Graduate student and redshirt senior Kamryn Doty stood at the end of the call line. At the beginning of a basketball game, the announcer tells the audience who is in the starting lineup. Those players run through a manmade tunnel before waving to the audience. Except, this time, Doty was waiting for them at the end, giving them a high five and wishing them good luck.
The Elon women’s basketball team faced the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill on Nov. 6, a formidable opponent to the Phoenix. The Tar Heels are 11th in the nation and Elon head coach Charlotte Smith’s alma mater. Despite Doty not playing in this game, she was present for every second of it.
“She’s compassionate, she has a giving heart,” Smith said.
Doty actually crossed the stage this past May completing her bachelor’s degree in finance, but she wasn’t done with Elon just yet.
“I’m just really thankful that I had the opportunity to come back,” Doty said. “I’m really just hoping to get a sense of fulfillment out of it.”
Despite being a seasoned veteran on the team, Doty did not initially see herself as an athlete. She said she was one of those kids that would come home from school and not leave her house for the rest of the day. Then after moving schools, she met her best friend Jaya Nelson, whose dad ran a club basketball team.
“I was just like ‘this girl’s nice, like, I just want to hang out with her more,’” Doty said. “So I ended up joining the basketball team.”
Then once she entered middle school, Doty quickly realized that this after-school program could turn into a college career.
“Then from that point on, it was like, head down and grind,” she said.
She knew her family could not afford to pay for school, so she saw basketball as her way to attend college without worrying about the financial burden. Doty started getting on Division I schools’ radars when she was in eighth grade. One of the universities that eventually reached out to her was Elon.
Once Doty got to Elon’s campus, her college basketball career started with her first ACL injury entering her freshman year. She played that following season, but then tore her ACL again. She returned last year and is hungry for more, since this will be her second consecutive year fighting in the pain.
“I feel like it’s been kind of inconsistent,” Doty said. “I’ve hit a couple walls.”
Despite her injuries, she said she enjoys the environment Elon has to offer; it’s one of the main reasons Doty came back.
“I’m getting older, I’m about to be 23,” Doty said. “Basketball is an experience, but I really just care about being around good people.”
Smith said she is excited Doty is coming back to spend another year as a player. Last year, Doty appeared in 30 out of 33 games with nine starts. She also averaged 4.1 points per game, with her career high being 14 points with four threes in a win against Monmouth in March.
“She’s a beautiful and amazing human being,” Smith said. “It’s always a pleasure to be around people who love Elon University.”
Smith said during the offseason she saw Doty gain more confidence in her movement by spending hours at the gym on her own time “perfecting her craft.”
“I’m excited to see what she brings to the table this year,” Smith said.
Besides being a guard for the team, Smith said she is a mentor to the other players. Whether it is helping players understand the team’s culture or being a pillar in the team building, Smith said Doty’s position as one of the captains is well deserved.
“She places others above herself,” Smith said. “She has a heart to serve.”
For Doty, she said she wants to be a resource for her team — especially the freshmen.
“I feel like one of the main things that I’ve struggled with is just making basketball my personality,” Doty said. “Coach Smith tells us all the time, ‘Basketball is what you do. It’s not who you are.’”
Doty said now being almost 23, she knows the battles student athletes can face while juggling academics and performance and how that’s not something most students at Elon can understand.
“Whenever I was injured, I kind of felt worthless,” Doty said. “In the beginning, I didn’t have anything to offer, but I found the joy in it.”
Almost halfway through the second quarter of the Nov. 6 game against UNC Chapel Hill, sophomore Jayda Angel was carried off the court due to a season-ending injury. With the status of her injury looming in her teammates’ minds, the show must go on. Once the referee blew the whistle indicating a designated timeout, instead of huddling up with the other players Doty waited back. She scooted next to Angel who laid on the folded out chairs in pain then Doty comforted her teammate — because she is no stranger to how Angel was feeling.