Dacia Barfield embraces adversity as senior leader of boy’s basketball team

ALEXANDRIA, La. (KALB) - “They didn’t treat me as if I was, like, some outsider,” said Alexandria Country Day senior Dacia Barfield. “They treated me as if I was one of them, passed me the ball, encouraged me to score.”

Dacia Barfield has never been an outsider to the Alexandria Country Day basketball team. Back in 2021, Barfield won a state title with the girls team and learned what it takes to be a leader.

“To sit there and watch the coach tell them what they did wrong, watch them run different defenses, watch us go up against different opponents, it’s definitely give you an insight on the floor that probably the underclassmen are not able to see quite yet,” said Barfield. “They haven’t had as much experience.”

A couple of years after the championship, ACDS’s girls team disbanded after a school merger, leaving Barfield without a place to play.

Instead of giving up basketball Dacia decided to challenge herself and try for a spot on the boys roster for the Tigers.

“First, it was a little different because I’ve never coached girls within a boys sport, but I came to a quick realization that there’s nothing different about Dacia,” said Tigers Head Coach Steele Chelette. “She’s just as good as all the other boys, and I do feel that she can compete at a high level when it comes to playing against boys due to her grit and being able to face all the adversity. Believe it or not, I do believe she’s physically stronger than some of the boys we do play out. We go to games, I mean, everybody looks at us crazy when we walk in for the sole purpose of the person who leads the line is a girl and she’s my senior leader. I will live and die behind my senior leader and when you’re playing a game and you hear all these names and stuff being thrown at you from the stands, it’s obviously gonna be a challenge of how do I do this? Am I messing up? Dacia always keeps her head down, works through whatever.”

“It’s definitely mind challenging for sure because it was a long discussion between me and my mama, the coaches,” said Barfield. “I can get hurt...I have to go off somewhere else to change, can’t be in certain places with the boys at certain times. It’s just not known that a female plays with the boys team or a female that can keep up with the boys.”

Since joining the boys team, Dacia has excelled, inspiring her teammates through her hard work and dedication.

“Really impeccable that she can do it,” said junior center Trenten Chelette. “She’s just, she’s such a hard worker. She’s able to just push through everything, push through all the adversity that she goes through every day. Being the only girl on our team, she has made a huge impact on the team. Dacia pushes us every day to be the best version of ourself.”

“You gotta play through boys that’s like stronger than her, bigger than her, and just different, said junior point guard Emile Metorer. I see that she can go through all that. We’ve been doing it for six years straight, girls and boys, so I can see how she can put up with it.”

Last summer, Dacia applied her basketball skills during basic training, capitalizing on the techniques and strategies she mastered on the court to enhance her performance in the military.

“Boys are just naturally more physically in shape than majority of the females that’s in high school,” said Barfield. “They personally make me a stronger individual, because I gotta work a little harder than them, move a little faster than them, so that kind of helped me into my military life to where if we’re doing like conditioning or something, try to encourage them to keep going. Don’t stop. If you stop, it’s just gonna hurt worse.”

Dacia said she remains grateful for the adversity and that obstacles on and off the court have allowed her to grow into a better person.

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