Mi'Cole Cayton is looking to pick up where she left off
After a strong freshman season, Cal women’s basketball point guard Mi’Cole Cayton experienced some serious adversity in her sophomore year, going down for the season with a torn right ACL in her first game of the season. After essentially spending all of last season in rehab, Cayton is excited for the chance to get back on the court with her teammates and make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. She’s ready to do whatever head coach Lindsay Gottlieb asks of her.
“I’m definitely looking forward to being back on the court with the team and finding any way that I can to come in and contribute and pick up where I left off,” Cayton said with excitement. “Well, I think things for me I don’t feel like will change personally because I have teammates that I rely on every day and now that we have a bunch of great talented guards we can all get the job done. So, it doesn’t matter who plays and who doesn’t play, you know? We’re all together and we’re all in one, so as long as we’re getting wins and as long as we’re positive teammates on and off the court, then I feel that’s all that matters.”
Even though she has a positive attitude about what this season has in store for her, Cayton is open about the struggles she went through last season. Being the fiery competitor that she is, it was not easy for her to have to sit on the bench and watch her teammates compete without her.
“It was hard,” Cayton admitted. “It was very hard. Oftentimes I felt like I was breaking down and I couldn’t do it after the surgery. But with the great help of all these Cal fans I was getting a bunch of positive encouragement. Whether it was on social media or letters coming and just to see that everybody here wants me to succeed and wanted to see me on the court felt even better just knowing that I’m at an environment that’s so impactful. The help of my teammates, my coaches, it was really hard mentally, but now I’m back in action.”
Through that adversity, Cayton chose to turn lemons into lemonade, learning that she could still contribute to the team and observe the game from a different perspective. While it wasn’t what she wished for, Cayton believes she learned a lot from that experience.
“I’ve learned that everyone has a role and being injured you also have a role,” Cayton said. “For me when I was on the court, I would pump up the team and get the team going. When I was injured, that was still my role. Going out there and making sure my team fought every single possession whether I was on the court or not. Even though I couldn’t be on the court at the time was definitely a role that I didn’t know they valued or that I valued. Sitting on the bench and being a coach, you know? Because that’s what I was. I was a coach coaching my other teammates out there was also very impactful for me.”
While her role changed for a year, the one constant throughout the entire experience for Cayton was her fire and tenacity. She has a strong passion for the game that she made sure shined through even when she was out.
“My favorite player is Kevin Garnett, so as you know him, he’s a very gritty player,” Cayton said of where her fire comes from. “He’s all about heart. Like you said, he’s a dog, you know? He’s unstoppable and that’s just the same attitude that I have when I come on the court. Like I said, I have teammates who are there to help my head up and help me every day, so the same way they give to me is the same way I’m going to give back to them.”
If there’s anything that Cayton expects to bring to the team this year, it’s gritty and tenacious play. If Cal’s going to accomplish their goals of reaching the Sweet Sixteen and beyond, Cayton feels they need to keep the fire alive and play with a high level of intensity and toughness every night.
“I definitely think that we need to be a gritty team,” Cayton said. “Being hungry, being ready to eat every second. Whether it’s on the court or off the court that’s gonna reflect how we play on the court. All of our off the court actions and just being the people that we are. We have all the different qualifications, we meet the qualifications, or just because we’re Cal students, so I feel like if we bring that same energy that we have off the court to on the court, we’re unstoppable.”
When she’s not on the court, Cayton is able to channel that same level of intensity and focus in the classroom, immersing herself in three subjects at Cal. She even worked her way into a public speaking course, preparing a speech in order to get accepted.
“I’m studying legal studies and I’m double minoring in education and African-American studies,” Cayton said. “I’m actually taking a public speaking class and I had to find a way to get into the class, so I did a little script in order to get into the class. That’s going to be very interesting, not challenging at all, but very interesting class.”
If there’s one thing that can be said about Mi’Cole Cayton, it’s that she has a resilient spirit and a passion for the game that few players are born with. That spirit and passion helped her overcome the adversity she experienced last year and should also propel her to a successful 2018-19 campaign. It’s going to be fun to see what she accomplishes.