Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week: Multi-faceted Barrett goes big for Chargers
McCade Barrett is one busy 17-year-old, and he likes it that way.
Barrett plays three sports at Edison High and works part-time at the American Legion Post 291 in Newport Beach. When he’s not running around in a game during the week, you can find Barrett working as a food runner on the weekends.
Whether he’s playing or working, Barrett moves fast. Barrett’s boss at the restaurant is well aware of his speed, at work and on the field. Dennis Fitzpatrick even came out to watch Barrett play football the day after Thanksgiving.
The rest of the folks at the American Legion are starting to hear and read a lot about what Barrett does outside of work. The teenager is enjoying quite the junior season with the Chargers.
The football season is not over yet for Barrett. His next sport is boys’ basketball, and that season is on hold because Barrett played a vital role in Edison defeating host La Mirada, 44-24, in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 championship game last week.
In the section final, Barrett, a cornerback, wide receiver and kick returner, performed at his best. He intercepted a pass and took it back 91 yards for a touchdown, and finished with eight tackles. He also caught two passes for 29 yards, and returned two kickoffs for 41 yards.
The all-around performance by Barrett helped Edison qualify for the CIF State Southern California Regional Division 1-A Bowl Game. The Chargers (13-1) play host to San Clemente (11-3) at Cap Sheue Field on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
A win at this stage and Edison gets to play next week at Sacramento State for its first state crown in the football program’s history. Barrett said sending Coach Dave White out on top in his 31st and final year at the helm of Edison is what the Chargers hope to do.
White is also a big reason why Barrett, who lives in Newport Beach, came to Edison.
“It’s a good athletic school,” Barrett said. “I just wanted to come here and get coached by Coach White and Coach [Rich] Boyce for basketball.”
Playing for both White and Boyce has resulted in Barrett being a part of section championship runs in two sports. Barrett’s basketball team reached the Division 2AA finals in March, and nine months later, his football team played for the Division 3 title.
While Barrett’s basketball team fell short last season, he made a difference in the football team winning a section title.
Barrett’s pick-six came at a crucial point in the game. With less than eight minutes left in the third quarter and the Chargers up, 28-10, La Mirada moved inside Edison’s 35-yard line.
Running back Nick Hernandez got the La Mirada offense there, on an 18-yard run, his 15th carry put him near 100 yards. Instead of handing the ball off to Hernandez on the next play, the Matadores tried to surprise Edison with a long pass.
La Mirada went receiver Elijah Hicks’ way. It was Barrett’s responsibility to cover Hicks, to keep the Notre Dame commit from getting behind him.
“He tried to stick me and act [as if] he was running a streak, and he came back in [for a post] and I was there,” Barrett said of Hicks. “When I made my move for the ball, he tripped over one of my feet and he fell down. I was thinking, ‘Catch the ball and try to get us in good field position, so we can put some more points on the board.’ It ended up me putting up the points on the board.”
Things turned out better than expected for Barrett.
The Chargers got to quarterback Tristan Meyer, hitting him from behind and not allowing him to get everything into the throw. The ball hung in the air, and as an outfielder does with a fly ball in baseball, Barrett knew what to do. He camped underneath the ball just inside the 10-yard line.
The interception marked Barrett’s second of the year. The first came during the fifth game, in his first start for Edison at cornerback. He picked off Mater Dei sophomore sensation JT Daniels in the end zone.
Barrett has shown he has good hands, mostly on offense. He has 29 receptions for 441 yards and four touchdowns.
“This year we thought he was just going to be an offensive guy, but with [Shaun] Colamonico being hurt, he’s played tons of defense,” White said of Barrett, who started at cornerback while Colamonico was out for four weeks with a hairline fracture of the fibula and since Colamonico returned six weeks ago. “In a lot of years, he’d be like the go-to guy. We have five really good receivers, and two of them are juniors, him and David Atencio. Next year him and Atencio [will] probably each have 70 catches.”
McCade Barrett
Born: Aug. 25, 1999
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-9
Weight: 158 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Junior
Coach: Dave White
Favorite food: Orange chicken
Favorite movie: Harry Potter series
Favorite athletic moment: “Winning CIF.”
Week in review: Barrett intercepted a pass and returned it 91 yards for a touchdown, and finished with eight tackles, helping Edison beat host La Mirada, 44-24, in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 championship game.
