On Sundays, Caroline Doty puts on her Michael Vick jersey and watches the Eagles.
Her favorite player is wide receiver DeSean Jackson ("He's such a tiny dude and sky's the limit," she said), but the Vick jersey was a gift from her brother.
"There's nothing like being from Philadelphia," said Doty, a graduate of Germantown Academy and redshirt junior for the University of Connecticut women's basketball team. "It gives me an edge. Some people don't see it, some people do."
Doty needs that edge. Because very little else has broken her way.
In the previous four years, she has torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee three times: the first during her senior soccer season at Germantown in 2007, the second during the middle of her freshman season at UConn in 2009, the third before what would have been her junior season in 2010. Two weeks ago during practice, she sprained her ankle. ("It wasn't even like your minor little rolling sprain," said UConn assistant coach Chris Dailey. "Her ankle blew up. It was one of those where she's out for two weeks.")
During her lone injury-free season at UConn, Doty, a supremely athletic 5-foot-10 guard, started 38 of the team's 39 games and averaged 6.8 points. The Huskies defeated Stanford to win the NCAA title; Doty scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds in the win.
A midsummer knee sprain and the aforementioned ankle injury have kept Doty out of coach Geno Auriemma's preseason lineup, but she is expected to be ready for the team's regular-season opener on Sunday against Holy Cross.
"Yes!" Dailey responded when asked if the coaching staff views Doty as a contributor this season. "We need her to be. She is one of the few kids on our team that has experience. We're a really young team."
The Huskies, who lost superstar Maya Moore to graduation, are ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press preseason poll, a low ranking for the perennial contenders.
How much can be expected of Doty?
"I don't know," Dailey said. "I don't know if that's fair because it's been a long time since she's played. But just having her on the court . . . she can have an impact on our team."
When Doty practices, Dailey said, she does so as if she's indestructible.
