From captaining the women’s hockey team in the morning to stopping lacrosse shots at night, Samantha Barrett’s ‘25 time at Chatham University continues to keep her busy.
Barrett is a two-sport athlete playing for the women’s hockey and lacrosse teams, and while her role on the ice and field differs for each team, her leadership is her most impactful asset.
Barrett played in more than 100 games for the women’s hockey team and was named the captain for her senior year. This spring is her final time juggling her time on the ice with her time on the field.
While she played big minutes for the Cougars on defense, her leadership off the ice may be her most important role to the program.
“I think she leads in a nice way where she doesn’t really have to say anything, and she leads with her actions,” Kara Luby ‘25 said. “When people are lost, she is a good person to get them back on track.”
She had to find different ways, though, to help her lacrosse team. Barrett played lacrosse in high school but committed to Chatham to play hockey. She worked with the then-head coach of the lacrosse team to make scheduling work but did not play a single game in her first year on the lacrosse team.
Things changed in her sophomore season. Barrett was named the No. 1 goalie for the lacrosse team and started 11 of the team’s 14 games. The following year for Barrett didn’t go as planned as she was the backup goalie and started only one game for the Cougars. Instead, Meghan Cuza-Berry ‘27 started 17 of the 18 games in that 2023 season but credits her success to Barrett’s leadership and selflessness as a teammate.
“She is one of the best people I’ve ever been on a team with,” Cuza-Berry said. “She’s a quieter leader, but she plays a huge role. When she’s talking, you listen.”
This message is echoed by the women’s lacrosse head coach Morgan Comport, as well.
“Sam brings an uplifting, positive and hardworking spirit everyday, both on and off the field,” Comport said. “She is a player that puts her head down and works hard and never complains. She is very level-headed, and we sincerely appreciate her presence everyday on the field.”
Barrett could have quit the team or been a bad teammate following Cuza-Berry taking the starter position, but she wanted to find enjoyment in every moment of her time at Chatham.
“It’s a privilege to get to practice,” Barrett said. “I would say don’t take anything for granted because there’s a lot of people who don’t get to do it. And I think there’s going to be one day when you’re graduating and you are going to want more than anything to go back to even your worst practice ever.”
This focus on enjoying every day and bettering her teammates is even more remarkable due to her hectic sports schedule.
“With Sam being a dual athlete, she really never gets a break from college athletics,” Comport said. “I know this can be very challenging at times, both physically and mentally.”
Barrett hits the ice for captains practices and the field for fall ball each year in the second week of the fall semester. She does both of these at the same time until October, when her hockey season officially begins, and her lacrosse season begins the second her hockey season comes to a close.
When the women’s hockey team’s season ended in early March – following its loss in the playoffs at Nazareth College – Barrett didn’t have any time to reminisce on the conclusion of her 14-year hockey career.
Following that loss, the team’s bus returned to Pittsburgh after midnight. Barrett couldn’t spend any time hanging out with her fellow senior teammates, as by the time she stepped off the bus, she had six hours to leave the airport to join the women’s lacrosse team.
That quick adjustment isn’t easy for Barrett, but she does what she can to flip that mental switch from hockey season to lacrosse.
“It’s definitely something I got better with over time,” she said. “This year with it being like my last one, there definitely was more of a mental adjustment where I definitely was like, oh, I really would love some time to just like have a party.”
This commitment to her teammates is something that has made Barrett’s time at Chatham an impactful one.
“Her relentless hard work and positive attitude never goes unnoticed from a coach’s perspective,” Comport said. “ I can sincerely say our team would not be as successful as it is without her selfless contributions over the past four seasons.”
