By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Before Noah Barrett became perhaps the biggest hero of all heroes in the history of high school soccer championships in North Carolina, he had a painstaking path back to the field.
The Western Alamance senior didn’t know he would be the focal point of the greatest comeback in a state title game in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
It was far from that about 14 ½ months prior to November’s Class 3-A state final.
That’s when the Warriors were facing visiting Orange in a Central 3-A Conference game September 6, 2023.
“I heard a pop,” Barrett said. “When I went down, I knew something was wrong.”
It was his right knee, a torn anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus. There was surgery about a month later, approximately seven weeks on crutches and relying on younger siblings Hannah and Eli to help him with basic tasks.
“They took muscle from the quad to use as that ligament for my ACL,” he said. “And I lost so much leg muscle from lack of usage, so I had to build that back up over time.”
So there was time away from the team, watching some games online. He had been the Warriors’ top scorer with 22 goals in 2022.
“Sophomore year was kind of my breakout season and then junior year that happened,” Barrett said.
When he was able to attend games following surgery, he was stuck on the sideline.
“I think he grew a lot as a leader because he was on the sideline with me,” Warriors coach Camden Brooks said. “We were talking tactics or he’s hearing what I’m saying on the sideline.”
By then, he had begun the long process of returning to form.
“My leg is probably still not as strong as it was before, but getting it back to where I was comfortable playing on it was definitely difficult,” Barrett said.
When they were on the soccer field, his Western teammates only knew him as a dominant player. One they would always count on.
“He lost most of the muscle in his leg,” senior Cornell Boston said. “He was getting that shot back, getting his skills back.”
Barrett said he got a sense of real competition in middle school. He attributes his improvement upon arriving in high school stemming from playing alongside better players.
As a freshman, Barrett had been a member of Western’s 2021 state championship team. He started in his first game that season.
“I didn’t play great because I was very, very nervous,” he said.
But in Western’s first unorthodox path to a championship – one filled exclusively with road games until the neutral-site final – he scored during the Warriors’ 2-1 upset at top-seeded First Flight in the East Regional semifinal.
That Barrett, the son of Holly and Chris Barrett, had a knack to produce came as no surprise. It ran in the family.
His aunts – Meg Barrett and Jill Barrett – were high-scoring standouts on Western’s girls’ teams. He’s also a cousin to Boston.
Older cousin Aidan Boston had been senior on the 2021 team, wearing jersey No. 10. That’s why Barrett chose to don that number.
“His mentorship was huge in my growth in soccer,” he said. “My family is a big soccer family. Soccer runs through the family.”
The comeback – Part I
At times, the Warriors’ degree of success ran through Barrett.
Brooks realized that might be the case when the forward arrived to play as a freshman.
“He fought for a starting position on a team like that,” the coach said. “We knew he was kind of the future of the program. . . He’s the most talented just soccer player that I’ve coached here.”
That’s a pretty stout list the past several years.
Senior Blake Bacchus, the team’s defensive stalwart, had grown accustomed to Barrett’s work at the other end of the field.
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“We’ve been playing together for a very long time. I’ve been on his team for years,” Bacchus said. “He has always been a goal scorer. That’s just what he does.”
But for Barrett to maintain that during the 2024 season wouldn’t come automatically.
“We knew that wasn’t going to crush him,” Brooks said of the knee injury. “I knew he would get back quicker than whatever they were telling him.”
Barrett began summer workouts in late June, becoming medically cleared to play in July. He wore a brace for a few practices.
“That first five minutes of actually the real contact of playing soccer, I was so scared,” he said. “It definitely affected me mentally on the field. I’m definitely a lot more cautious with the tackles I do now.”
As the season began, he soon returned to form. He produced three goals in a pair of regular-season games and again against Dixon in the state playoffs.
He had rediscovered the knack for contributing in big ways. It was refreshing as well.
“The good thing was this year I had less pressure on me because the team was so good,” he said. “Able to be just a team player.”
Barrett also served as a kicker for Western Alamance’s football team. The Warriors had a second-round game in the state playoffs at faraway Havelock on the night before the school would play in the state soccer final.
He and teammate Camden Oliveira, also a football kicker, opted to stay home in advance of the soccer final.
Just do it – times three
But in the biggest game of Barrett’s life, the Warriors were wondering what hit them. They assembled in a Mecklenburg County Sportsplex locker room at halftime of the Class 3-A championship game on a chilly Saturday night.
They trailed Asheboro by 3-0. That’s not how Western drew it up.
“The whole time that game, it didn’t feel real,” Barrett said.
Stunned by how the first 40 minutes turned out, the Warriors needed answers – and quite a few of them.
They also had Barrett, who at 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds became the game’s most imposing player.
“I know he can do it,” Boston Cornell remembered thinking. “I was trying to get him pumped up in the locker room because he had his head down a little. . . Three goals, we have 40 minutes. We’re fine.”
He gave him a fist-bump.
Thirty-nine seconds into the second half, Barrett scored. Teammate Grant Bacchus posted the next goal about four minutes later, making it 3-2.
Yet as regulation reached the final minutes, the Warriors needed an equalizer to extend the game.
They had the player wearing the No. 10 jersey. He delivered with 3:01 to spare.
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By then, Western had all the momentum. Barrett had helped them get this far.
“I think that’s the best I’ve seen him play,” Blake Bacchus said. “We needed to win, and he took us there.”
Barrett’s overtime goal came 89 seconds into the extra session. The Warriors held on and became state champions again with a 4-3 victory.
Their senior forward had done the unimageable with his hat trick – all on unassisted goals.
“Even if I didn’t do that, the love I get is awesome,” Barrett said. “The people that support us, the fans. . . A dream come true. I put a lot of work in and I got a lot of help from people.”
There was the chaotic on-field celebration, with Barrett showered with adoration.
“It was like pure bliss,” he said. “Not a lot of thoughts going through the mind. Just trying to live the moment. It was kind of an out-of-body experience, to be honest. Probably the best soccer game I ever played in my life. Last high school game, state championship, it was pretty crazy. Not a lot of thinking going on.
“Started crying after we won because it was such a special moment. I love everybody on the team. All of us getting to experience that moment together, you can’t really describe that feeling. It’s one of those feelings that everybody wants to feel. You dream of feeling like that as a kid.”
Barrett scored 61 goals in his high school career, including 32 to go with 20 assists as a senior. The last three goals came on the biggest stage.
“He told me after the game: Last year I wasn’t able to play and now I scored three goals in the final,’” Cornell Boston said. “I said, ‘You’re the man. You’re a beast.’”
It’s a feat that might never be repeated under the circumstances the Warriors faced. It also might be the pinnacle of the 18-year-old’s soccer career.
“I’m slower now,” Barrett said, reflecting on the future. “College soccer is such a fast game.”
But he’ll always have that night when others believed in him and he returned the favor.
By the end, it seemed fitting.
“My journey was also embodied by how the game went. Down 3-0 and coming back and winning that game 4-3 was a good symbol of how my journey was – down and coming back and rising up,” he said. “I put a lot of work in, a lot of persevering.
“To come back and have that be my last high school game in a state championship, you can’t really write a script better. Score a hat trick, come back from down 3-0, make history like that. Not much better.”
