No matter how you figure it, Barrington High’s Julie Ruggieri was one of the most successful athletes in the history of Rhode Island high school girls sports.

In terms of national recognition, her selection to both High School All-American field hockey and lacrosse teams makes her one of the few Rhode Island high school females to earn All-American honors in two non-related sports.

On the statewide level, she earned six Providence Journal first-team All-State selections and took home the MVP award in three state championship tournaments.

If you equate an athlete’s success to how well her team does, Ruggieri undoubtedly ranks as one of Rhode Island all-time best schoolgirl athletes. During her four-year career at Barrington her teams won a total of seven state championships in three sports — field hockey, basketball and lacrosse. In her senior year, she helped the Barrington field hockey, girls basketball and girls lacrosse teams post undefeated R.I. Interscholastic League records.

Yet ask Ruggieri what she considered the best performance of her high school career and she talks about grades rather than goals.

“The final quarter of my senior year was my best ever — all A’s, no A-minuses,” said Ruggieri, who will study for a career in education and play field hockey at Providence College. “I really wanted to end my senior year strong.”

The combination of a possibly unprecedented athletic career and an academic record that included A’s in 17 of her 23 honors courses has earned Ruggieri selection as the 2007 Providence Journal Honor Roll Girl.

Ruggieri, the daughter of John and Peggy Ruggieri, becomes the third Barrington High graduate to be named the state’s top senior high school female scholar/athlete in the 31-year history of the Honor Roll Girl program.

She grew up playing sports — that’s what happens when you have two older brothers and a twin sister who loved athletic competition. But she never expected her high school career would reach the heights it did.

She never dreamed college coaches from all over the country would be asking her to visit their campus before she decided which college she wanted to attend. She never expected to be named the Rhode Island high school female athlete of the year by both the state’s association of media members and the R.I. Interscholastic League.

She certainly never expected to see her picture in Sports Illustrated.

“I never expected any of this,” Ruggieri said shortly after her MVP performance in the state field hockey tournament last fall had earned her a spot in Sports Illustrated’s Faces in the Crowd section.

In her junior and senior seasons, she was the leading Division I field hockey scorer in the state. In the relatively low-scoring sport, she scored a combined total of 46 goals in the two seasons. One of those 46 tallies was a triple-overtime game-winning goal in the semifinal round of this past fall’s state tournament. She then scored two goals in the state title game helping Barrington close out a perfect 19-0 season.

She also was a lacrosse star from the first day she stepped on the field for Barrington. She played a major role in the Eagles winning four state titles during her high school career as she scored a career total of 160 goals and assisted on 106 tallies. A two-time U.S. Lacrosse Coaches Association High School All-American she closed out her high school career with her best season this spring, tallying 58 goals in 16 games.

But while she was an All-American in field hockey and lacrosse it may have been her performance on the basketball court that gave the best insight into what made her athletic career special.

Basketball was her challenge sport. The moves didn’t flow as naturally for her on the basketball court as they did on the field hockey and lacrosse fields. She was a varsity starter since her sophomore year, but she was never the big scorer like she was in field hockey and lacrosse. On the basketball court, she was a role player rather than a superstar, yet it was her defensive performance in the title game of this year’s Division II playoff that sparked a Barrington comeback that took the Eagles to their first girls state basketball title in 12 years.

“I wasn’t even going to play basketball after my freshman year,” she said. “I just did it my freshman year because my friends were doing it, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. That was one of the best decisions I made. That probably was the most rewarding championship because every game was a challenge.”

Sports was her comfort zone and she isn’t afraid to admit that scoring a game-winning goal excited her more than getting A’s in course like Advance Placement Chemistry, Latin III-IV or World Literature.

“Getting the A’s was more challenging than scoring the goals. The sports thing came naturally, but I don’t consider myself naturally smart. There are some people who don’t have to study. I had to work my butt off for those A’s, which I was fine with. I wanted to challenge myself.”

jgillool@projo.com