NCAA Tournament to the crushing lows of deep physical and emotional pain.

Through it all though, Barker has remained the same, working for everything she has while trusting in someone greater than herself to guide her along the way.

“I just know that whatever God has for my life, that’s how my story is going to be written and I’m not writing it. God is,” Barker said. “The only thing that I can control is how hard I work and how much effort I put into the game, but I can’t control you know the wins and the losses. Because it’s not my story to write, it’s His, and it’s already been written.”

One of the boys

Barker’s love for the game started at a young age, but she almost turned the game away. When her mother asked her twin brother Harrison and her if they wanted to sign up for 6-year-old YMCA basketball, she declined.

It only took watching one practice to change her mind.

“We went to his first practice, he started running around, he was dribbling the basketball, and I looked at my mom and I was like, ‘Wait, I actually want to play,’” Barker said.

Not only did she want to play the same sport as Harrison, she wanted to play with him. From then until sixth grade, the Barker twins played together as Sarah Ashlee honed her skills by playing against boys, not girls. She quickly became one of the best players and caught the eye of everyone watching.

One of those people told then-Spain Park head girls basketball coach Mike Chase about her talent. He almost missed her though simply because he looked in the wrong place.

“They were telling me about this Barker kid and so I was going to all these rec games trying to find her and I couldn’t find her and finally got in touch with somebody and they were like, ‘Well, coach, you’re not finding her because she doesn’t play with girls,’ and I was like, ‘OK, well, where does she play?’ ‘Well, she’s got a twin brother and she plays in the boys rec league,’” Chase recalled. “So then I went to a boys practice and there’s all these boys practicing in the gym and then there’s just one girl over there playing, and sure enough, that was her, so that was my first introduction to her.”

Playing with boys wasn’t anything new to Barker. She grew up with two older brothers in addition to her twin brother, and two of them went on to play football, Braxton at Spain Park and Alabama and Harrison for the Jags and UAB.

Her brothers viewed her as their equal and didn’t go easy on her. They would dunk on her in basketball or truck her during full-contact tackle football.

However, she didn’t want it any other way back then. Now, she’s grateful for the tough love because it made her into the tough player and person she is now.

“That’s kind of where my toughness comes from is because they’d dunk on me, they blocked my shots, like nothing came easy,” Barker said. “They didn’t care that I was a girl. They were like, ‘You’re one of us pretty much. If you’re going to come out here and play with us, we’re going to play you fair and square.’”

That toughness from playing against boys for most of her childhood prepared her for when she made the switch to girls basketball in seventh grade. She dominated at Berry Middle School as a seventh grader and on the AAU circuit as part of Chase’s team, putting her in line to play varsity basketball as an eighth-grader.

Chase said her background playing co-ed sports played a key role in her early success with the Jags.

“I think that’s probably a big reason why she was so aggressive, so athletic, so fundamental was because she spent her whole life playing sports against her brothers and her brothers’ friends and rarely played against girls, so once she got into the scenario where she was actually playing against girls, it was pretty easy,” Chase said.

From crutches to championships

However, the next year was anything but easy.

Barker eventually became a three-sport athlete by her eighth-grade year in 2015, and during volleyball season, she developed chronic knee pain. Scans indicated it was osteochondritis dissecans, or OCD, and required surgery.

Two months later, they learned that the minor surgery she opted for failed and a four-hour major surgery was required. The procedure sidelined her for the rest of her eighth-grade year, just when she was set to make her varsity debut.

She worked with Chase to rehab the knee the entire year and get back to game shape after six months on crutches. Barker said his confidence in her abilities along with her family’s belief and encouragement helped her trust in herself again.

“(Chase) always told me, ‘You’re going to be this great player, you’ve just got to keep working hard,’” Barker said. “Then eventually, when I got to freshman year, he just was like, ‘I want you to shoot these shots. You don’t understand how good you are.’”

Following a long and arduous recovery, everything started clicking at the end of her freshman year and everyone started realizing how good she was.

That was when she burst onto the scene by hitting the game-tying 3-pointer in the Class 7A state championship against cross-town rival Hoover to force overtime. While she came up short there, she returned to the finals a year later and won the state title as a sophomore.

Barker went on to earn more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds over the course of her career, highlighted by a standout senior season in 2019-20. She averaged 23.2 points and 9.9 rebounds per game while guiding the Jags to a 32-4 record and her second 7A state title.

As a result, she swept every major award in the state, including Shelby County Player of the Year, Class 7A Player of the Year, Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year and Miss Basketball, becoming the first player in program history to win the latter award.

That success led her to the University of Georgia, where more success and adversity would find her.

Support through struggle

Barker went to Georgia to play for then-coach Jodi Taylor after the two developed a special relationship over her two-year recruitment. When she arrived in Athens, she had to quickly adapt to the college game and learn from veteran leaders like Maya Caldwell and Mikayla Coombs.

“I had to accept that I was going from playing 35 minutes in high school to only playing 15 minutes in college my freshman year, and it was one of those reality check things,” Barker said. “It’s one of the most humbling experiences as a freshman. You’ve got to sit there and wait your turn, but that’s the part of growing and that’s the part of the game of basketball that’s just so neat and so fun just to see where I was my freshman year and where I am now.”

While she grew as a basketball player and became a regular starter for the Bulldogs by her sophomore year, she grew even more as a person.

Back home in Hoover, Barker’s family went through a difficult stretch, but nothing hit harder for her than losing her grandmother on her mother’s side, her “Nonie,” after she died from COVID-19.

The loss of Barker’s “Nonie” to COVID-19 in 2021 led her down a journey that strengthened her faith and brought her back to her home state. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

Barker said it was hard for her to focus on basketball in Georgia when her grandmother was in the hospital.

“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty down bad,” Barker said. “It was hard, and I think having to focus on basketball and also focusing on someone that just died in my family was one of those struggles that I had to go through, but I was in the exact place that I needed to be.”

That’s because Barker had Taylor to lean on. Their relationship always went deeper than basketball, and Taylor provided crucial support to Barker during the grieving process. The trust that they developed during the two years of recruiting and two years at Georgia allowed them to be honest with one another.

“All my former players are like daughters to me,” Taylor said. “SA is someone who is very near and dear to my heart. We’ve always been able to speak honest truth to each other. I think she knows that there is an unwavering belief in who she is, and so I want to have honest communications with people, and she’s someone who we’ve always just been able to have that and she trusts what it is that I say, whether she wants to hear it or not.

“When you go through things like that with people, and there’s a love and there’s a trust there, then the resolve and the fortitude that that relationship brings about is hard to shake.”

Barker is grateful that she went to Georgia and had Taylor to lean on during the most difficult season of her life and credits it to God’s provision.

“She is one of the best people I’ve ever been around,” Barker said. “She helped me get through all the things that I had to go through my freshman year and honestly, I know for a fact that God had me there not for just basketball. He had me there to be around my head coach and her help me get through what I was going through because she’s just been one of the best mentors in my life and one of the best people that has helped me through just difficult times.”

Coming back home

However, Taylor and Barker would not always be in the same city.

After Barker’s sophomore season in 2021-22, Taylor accepted the head coaching job at Texas A&M. That left Barker with a choice: follow her to College Station or forge her own path.

Barker had a previous relationship with Alabama head coach Kristi Curry from her recruitment, and she felt the call to go back to her home state and be close to her family as they worked through a difficult season.

“I knew they were going to push me and want what’s best for me on and off the floor, and then obviously from a mental standpoint like I needed to come home to be able to heal and process losing somebody in my life, and then obviously too I had some other family things that happened,” Barker said.

When Barker went over to Taylor’s house to tell her of her decision, her coach already knew that she needed to be at Alabama to heal with her family and get closer to God. Taylor knew that Barker would not thrive on or off the court at Texas A&M and fully supported her decision.

“SA is someone who is extremely close to her family,” Taylor said. “I did not think she would be successful here being so far removed from her family and them not being able to see her play and her not being able to get in the car and just drive home as she needed to. She obviously in addition to just being close to her family had just lost her Nonie, her grandmother, and so that was something else that I knew was important for her to be able to get back-and-forth to Birmingham. So to ask her or to put pressure on her to follow us here wasn’t fair, number one, and number two, it wasn’t the right decision for her, and so it was always about trying to help her land in the best spot possible for her career but also in close proximity to where she could get home as needed to be around her family.”

Once Barker decided on joining the Tide, she did something unconventional–she called Alabama coach Kristi Curry on FaceTime from Taylor’s house. She knew that she needed Taylor’s help in breaking the news, but Curry knew she needed Taylor for more than that.

Taylor and Curry have a long-standing friendship stemming from Taylor playing for the Tide and the pair coaching against one another in the SEC for many years. That relationship provided a bed of trust when Curry did something even more unconventional herself–she asked Taylor to continue their relationship because she couldn’t, and didn’t, want to replace that bond.

For Taylor, that request was unheard of, especially in the transfer portal era and the heightened paranoia of tampering it brought. However, it was one she was more than comfortable making an exception to fulfill.

“You don’t find that often in this business, number one, and number two, I don’t like to be a coach who whether it’s a kid who’s left us to go somewhere else in the transfer portal, I don’t think you should still communicate with players, not because there’s any anger or any tension, but just because they need to move on and they need to have a healthy relationship in a place that they’re in,” Taylor said. “SA and I have a different connection in that way, but I think Kristy Curry is the one who said, ‘She needs you in her life, and I’m OK with you guys having a relationship. In fact, I need you to continue to have a relationship with her.’”

Even though it’s been three years since they went their separate ways, Taylor and Barker continue to have a deep relationship. Curry leans on Taylor’s experience to learn the best way of coaching and communicating with Barker to help her on and off the court.

Her most significant growth came from a different source though.

After losing her grandmother, Barker struggled in her Christian faith and hit one of the lowest points in her life as she wrestled with why God took such an important person away from her life when He did.

“I’m not going to lie, I did kind of run from God a little bit when all that stuff was happening and it took me to kind of hit rock bottom for me to come back and be like, ‘No, I need God,’” Barker said. “And it wasn’t that I didn’t trust in His plan. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust what he was doing. It was just more of like I just was upset and mad honestly, and instead of opening the Bible and getting in the word and getting His hope and peace and faithfulness through scripture, I just kind of didn’t open my Bible some days and wasn’t going to church as much.”

Barker talked with her mother Amy after she transferred and wanted to be more active in her faith. She wanted to attend church more regularly and getting back into a Bible study group so she could build a faith that would get her through the season of grief.

Now, she believes she is stronger in her faith than ever before. She traces most of her growth since her grandmother’s death to being more active in her relationship with God.

Barker hopes to use her platform at Alabama to point others to Christ through her experiences and show others that if He can rescue her from rock bottom, He can do the same for anyone.

“That’s kind of how I’ve grown as a person is just continuously reminding myself and staying in the Word when things do get hard and trying to just be a light for others and showing that we’re not perfect and it’s OK,” Barker said. “It’s OK to have life things happen. It’s OK to make mistakes, but that’s the great thing about Jesus is He came and paid a price for all, that He’s the one who’s doing everything for us and has a perfect plan for us.”

Sarah Ashlee Barker became the third member of her family to play athletics at the University of Alabama but stepped out of their shadows with her successful three-year career. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

Blazing her own trail

That perfect plan took her back to the place where she didn’t want to go to begin with.

Barker is far from the first of her name to suit up for the Crimson Tide. Her father Jay Barker played quarterback for Alabama and led the team to the 1992 national championship.

Sarah Ashlee was worried that she would be in her father’s shadow if she went to Alabama, so she instead followed her heart and went to Georgia to play for Taylor and make a name for herself.

“The reason I went to Georgia was cause I wanted to create a legacy for myself and be known as Sarah Ashlee Barker in women’s basketball, not Jay Barker’s daughter at Alabama, and that’s nothing toward my dad, cause he completely agreed with me,” Barker said. “He completely loved my decision and he completely trusted that that was the plan that God had for my life.”

However, everything eventually came full circle and she continued her family legacy by playing for Alabama. Her fears did not come true though as she has done more than enough to establish her own name into Crimson Tide lore.

After becoming a regular starter as a junior in 2022-23, she burst onto the scene in her senior year, going from an average of 6.9 points per game to 16.8 points. She led Alabama in scoring for 19 of its 34 games and secured a First Team All-SEC selection in the process.

That dominance only continued during the 2024-25 season. While a midseason ankle injury sidelined her for five games, she averaged 17.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 50.7 percent from the field to repeat as a First Team All-SEC pick.

More importantly to her though, she helped the Tide reach their third-straight NCAA Tournament and fourth in the last five years.

“I think that we’re taking Alabama women’s basketball where it used to be, and I’m very lucky that I’m a part of that legacy and a part of that journey, and I’m very blessed that God has placed me here and that’s part of my story,” Barker said.

While she has been the leading scorer and face of Alabama the past two seasons, she is quick to share the credit with everybody around the program.

“We did this thing as a team,” Barker said. “It’s not an ‘I’ thing. It’s the coaches, it’s the players, it’s the people who support us. All of us did this and created this legacy and got Alabama women’s basketball back to the top. It’s not about what I have done or the points that I’ve scored. It’s about a ‘we,’ that we did it together.”

That humility and selflessness points back to what those around her have always seen in her. The same values of hard work, gratitude and faith that her parents instilled in her from a young age are still present even as she is the face of women’s basketball in Alabama.

While Chase is now the head coach at Orange Beach, Barker still gives back to her longtime coach. He had a situation very similar to Barker’s happen this past season when eighth-grade guard Allie Roach tore her ACL, and Barker came down to meet with her and start a relationship that still goes on through texts and meet-ups in Tuscaloosa.

Chase also sees Barker make the rounds after games to meet fans and take photos even after bad games. He said how she acts in those interactions is indicative of the quality person that she is.

“She understands who she is and what she represents and then she takes the time to do it, like she lives it,” Chase said. “She could have a crappy game, she could not shoot well and all that stuff, but then when the game is over, she is still going to put a smile on her face and she still going to run through the arena and she’s going to take pictures with everybody and make everybody’s day.”

Chase eventually learned that Curry felt the same way when she embraced him with a hug at a coaching clinic in Orange Beach.

“She said, ‘I’ve coached my whole life. I’ve coached Final Fours, I’ve coached WNBA players. There is not a better leader that I’ve ever coached in my entire career than Sarah Ashlee Barker,’” Chase recalled. “You have somebody that’s been in the college game as long as she has give that type of praise to that kid, that says it all.”

Barker hopes to one day be in a position where she can give back to the next generation of female basketball players, including in her hometown of Hoover, which she credits for starting her journey.

But now, much like that moment in Coleman Coliseum on senior day, she stands near the end of the road for her college basketball journey.

She has her eyes set on one shining moment–closing her college basketball career with a national championship. After taking the next step and getting to the second round, her goal is to make it to the Sweet 16, which happens to be in her hometown of Birmingham, and beyond.

Doing that not only helps satisfy her desire to be the best but also to get a bigger platform to influence others.

“I’m really never satisfied when it comes to just winning one thing,” Barker said. “I want to keep winning and I want to keep being able to speak the name of Jesus and be able to represent from a high level of why I do it, and it’s not because of me, it’s because of Him.”

Deep down, Barker is the same player that she was when she stepped onto the court at the local YMCA–playing for the love of the game and motivated to work to be the best, no matter who was on the other end of the floor.

Ultimately, that’s the legacy that she hopes to leave as the story of her life continues beyond basketball.

“I’m someone who’s going to work hard no matter what the score is,” Barker said. “I’m going to work hard no matter the opponent. I’m going to do the little things, like it’s not just about scoring to me. It’s about playing the game of basketball the right way and playing defense, but also being a good teammate and being a good friend and a good person because basketball doesn’t last forever, so I want kids to just remember me as somebody who always gives the Lord the glory and someone who just has a smile on their face having fun playing the game of basketball that she loves so much.”

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