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University of North Carolina Athletics
My Carolina Experience: Maddy Curley
May 21, 2015 | Women's Gymnastics
My Carolina Experience: Maddy Curley
By Zoya Johnson, GoHeels.com
Maddy Curley had always been a straight A student. Yet, in her junior year of high school when she became an elite level gymnast, and before winning an elite national championship, she had not given much thought to where she wanted to go to college. Curley was the student body vice president, a member of the Latin National Honors Society, and the head of the Political Action Committee at Leon High School but gymnastics was her passion and she had Olympic dreams.
Thus, after her national title garnered attention from top tier schools Curley took her recruiting trips with an open mind. “I went to a lot of the other (sports) games on recruiting trips and did a bunch of stuff with the other women on the gymnastics team but really there was something about the squad at Carolina that clicked. Being on a campus that beautiful, where everyone seemed so genuinely wonderful, won me over.”
When the Tallahassee, Fla. native came to campus the only things she was sure of was that she wanted to continue to get excellent grades and that she did not want to pursue a career in medicine. Thinking that she would like to pursue a career in broadcasting, Curley started out as a journalism major.
By taking classes that interested her, Curley ended up an International Studies major, with a concentration in Eastern European economics. She also had a double major in drama. As if that course load was not enough, she was also an EAGL All-Academic selection all four years at Carolina as well as a member of the Alpha Chi Omega Sorority. She did all of that and still managed to graduate Phi Beta Kappa.
Curley became one of the top performers on floor exercise in the history of Carolina gymnastics, and helped her team to a No. 1 rank in the nation in the event. That success in her senior year brought Carolina gymnastics within a tenth of a point of securing its place at NCAA Nationals. The loss was heartbreaking but the blow was easier to take because she achieved it with teammates she'd come to love, who had also put their all into the competition. “I thought that after 18 years of gymnastics I'd just be like 'great life goes on' but because it ended like that I just never felt complete,” she says.
“Coming to Carolina I still wanted to try to go international elite and get back into the Olympic realm. But, while I was in college I had such a good time competing for UNC that the goal was just for our team to make it to NCAA Nationals. That's what I really wanted.”
Years later Curley found unlikely closure when she landed the role of elite gymnast Mina Hoyt in the Disney film “Stick It.” She says, “I got lucky. I acted for fun in college and I always thought that after I did Teach For America I might move to New York and do it there. But because a friend from the drama department who was working for a casting office in Washington, D.C., asked me if I'd want to come audition for this movie about gymnastics I just sort of got thrown into it. From then on all I've wanted is that experience again. I'm still an athlete and I do Cross Fit now but acting is #1.
“I thank the liberal arts program for opening me up to the world of acting and my professors at Carolina for inspiring confidence in me. It was just the way the teachers taught and the passion and excitement of it that made me appreciate all that a really good teacher could be. I never had that until I had that experience at Carolina. I loved drama, history, Russian, and economics and it was because the professors loved what they were doing, they loved to learn, and they loved sharing that with their students.”
As far as advice goes, Curley says not getting caught up in your preconceived notions and trying new things is important. It is the things that you are drawn to and that excite you that you're going to want to do with the rest of your life. She continues to say, “This is the only chance you have to be an adult without all the responsibility so you should enjoy it.”
“At Carolina, especially, you're going to leave and really know what it means to have school pride. You're going to make the best friends of your life and you're never going to stop thinking about how to get back.
“Derek Galvin (UNC head coach) gave me an opportunity to be at Carolina and Carolina put so many people I'm thankful for in my life. It taught me to enjoy life and prepared me to go out into the world and succeed. The experience instills you with such confidence and an ability to handle whatever is thrown at you with intelligence and grit. When people ask me about my experience all I can really do is tell them how much it means to me and how much I loved it.”