Tattoos: permanent, personable, pivotal parts of a person – holding meaning which can be powerful and priceless.

For junior Kylie McCarthy, captain of the Curry women’s basketball team, a tattoo encapsulates her everyday outlook.

McCarthy’s tattoo – “presence” across her ribcage – holds deeper meaning than just a word forever engraved on her body. “I got it so I could have a permanent reminder of it,” she said. “Whenever I am overthinking things and I am getting overwhelmed by everything that could be going on, it is a reminder for me to take a step back and think about where I am in life and how lucky I am to be in this spot right now.”

McCarthy’s tattoo is something she implements in her everyday life, including in her role as being captain for the Colonels women's basketball team.

“Basketball is one of my favorite things in the world, but it also can cause me a lot of stress at the same time,“ said McCarthy, a native of Beverly, Mass. “'Presence' can be applied there too, where I could be stressing about basketball, or I could also be realizing that I only have two or three years left to do this and that I don’t want to spend that time being worked up over things that won’t really matter.”

As a freshman, McCarthy quickly earned herself the starting point guard position – a spot on the floor that head coach Joe Reedy doesn’t take lightly.

“Point guards are an extension of the head coach on the floor," said Reedy. "I just thought that she did a really good job of coming prepared as a freshman, which is really hard to do.”

Thanks to her early leadership, Reedy named McCarthy a captain as a freshman, when she started in 15 games, averaging 7.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 2.2 assists per game before going down with a season-ending injury.

“Knowing that we were going to try and bring in some bigger recruiting classes the next year, I really wanted to have somebody that I could mold into a leader,” said Reedy, who had 10 players on the roster during his first season as head coach in 2021-22. “Kylie had separated herself from some of the other players.”

McCarthy’s tenacious, persistent captaincy was present even as a promising freshman. “She was somebody who could really embody the culture that I want to build here, and somebody who I think that in a couple of years will be able to set the standard of what it means to be a Curry women's basketball player,” Reedy said.

Now in her third season as captain, her attitude and actions are leading to success on the court. Through five games, the Colonels are 4-1, with McCarthy averaging 7.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.8 assists a night. She also helped lead the Colonels to a championship in the Elmira College Tip-Off Tournament in Elmira, N.Y. on Nov. 12.

With 12 underclassmen on the Curry women's basketball team's 15-player roster, McCarthy’s oversight has been a vital tool in creating a successful environment.

“She takes her captain role very seriously,” said freshman starting forward Kasey Reeves (Millbury, Mass.). “She is always picking us up and giving us corrective criticism. She also lifts people up, checks in on us, asks us questions like, ‘How are you doing?’ and says, ‘Let’s get dinner.’ She connects with all of us on a more personal level other than just our sport.”

Her work ethic seems to be the driving factor in what separates her from just your average captain and player. “Being able to show up every day, she is constantly putting in that work,” said Reedy. “She not only leads with her voice, which she is doing more and more this year, but also with her actions. I know she is busting her tail in the weight room and with our sprints. She is always at the top when she is running.”

Her dedication to the team by holding everyone accountable day in and day out helped motivate the team during the rough early days of preseason this season. “We were doing preseason, getting in shape, and she was constantly leading the charge,” said Reedy. “She was holding people accountable, being like, ‘We need to make the time, we shouldn’t be struggling with this, this should be easy.’ She has done a really good job.”

Being a captain comes with responsibilities, which can be problematic when you're faced with the struggle of having to be disciplined with your own teammates. For McCarthy, this was something she had to acquire from past captain, now-assistant coach Kathryn Dunn.

“Kathryn was a very experienced player and a really successful player,” said Reedy. “I think she did a really good job of teaching Kylie how to be more stern. Kylie struggled last year being behind Kat in a way, where Kat was kind of the first captain. This year, she has done a really good job of stepping into that number one captain role, being the only captain with a really big team.”

McCarthy’s growth is a testament to her approach of being present in whatever she is doing at that moment in time – a lesson she’s helping her younger teammates learn every day. “I think of focusing on stuff in the past, but she is only focusing on now,” Reeves said. “You can’t change anything that happened in the past, so why focus on it? The future is not in your hands, so focusing on what you can control – she definitely emphasizes that to all of us and herself. She is definitely an in-the-moment person.”

The goal for the Colonels, who started the season 4-1, is to gain respect as a contender this season in the Commonwealth Coast Conference. The buildup has to be taken one day at a time – a presence that McCarthy and her captaincy will be enforcing.

“It means knowing that the moment you're in, you're never going to get again,” she said. “In other times you are always going to wish that you are back in the same place you are now. So it's about enjoying the place you are in right now because it's not going to last forever.”

#BleedPurple

Story written by Curry women's basketball freshman Samantha Conti.