In 2013, the WVU Tennis program needed to fill the vacant head-coaching position. Terri Howes (BS, ’85; MS, ’89) was the Senior Associate Athletic Director, so “I went through a lot of coaching searches,” she explained. “I always felt it was crucial for the athletes to have a say, because this was their life.” 

Howes served with freshman tennis player Hailey Barrett on that search committee. “She was very mature and wise beyond her years,” Howes recalled. That committee obviously did its job well, as it selected Miha Lisac, still the WVU head coach a dozen years later. 

 “The summer I arrived as coach, Hailey was the one who was facilitating the communication with the players,” Lisac said. “She was the one who helped keep the team together during the coaching change.” 

Her devotion to the Gold and Blue that moved her to hold the team together during uncertain times was something that developed after her arrival in Morgantown. The Lansing, Michigan, native had never seen West Virginia until she visited as part of her college recruiting process. “The second I got to campus, I knew that this was it. I fell in love right away,” she said. 

As Barrett was arriving on campus, WVU was in the process of joining the Big 12 Conference. Howes noted that the conference focused on the involvement of student athletes in athletic governance. “Hailey really showed her leadership skills by serving as an officer on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. I watched her develop into a driven leader, seeking knowledge all the time. Nothing was ever a roadblock to her. She embraced everything to grow and develop as an individual.” 

Even a health battle failed to stand in her way. During the spring season of her sophomore year, Barrett battled mononucleosis. It was all the more frustrating as she grew weaker before the disease was finally diagnosed. “It was frustrating when she was up against adversity, but it drove her,” said Howes. “Even when she was sick and wasn’t playing, she developed a leadership role. 

She was a presence.

—  MIHA Lisac 

Lisac explained that WVU’s tennis program was behind the other schools in the Big 12. “In a perfect world, we would’ve preferred to let Hailey develop at the number three or number four spots, but our lack of depth forced us to play her at number one or two.” This meant that she was facing some of the top players in all of college tennis, so her record of wins and losses wasn’t impressive. 

“But she never complained,” Lisac noted. “She always showed she could compete, which let the rest of the team see how committed she was. 

“We (coaches) bring leadership and ideas to a program, but if I don’t have players like Hailey, it all falls by the wayside. That’s why I made her captain of the team. 

“We did get beaten up quite a bit, but I never lost my belief. I just always felt that we could win our next match,” Barrett explained. “But it was fun to put in the hard work all week to help propel the program to the next level. It was really rewarding.” 

Highlights of her career at WVU include a victory over a top-100 singles player at Baylor, and a doubles win over the University of Texas with partner Ikttesh Chahal. 

Immediately after graduating with a BS in Sport Management in 2016, Barrett became a tennis instructor at The Greenbrier, a resort in White Sulphur Springs. Then as she was applying for coaching positions around the country, she served as a volunteer assistant coach at WVU. 

Next came a full-time job as an assistant at the University of Connecticut. “This is when I really fell in love with coaching, and could see this as my career,” she said. Next came a two-year stint as an assistant at Washington and Lee University, a Division III school. When COVID put the brakes on college athletics, she earned an MS in Sport Management from WVU in 2021, doing her course work online. 

Wanting to return to Division I, she became a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Colorado in 2022. That opened the door for her current position, as she’s currently in her third year as the assistant coach at Rutgers University. 

“I’ve seen that the assistant coaches are superstars in programs like tennis,” Howes observed. “They are so involved in the day-to-day operations, including academics, planning the travel, recruiting, as well as helping to coach the players.” 

Barrett said playing at WVU prepared her well for her current role. “Miha always included us players in the recruiting process, because he wanted us to think about what we were looking for in a teammate.  

“And I really do value the academics at WVU. That’s where I developed my love for sport management, which then let me get more involved with how the athletic department works. WVU really has one of the top Sport Management programs in the country, and that’s helped me a lot.” 

Two women exchanging pleasantries

During her playing days, Lisac noticed “Hailey was mature beyond her years and I knew she would be a good coach. It was obvious to me that she had tremendous leadership qualities.” 

“After my collaborations with her, I never had any doubt that she was going to become an influencer, in whatever realm she pursued,” Howes noted. “She always wanted to seek more knowledge and be involved in the management of sports – as an athlete, in governance or as a coach. 

“I’m just filled with pride about what Hailey has accomplished, and in anticipation of what more she is going to achieve.” 

“What Hailey has done means the world to me,” Lisac added. “It gives me an immense sense of pride to see her coaching at the Big Ten level, and the lives she is impacting. 

“It couldn’t be happening to a better person. And I’d love it if we could bring her back to WVU in some capacity.” 

This story is part of a series of profiles of former WVU student-athletes written for WVU Magazine by Joe Mock, who graduated from WVU’s Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism (now part of the College of Creative Arts and Media) in 1980. He now writes regularly for USA TODAY publications. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @baseballparks.