Basketball, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Kyrie Irving
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Throwing my first no-hitter and being able to travel with my baseball team.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Getting thrown into the scorer’s table during a basketball game by an opposing player.
Music on Playlist: Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala, Fleet Foxes, and Drake.
Future plans: Attend Ursinus College and pursue a degree in Political Science.
Words to live by: “Don’t put off what can be done now.”
One goal before turning 30: Have the opportunity to play sports on a professional level.
One thing people don’t know about me: I took my first steps at CB South.
By GORDON GLANTZ
According to the general consensus, most people can remember bits and pieces of their lives from as early as the ages of 3 to 4.
Clearly, Central Bucks South senior Brett Barrett is not most people.
The standout two-sport athlete and stellar student has more like the memory of an elephant.
Exhibit A: He was not yet the age of 4 in 2008 when he could rattle off the lineup of the Philadelphia Phillies that won the World Series.
“Growing up, I knew everybody on that 2008 Phillies’ team,” said Barrett, a diehard fan of all Philadelphia pro teams who was at the NFC championship game on Sunday to cheer on the Eagles. “You have guys like Roy Halladay, who is still one of my all-time favorite pitchers ever. You have guys who are still on social media today, like Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and guys like that. For me, it’s about my childhood. They will always be that team for me.
“I was 3 years old, but I knew every player. Right after their World Series, I was just about to turn 4.”
Exhibit B: On a more personal level, Barrett remembers taking his first steps as human were right on the Warrington campus of Central Bucks South, which was established in 2004.
“My mom (Taryn Barrett) is the guidance counselor at CB South,” said Barrett. “I was always there. It is crazy to think that my high school has been in my life for so long.
“For some kids, it is only three or four years. For me, it been forever. It’s going to be really sad to see my high school career come to an end. I know it has to be, though. It’s not just for me, but for everyone else. I love my school.”
A Coach’s Dream
If a high school coach could go into a laboratory and produce the ideal player, it would likely be Brett Barrett.
CB South basketball coach Louie Ditri and baseball coach Kevin Bray can both attest to that.
“He is a high character guy,” said Bray. “That’s something that we look for with all of the kids in our program. He showed that very early.
“He was a varsity sophomore for us, and he pitched really well, so he was able to get his feet wet at the varsity level. That has helped his development, both on the basketball court and the baseball field.”
For the basketball team, Barrett serves as a captain and he earned this stripes by leading offseason workouts and helping to change the culture.
“He leads by example,” said Ditri, now in his third season as head coach after 18 as an assistant. “He’ll say a few words, but he mostly leads by his actions. He works his tail off. The others kids see it. They see that, if he is going to work his tail off at both ends of the court, they are going to follow suit.”
In a coach-player dynamic, Barrett checks all the boxes.
“He is one of the most absolutely polite players I have ever coached,” said Ditri. “It’s always, ‘Yes, coach’ and ‘No, coach’ and ‘You got it, coach.’ I wish all of the kids were like this. He is an exceptionally polite kid.”
Climbing the Ladder
While baseball may have come easier to Barrett as it is in his DNA (his father, Richie, was drafted out of Ursinus and played in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization), he has worked hard to make himself into a strong basketball player.
The Titans have enjoyed a turnaround season in 2024-25, just having had a school-record 15-game winning streak snapped by North Penn, and Barrett has been right in the thick of the about-face.
“It was an unfortunate loss, but we’ll be back,” said Barrett, who had a career-best 20 points in a win over North Penn earlier in the season. “The previous school record was originally set by the team with my uncle, Will Barrett, who went on to play basketball at Princeton.”
Barrett’s per-game stat line – 12 points, 6 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1 steal – show an all-round player who also often draws the assignment of guarding one of the top weapons on the opposition.
“He has been one of our top performers,” said Ditri. “He is a baseball player, too. He is juggling baseball with it, too, which is impressive.”
In many ways, Barrett has been a late bloomer on the hardwood.
“He is really coming on strong,” said Ditri. “Me, being selfish, I think he is the best player in our conference. That’s how good of a season he is having.”
For Barrett, getting to where he is now has been a rewarding journey.
“Growing up, I was always the best player on both my baseball and basketball teams,” he said. “When you get to high school, though, it’s like on a whole different level, whether it’s the kids being bigger than you or faster
than you.
“In the end, my development over the last few years, from freshman year until now, has been great at basketball. I always kind of had the baseball skills, especially as a pitcher getting to play and getting varsity innings early on, but it was a bit of a different path with basketball.”
That path saw the 6-2 ½ swingman work his way up to not being a full-time varsity starter until this season.
“I was fine with that,” he said. “Coming into this season, we needed some guys to step up. We didn’t have a great season last year. I see this as being a last opportunity to show myself, and my last opportunity to play with all these guys who I have played with my whole life.
“I took that as a challenge over the last 8-10 months. It was just getting shots up, getting faster and getting stronger. It has been paying off for me.”
As he has improved, so have the fortunes of the Titans.
“The kidssare playing well,” said Ditri. “It’s good, because we struggled a little bit last year and the younger players – some of them are seniors – have stepped up and are really playing well.”
Homecoming Dance
Just like Central Bucks South is in Barrett’s blood, so is Ursinus.
“It feels like home to me,” he said. “My parents went there. Just on my mom’s side of the family, I have like eight or nine relatives who went there. My grandparents from my mom’s side even went there.”
Ursinus seemed like the natural choice, especially since he would likely have the chance to pitch and be a
position player for head coach Kyle Lindsay.
“Early on, as a freshman, I got a lot of Division I looks as a pitcher,” said Barrett. “Ultimately, nothing really worked out. I got some Division II attention for just pitching, but I realized that it was the only thing they would ever have me doing at those levels.
“When I got the opportunity to play at Ursinus, I knew I would probably be able to play infield and pitch. I just figured that it would be a great opportunity.”
While his father played baseball and basketball at Ursinus, that possibility in this era of specialization is unclear.
“I mean, I’m already doing it now,” said Barrett. “If I were given the opportunity, I would love to be able to do it.
“I love both basketball and baseball equally. Thinking of the possibility of this maybe being my last season of basketball is just super hard for me to think about. I don’t want to think about it now.
“If I were given the opportunity to play – or even be on the team – at Ursinus, I would definitely take it. Hopefully, I’ll get that opportunity. I would love to do it.”
First and foremost though, Barrett will be in Collegeville to continue his education. He plans to major in political science.
“I’ve always seen myself as someone who is pretty social, who can have a nice conversation with you and who can relate to you on a personal level,” said Barrett. “For me, going into political science – maybe something with government – is probably the direction I’m going in.
“Who knows though when I get to Ursinus. There is really no one subject that I am interested in. I like it all. There’s not one thing that I’m stuck on, but the one thing I keep coming back to is a government job –like the FBI or the CIA.
“We will see where that career path takes me, but nothing is for certain, especially when you go to college.”
A House Call
Playing at Ursinus will also allow Barrett to be close to home and near to the immediate family that he thanks for all their love and support.
“First, I have to say it’s my parents,” he said. “They have always been there to support me in everything I do.
“My dad taught me all the sports that I love, and my mom has just made endless sacrifices to be there for me – a person, student and as an athlete.”
Barrett, who wanted to express gratitude to all his coaches and teammates over the years, also singled out his younger siblings, Brayden and Meredith.
“They have both had a tremendous effect on my life,” said Barrett.
Brayden is a freshman on the Titans’ JV basketball squad, and will likely be at that level for baseball season.
“My brother pushes me to be the best version of myself, each and every day,” said Barrett. “Even though he is my younger sibling, the bond we have is super special. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Meredith, meanwhile, is a 13-year-old who plays both basketball and lacrosse.
“My sister, just all-around, is an amazing person,” said Barrett. “She is a light I can look at in my life and understand that everything is going to be OK.”
Following the Blazed Trail
Before he trades in his athletic gear for a badge, Barrett would love to add to his resume “professional athlete,” even if it is for the proverbial cup of coffee in the minors or independent ball.
It would be something to tell his grandkids one day, and it would also be following the footsteps of his father, who played for the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2-3 years and then ended up playing independent baseball for the Camden Riversharks for another three years.
“Any opportunity at all, I’d take,” he said. “I’m not disregarding playing in an independent league or that I just want to be drafted. It would be an experience, if it did work out, to say that I tried it.
“It worked out for my dad a little bit. He went to Ursinus. Some people didn’t think he would get drafted out of Division III school, but his development over four years at Ursinus was tremendous. It really pushes me and inspires me to say ‘I want to play sports on a professional level.’ If it doesn’t end up working out that way, I know that I’ll spend the next four years trying to make sure that it does.”
On the Radar
Barrett was able to put himself on the radar for a school with the academic reputation of Ursinus with diligence in the classroom.
“I currently have like a 4.2 GPA,” said Barrett. “I have taken 7-8 AP classes, and mostly honors classes, through my high school career.
“I have always been on top of my academics. I have seen that it’s not something to fool around with. I want to learn.”
He has seen fellow students who don’t take the same approach and has made a conscience to choice to go his own way.
“Some kids, they want to just go to school to have fun, and I want to have fun, too, but I want to have fun by learning,” said Barrett. “I take my academics just as seriously as I take my sports.”
That is not to say that being a multi-sport athlete and student with high self-standards has been easy.
“It is hard, at some points,” said Barrett. “My junior year of high school was especially a killer. I was taking a lot of AP classes, so school was just really hard at that point. Plus, I was getting recruited, too. That can be a big process. There were a lot of things coming down at once, but I’m just super fortunate to be able to take AP classes at my high school.”
One benefit, he said, was that AP classes allowed the secretary of the school’s National Honor Society Chapter to get to know some other members of the student body.
“There are so many great kids who I wouldn’t have met without being able to take those classes,” said Barrett, who helps kids with special needs in the Titans Connect Club and volunteers at a Jamison Elementary School a few times per week as part of the Titan Teachers. “There were people who I could relate to on more than just an athletic level.”
