'Using her voice to teach': Kayla McPherson captains UNC women's basketball, despite injury

It was a torn ACL. 

Sitting in the doctor’s office, 17-year-old Kayla McPherson facetimed UNC women’s basketball head coach Courtney Banghart.

The high schooler was worried. At best, she would miss much of her first season at North Carolina. At worst, her scholarship spot could be rescinded. 

But Banghart reassured McPherson. They would help her with the recovery process, and the court would be waiting for her when she was healthy. 

And she did get healthy, for a while. A season and a half into her college career, McPherson finally got to take the court. But in late 2023, she suffered another knee injury. After just 20 games, it was back to the sidelines. 

Banghart maintained her support, promising to help McPherson play again. But over the last season and a half, which included four surgeries, the redshirt junior guard has shifted to a different role: a captain and an invaluable, if unofficial, addition to the coaching staff. 

“She is comfortable using her voice to teach, encourage and challenge and has built the necessary trust in order to do all three,” Banghart said. 

McPherson started playing basketball when she was four years old. In middle school, she moved to Madison County, Georgia and became friends with Ella Chancey. The two played basketball together, and it was evident to Chancey — who now plays softball at South Carolina — that McPherson was a great athlete. Everyone knew she would go far. 

When they got to high school, Chancey focused on her softball career, but she continued to play basketball and experienced firsthand McPherson’s development into a strong leader. 

After McPherson tore her ACL, the teenager became an extension of the coaching staff, encouraging the team and offering advice to her teammates. 

So, Chancey isn’t surprised that McPherson’s dream is to one day coach basketball. 

“She has all the qualities to do it,” Chancey said. “She's a great leader and she really makes the people around her better, so I could definitely see her just stepping into that role post college or post a professional career.”

Experiencing the injury in high school hasn’t made the second time around any easier, McPherson said. The physical recovery is the simple part. All she has to do is put her head down and work. Simple.

But it has been challenging to learn how to cope with being away from the game she’s dedicated her entire life to. It's taken an emotional toll on her. 

“I've played basketball for a long time,” McPherson said. “I've been on many different teams, I'm always around people, I'm a huge family person and I think as I've gotten older and dealing with these things, it's okay to take time for yourself if you need it.”

Adapting to the injury has also meant translating her role as a point guard  — the leader on the floor — to off the court. 

When former Tar Heel forward Jaelynn Murray graduated, she bestowed the job of leading the pregame chant in the tunnel to McPherson, who has carried the responsibility for the past four years. 

With her natural talent for projection and her experience moonlighting as a student coach in high school, McPherson has become a leading voice in practice and on the sideline during games, especially for the young guards, first-year Lanie Grant and sophomore Reniya Kelly. McPherson completes her rehab outside of practice times to make sure she can be fully present.  

“Kayla’s basically my position coach,” Kelly said. “I go to her about everything. I talk to her about plays, things that I should do in the game.”

Whenever Grant has a question, she goes to McPherson for the answer. And it's always the right one. 

What distinguished McPherson from much of the actual coaching staff is how recently she has been in the position of her teammates. She’s played with many of them. But she’s also played against their opponents. 

McPherson rejects the idea that she is a teacher, per se, but she wants to be someone that her teammates can come to.

“I've been able to see basketball in a different light,” McPherson said. “So I've been able to try to share those things I've learned with my teammates while I'm off the court.”

Graduate forward and fellow captain Alyssa Ustby and Banghart agree that the guard’s basketball IQ has had a positive impact on the development of the team. 

Ustby has spent the most time as McPherson’s teammate at UNC. Over the course of their four-year relationship, she has witnessed the guard’s growth while dealing with injuries. 

“I've had the joy of being able to watch her develop and kind of be the bridge between players and coaches, because she understands the player perspective of how it feels to play and then she also understands the coaching perspective of how they want us to play," Ustby said.

Coaching was never McPherson’s first aspiration. More than a year after her most recent knee surgery, she is still focused on being healthy, both in terms of basketball and in her lifestyle. She hasn’t given up on getting back on the court at North Carolina, or even to play professionally.  

But she hasn’t gotten her fill of coaching, either. She has loved every single second of getting to learn from her coaches.

“My dream is still, if God is willing and the universe is willing, to be able to play professional basketball at whatever level,” McPherson said. “I am still just focused on the college level at this point, but then also, yeah, I would love to coach."

@BeckettBrant