SPOKANE, Wash. -- This year for Gonzaga women's basketball, the grip of a pandemic has altered athletic experiences in innumerable ways, just the same as anyone else. The sight of empty stands in McCarthey Athletic Center is sign enough that this year, hardly anything has remained unchanged.
 
All that considered, senior forward Gillian Barfield misses the way the bench used to be the most. There's something about the proximity she misses, the feeling of physical togetherness that has largely been absent since last spring.
 
"It's so different now because there's not as much celebration," says the Phoenix native. "It seems like you have to work 10 times harder to like, get the enthusiasm out of everybody else." 
 
And that's the thing — getting enthusiasm out of her teammates is Barfield's job, in more ways than one. A walk-on, she doesn't play the most minutes for GU, but after four years here, her role in the locker room transcends that. 
 
She's a "connector," as coach Lisa Fortier describes, a role that feels all the more valuable given the circumstances. Helping others and seeing the results first hand energizes her, and Fortier, who always stresses that she runs a "family program," has seen it firsthand for years.
 
"She cares about people and she really invests in them individually," Fortier said. "And that's something that's hard to do during COVID. She is the best, I think, on our team at building genuine relationships with people."
 
When she first came to GU, Barfield said she felt a distance between the upperclassmen and their younger peers off the court. When practice ended, the two groups would head their separate ways, and it was difficult to frame their relationships outside of basketball. She wanted that to change when her time came, and to "bridge that gap" to bring the team closer.
 
Last year, she took the Truong twins under her wing from the day they first stepped on campus. She hosted them for their first unofficial visit in high school, and they struck what Fortier calls a "special bond" soon after.
 
For two freshmen learning a new system and a new team dynamic, it was a relief to know there was someone supporting them relentlessly and unconditionally.
 
"You can just tell that she's a very genuine person, she's just so kind," Kayleigh Truong says. "[She] took care of us and just told us that everything's going to be fine, just to be not so nervous and not put so much stress on ourselves."
 
When both had to step into bigger roles midway through the season after starting guard Katie Campbell's injury, encouragement was exactly what they needed.
 
"I consider her as our hype man," Kayleigh laughs. "She helps us out with anything we do, even off the court."
 
Now sophomores, both the Truongs have acclimated to bigger roles in tangible ways, shifting from role players to significant contributors. Kayleigh is starting and averaging 7.1 points per game, while Kaylynne is shooting 38.5% for the floor off the bench. They combined for 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting to top San Francisco last week, with both spurring Zag runs that put the game away early with timely three-point shooting and scrappy perimeter defense. Sunday at Portland, the duo finished with 24 points and nine assists to propel the Zags to their 12th straight win.
 
And no one's happier to see it than Barfield.
 
"I've had so many discussions with them about their confidence and what amazing basketball players they are," she says, beaming with pride at her teammates' success. "It's just amazing to see them finally fill into their roles on the team and start to perform the way they're playing. 
 
"It's amazing to watch."
 
The Truongs noted that they still see Barfield doing the same things she does for them for this year's freshmen — the support they need, in whatever form they need, when they need it.
 
Even when she's not on the floor at practice, she's still observing intently, soaking up as much instruction as she can. Not just for her own sake, but with the intent of being able to fill in teammates — ready to act as a facilitator if need be. Or to provide some mixture of encouragement and instruction.
 
"She's someone who can read the room," Fortier says. "She can see who needs a little bit extra pick-me-up, or who's struggling with a certain thing."
 
Barfield's also the team's representative for the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, serving as the committee's Secretary. She manages the team's community service and plans future outreach, with a mind towards community service that her teammates are interested in. She admits it's actually quite a bit of responsibility, but credits it with helping her "grow a lot as a leader".
 
A human physiology major, her end goal is to be a pediatric nurse practitioner, working with kids full-time. She had always been interested in medicine, even if she wasn't quite sure what form.
 
"So that's where nursing came in," she says, "because I know that you have so much one-on-one exposure with patients and so much time with patients."
 
The prospect of being able to work strictly with kids every day made that path impossible to turn down. "Kids are such pure and genuine and sweet people," she gushes, thinking back to how much she loved being a babysitter when she was younger. 
 
Another thing she misses in an empty Kennel during the pandemic: the young fans who accumulate near the tunnel after every game, hoping for a chance to meet the players.
 
"It doesn't matter if I didn't get as many minutes as I wanted or didn't play the way I wanted to," she says. "It's so hard to be sad and down when all the little girls think that you're superwoman after the games."
 
When listing the most memorable moments of her three-ish years so far, Barfield remembers the Zags' upset of Stanford at home her freshman year before her best individual performance, when she and fellow senior Louis Forsyth lit it up from three late in a WCC game ("We ended up getting the stadium tacos," she adds).
 
But she's always had a proclivity towards the experiences meant to be shared with others, the kind that feel like a validation of a shared ambition. Those are the experiences that come natural to her.
 
If a player's contribution isn't necessarily quantifiable, that doesn't mean it's not tangible. It just depends on who you ask — whether you're on their team or not.
 
After all, that's the No. 1 rule for Barfield. If you're on her team, she's in your corner.