{"id":570621,"date":"2026-04-07T22:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570621\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T22:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T22:45:11","slug":"spain-park-alum-sarah-ashlee-barker-heading-to-wnbas-portland-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570621\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Park alum Sarah Ashlee Barker heading to WNBA\u2019s Portland Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Barker was a standout player for the Alabama Crimson Tide, spending two seasons in Tuscaloosa and finishing the 2025 season by averaging 18.2 points per game, the most of anybody on coach Kristi Curry\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Barker came to Tuscaloosa after a pair of seasons at Georgia, opting to <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shelbycountyreporter.com\/sports\/former-spain-park-star-sarah-ashlee-barkers-faith-work-ethic-drive-alabamas-resurgence-627344\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">come to her home state<\/a> of Alabama to be closer to her family while playing for the team she grew up rooting for.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">A two-time <a data-wisiwig-link=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shelbycountyreporter.com\/sports\/spain-park-alum-alabama-star-sarah-ashlee-barker-named-to-second-straight-first-team-all-sec-625242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" class=\"text_$sec cursor_pointer transition-prop_color duration_$fast ease_east-out hover:text_$sec_D hover:duration_$fast hover:ease_east-out hover:transition-prop_color\">All-SEC First Team<\/a> selection, Barker was one of the most electric players in the entire country, ranking 10th in the SEC in scoring, eighth in assists and steals and seventh in field goal percentage. She averaged the most steals of any Alabama player with 2.0 per game and the second-most rebounds with 6.2 per game.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">She became just the fifth Alabama player to surpass 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 250 assists for her career. Barker and the Tide went on to reach the second round in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, setting a tournament record with 45 points in that loss.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">At Spain Park, she was a two-time state champion and ASWA State Player of the Year in Class 7A, she scored over 2,000 points and had over 1,000 rebounds in her career for the Jags.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">She finished her Spain Park career with a standout senior year where she helped the Jags earn a 32-4 record and their second state championship in three seasons by defeating crosstown rival Hoover, 47-44, in the state title game.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">Barker won Miss Basketball during that season and was also named the Gatorade Player of the Year and MaxPreps Player of the Year for the state of Alabama, the first in program history to earn each award. She also took home Class 7A Tournament MVP honors during that season.<\/p>\n<p data-wisiwig-body1=\"true\" class=\"txtStyle_body1 mb_$body1\">She was named Shelby County Player of the Year in 2019 and 2020 and earned First Team All-County honors in 2018, 2019 and 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barker was a standout player for the Alabama Crimson Tide, spending two seasons in Tuscaloosa and finishing the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[251560,402,91367,251558,251559,99,434],"class_list":["post-570621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-280-reporter","tag-basketball","tag-hoover","tag-spain-park","tag-spain-park-high-school","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}