In a season of tremendous individual accomplishment, Jenna Barnett – the Osceola News Gazette’s 2022 Player of the Year — only wanted to talk about her St. Cloud teammates and what they achieved during their record-breaking season.
“We had a great year, and although we went to states for the first time in school history, we had to wait, and we didn’t know that we got in until they announced the at-large bids. In some ways, it felt like we backed into it,” Barnett said after St. Cloud earned one of four at-large bids in 2021 after finishing fourth in regionals. “This year was totally different. We were the first girls’ golf team in school history to get an automatic bid to states by finishing third in a tough regional. It’s a subtle difference but was important to us.”
Barnett shot a team-low 3-over par 75 in the regional tournament at Royal St. Cloud. It was a particularly impressive performance, given she was four over par after four holes. But she quickly righted the ship and shot one-under par the rest of the way. The team’s 316 easily outdistanced Vero Beach for the third and final spot and was just one shot off a strong Viera squad for second.
Barnett played a key role in St. Cloud’s record-setting performance at the district tournament. The Bulldogs shot 307 – the lowest girls’ 18-hole team score in Osceola County history.
In the FHSAA Class 3A State Championships, Barnett was again St. Cloud’s low scorer with a 79 over the difficult Mission Inn Resort course, good for 28th place overall and helped St. Cloud (339) to a 10th-place finish – its highest in school history.
Barnett said she was a little disappointed with not only her score but with the entire situation when she found out the tournament was being cut from two rounds to one because of Hurricane Ian.
“I was upset that I missed a few shots out there, but when I was walking off the green, Coach Endicott told me they had decided to cut the event from 36 to 18 holes. All of a sudden it dawned on me my high school career was over when I thought I had one more round to play. It really broke my heart.”
Like Boys Player of the Year Gunner Green, Barnett was not clearly the best player on his team all year. Adams, a freshman, won the Orange Belt Conference title, and Shieve also challenged for the No. 1 spot on the St. Cloud roster on a week-to-week basis.
Keeping with her team-first attitude, Barnett said she was equally proud of the boys’ team, as it became the first time in county and school history that both the boys’ and girls’ teams from the same school qualified for the state championship.
“Both teams had a great season and it was pretty cool that it was the first time both squads made it to the state championship,” Barnett added.
Similar to the postseason that Green put in, Barnett was the most consistent St. Cloud golfer during the post-season. Still, she says the individual honor is nice but doesn’t mean a lot to her.
“My teammates mean everything to me, we’ve been together for so long and the thing that is really neat is that we are all the best of friends off the course. We hang out together and do things together and that is what I am going to miss the most.”
Barnett is still considering her college options. She says her ultimate goal is to play professional golf. “I have always loved this game and want to take it as far as I can,” she added.
All-County Girls Golf Team: Jenna Barnett, St. Cloud (Player of the Year), Tess Shieve (St. Cloud), Karolyna Adams (St. Cloud), Jordan Pidgeon (Harmony), Natalie Quiones (Celebration), Arayana Pursaud (Harmony), Adriana Leon (Celebration).