Now in her fifth season as a member of the Harlan basketball team, senior Kylie Noe has established herself as one of the top players in the 13th Region and one of the all-time greats to ever don the green and white for the Lady Dragons.
After becoming just the fourth Harlan girls player to amass 2,000 career points last month in a home victory against district rival Middlesboro, Noe is averaging 21.2 points over the team’s past five games — all wins — and the Lady Dragons are playing their best basketball with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Harlan coach Mackenzie Varner was quick to praise her standout forward.
“She’s meant a lot to the program, even beyond the team,” Varner said. “She’s just a great kid to have around. There’s a lot of things that she gives to us and to say about her. She’s a great basketball player, she has a great attitude and she’s a great leader.
“She is a very dominant offensive player, so she helps us a lot on that side of the floor, but she’s also a strong defender. She helps contain some of the main players on the opposite team and then can transition from defense to offense. That means a lot going both ways.”
As one of four returning starters from a team that finished 18-14 last year and runner-up in the 52nd District tournament, Noe believes the Lady Dragons are positioning themselves for a strong finish to the regular season, and beyond.
“We have a good team and I think we’re all on the same page,” Noe said about the 15-11 Lady Dragons. “If we can just stay on the same page, then we can do big things, coming up.
“We feed off of each other, so if one of us is hyped up it just carries over to everybody else. When we all just do our jobs, we usually win.”
Noe forms one-half of one of the most dynamic tandems in the 13th Region, alongside senior teammate Aymanni Wynn. Despite her 5-foot-9 frame, Noe has become a scoring threat inside the painted area, while Wynn has enjoyed great success from long range.
“Me and her are opposites,” Noe said about Wynn. “She likes to play outside and I like to play inside, and I think that’s good for our team. We need that. She can play inside, too, with her height and her footwork, but it’s great that we are that 1-2 punch.
“I have a lot of confidence going inside. Every time I go to the basket I think I’m going to make it or get fouled.”
With three of the Lady Dragons’ final four regular season games at home, followed by the 52nd District Tournament at home, Noe understands the importance of taking it one game at a time and building on the team’s recent, and timely, success.
But she also admitted the clock is officially ticking down on her basketball career.
After having knee surgery in seventh grade, and despite having the desire to play college basketball, Noe has decided that this season will be her last.
“I have a desire to play at the (college) level, but my knee is hurt right now and I don’t want to have to go through surgery,” Noe said. “I’ve already been through it one time, and I don’t think I want to go through it again.”
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and every time I step on the court I know (the end of my career) is getting real close and I just try to go as hard as I can.”
