Photo by Richard Howard

Chelsi Scott ’16, the senior captain of the Wellesley basketball team, is a quintessential leader. She leads her young team, and she is on the executive board of the college’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), an organization that acts as the voice of student-athletes in the governance of intercollegiate athletics.

“She’s a Midwestern kid,” says head basketball coach Jennifer Kroll. “Chelsi comes from a great family. She’s a really caring individual, and that comes across in her relationships with everyone.”

As a tall post player on a smaller team, Scott saw significant minutes in her first year at Wellesley. She became a steady presence offensively and defensively during her sophomore season, which featured an 11-game winning streak by the Blue. Scott shone her junior year: She was second on the team in points scored and rebounds; she shot 42 percent from the floor; and she led the team in steals.

This season, Scott’s the captain of a team that only carries three upperclassmen on the roster. Kroll calls Scott “the heartbeat of our team,” and notes that Scott’s teammates respect her for her work ethic and for her ability to build connections with people. Scott says that she leads from a “bottom-up approach, rather than a top-down approach.” She explains, “I try to figure out how individual teammates are motivated, and have real conversations with my teammates about what they want out of the season. I try to have our goals come from them.”

Scott has served on SAAC for three years—first as a member of the Blue Pride Committee, which raises campus support for athletics and celebrates Wellesley’s athletic teams, and now, as one of two members of the SAAC executive board, which oversees the entire committee and its several subcommittees. “Our goal is to make SAAC more visible on campus,” she says. “We do a lot behind the scenes, but I really want to branch out and work with other organizations on campus.”

After she graduates from Wellesley, Scott, a psychology major, plans on studying for her doctorate in sports psychology. “Last year, I was sitting down and speaking with my mom, and we talked about how I love helping people and how I also love sports, and sports psychology came to mind,” she says. “It’s really something that I would love to do—and, it sounds like something that I already do. As a captain and a leader through SAAC, I try to help people as much as I can, and I always try to be there for people that need someone to talk to, or need help or advice.”