Meet the Managers: Rachel Barber

STARKVILLE – On a summer day at a softball field in Atlanta, a father and his daughter were on the hunt for Samantha Ricketts.

Despite being surrounded by recruitable student-athletes, this father and daughter weren't looking for an athletic scholarship.

Rachel Barber had already made her college decision. Playing wasn't going to be part of her picture, but Mississippi State was going to be her home. Still, she was determined to find the Bulldog coach.

After her team's games had been rained out, Barber and her dad headed to a different ballpark where they knew Ricketts was supposed to be recruiting. The searched the park and were about to give up. But there at the front gate as they were leaving, the Barbers caught Ricketts exiting the ballpark.

"She was talking to someone at the gate, and my dad called me over so that is how I met her. I told her that I was interested in becoming a manager, and she talked with me and told me the basic overview of what a manager does," Barber said. "It all seemed exciting to me. I think she did think it was about recruiting instead of the manager position at first, but she seemed very welcoming. She was very kind to me, especially since I had kind of hunted her down."

And that is how a few months later Barber found herself running from class to Nusz Park on the Bulldogs' first day of fall practice. As a freshman Barber came in a little nervous and shy at first, but after some quick introductions she was immediately put to work moving buckets.

"Then I was off and running," Barber said.

Rachel Barber

Barber's primary role in the 2022 season was working with State's video tagging software. She was responsible for making sure all cameras are set up for home games and scrimmages and then uses a software program to record the type, location and outcome of every pitch for the coaching staff.

It was a role previously held by fellow manager Parker Gray, and Barber credited him with helping her pick it up quickly.

"He showed me step by step on how to do everything," she said. "He was always there if I had any questions, and that helped a lot. It took me maybe a month to get the hang of it and to start doing most of it all by myself."

Along the way she learned some of the detailed differences between her playing experience in high school and travel ball and the game at the Division I level. For example, she learned that a sacrifice fly could only be credited when a runner scored and not when they advanced to second or third on a fly out.

"Rachel has brought a tremendous amount of commitment, hard work and dedication to our program in her one year with us so far," Ricketts said. "She is intelligent, driven and serious about her academics as well as her duties to support the team."

Barber's biggest adjustment was learning her new head coach. Ricketts is one of the most-creative coaches in the country when it comes to utilizing her bench and making substitutions. In order to keep her video log accurately, Barber needed to make sure she understood every substitution and positional change Ricketts was making throughout the game without having the ability to go down to the dugout and ask.

"I started to get the hang of it after a while," she said. "I try to guess what she is going to do. Especially during the regional and super regional, by then I was correctly guessing what she would do."

Rachel Barber

Just in case she makes a mistake, Barber also keeps her own notes to herself on paper. She'll mark down, for example, that there was a questionable input on pitch No. 247. Throughout the season she'd use a different color pen. As she spent more time around a team that can be very superstitious, she picked up some of their habits. If the team won when she used her orange pen, then the very next day the orange pen would be back. But the if the Bulldogs lost, it was time to switch up her color palate.

"I know deep down it is not doing anything, but it is fun," she said. "It was fun to use a color to write down certain plays that happen during games, and then use the outcome of that game to determine if was going to use that color pen again."

In her pitch-charting role, Barber has worked closely with associate head coach Josh Johnson, tracking data and analytics.

"She wants to get even more involved this year on the data side of things," Johnson said. "I can see Rachel in multiple roles that will make her indispensable to us. I can't wait to work with her now that she's comfortable in our program."

For the sophomore engineering major it makes perfect sense, and she's started to discuss working in the athlete engineering department on campus with Johnson.

"I am really excited about that because I would love to be able to tie in engineering with sports as much as possible," she said. "Josh has explained how the program gets you involved with hands-on projects, interacting with professors and communicating with engineering students outside of the classroom. It would be a good place for me to end up because it is focused on athletes."

While that remains an option during the next three years of her college career, the one thing Barber knows is that she'd like to remain a manager for as long as she can.

"Just being around the team, the coaches, and the game, I love it," she said.

Mississippi State University Athletics

Meet the Managers: Rachel Barber

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