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\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hoops_sisters.jpg\"\/)
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\nKYLA MCGHEE
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\nFrom left to right, Kyla McGhee, Sydney Barker, Indya Nivar, Bobbi Smith and Reychel Douglas pose for a playful photo after going undefeated in the Wake Forest team camp\u2019s ninth grade bracket as sixth and seventh graders on June 18, 2017.
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<\/p>\n
Even among North Carolina\u2019s long history of great basketball, one team stands out: The Carolina Flames.<\/p>\n
The Amateur Athletic Union program in Garner has produced several athletes who went\u00a0 on to play Division I college and WNBA basketball.
But, the Flames did more than produce elite athletes and play great basketball. It formed unbreakable bonds. In 2014, the Flames\u2019 elementary school team became home to five girls who would soon consider themselves more like sisters.<\/p>\n
Indya Nivar, Bobbi Smith, Kyla McGhee, Sydney Barker and Reychel Douglas didn\u2019t start playing basketball knowing it would bring them their closest friends or their path to college. But when each one walked into the gym in 2014, they began a journey of companionship and excellence on and off the court.<\/p>\n
\u2018Click\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far back as I can think, we always did things together,\u201d said Barker, now a guard at UNC-Chapel Hill. She can\u2019t remember a time when she wasn\u2019t best friends with Nivar, Smith, McGhee and Douglas.<\/p>\n
The five girls joined the Flames around the same time in 2014, all with their unique basketball beginnings, but each one with a growing passion for the game. Though some of the girls were nervous at the start, they became fast friends. \u201cIt was just kind of a click,\u201d Barker said.<\/p>\n
AAU basketball was a higher level than they had played before, and their coach, Jorden Davis, said he thinks the intensity helped them form a strong bond. \u201cThey started molding their friendship because they would help each other when they weren\u2019t at their best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And by helping each other, the girls helped strengthen the team. At one point, Davis said, the team\u2019s overall record was 63-2, and they went two and a half years without losing a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, teams were terrified to play us,\u201d Davis said. \u201cWe had to enter tournaments under fake names \u2013 I kid you not \u2013 just so we could play and get reps in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even during breaks from the AAU season, or when the girls eventually split to different teams, they continued to play together. \u201cWe always played pickup together, we always trained together,\u201d Barker said. They girls agreed they continued to encourage each other to strengthen their skills, all the while strengthening their friendship, which extended far beyond the basketball court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went to the lake, went out to eat, all the things,\u201d Barker said. Though their friendship has changed dynamics over the years as they have spread farther apart, Barker said they continue the foundation they built more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n
\u2018Another playdate\u2019<\/p>\n
As the girls grew older and became more serious about their pursuit of basketball, they helped hold one another accountable, said Bobbi Smith, a senior guard at East Carolina University. \u201cWe understood the importance of training hard and preparing yourself for the next level,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so, I think that fueled our workouts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their presence of just one girl at a workout or training was enough to get another girl to join, Smith said, and not just for the purpose of improving their skills. Smith said, \u201cGetting to go to practice every week and see them was another playdate, honestly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Around middle school, the girls started getting notices from college coaches, and they also moved together to play for Team Wall coached by Zenita Hill. Their group motivation was paying off. \u201cThe knowledge and the IQ that they had, the foundational skills and then some that they had,\u201d Hill said. \u201cOftentimes we were playing up because they would just devour people their age.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girls kept their off-court friendship just as strong, and they made sure they had fun amidst the grind of training. On weekends, they would go to the movies, go bowling, take a trip to the N.C. State Fair \u2013 anything to spend some time together.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur parents, they knew it was coming,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey would always have either the money ready or have the car ready because they knew they\u2019d have to take us somewhere to see each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Who wants to win more?\u2019<\/p>\n
Coaches from top college programs filled the stands as the girls, already several-time state champions, played throughout middle and high school, both when they played together and when they split off to different teams. No one was surprised when offers started rolling in. \u201cOnce I got to seventh or eighth grade, I got my first offer,\u201d said Reychel Douglas, now a guard for the University of Alabama. Nivar, McGhee, Smith and<\/p>\n
Barker all started considering schools around the same time.<\/p>\n
Douglas said girls\u2019 friendship helped them during recruitment, both by continuing to push each other and finding the lighthearted moments throughout the process. When the five girls split off to different teams in high school, the separation provided them the opportunity to see each other from a different perspective \u2013 the other side of the court.<\/p>\n
Some of the girls faced off on their individual AAU teams, but Douglas and Nivar also competed on their high school teams. \u201cAt the end of the day, y\u2019all know y\u2019all are best friends, but when we get on the court, it\u2019s like \u2018Who wants it more?\u2019\u201d Douglas said. \u201cI feel like it brings out that competitive side of both of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As proof, Nivar later said of the matchups, \u201cMy team wins the most.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/hoops_sisters_2.jpg\"\/)
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\nKYLA MCGHEE
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\nFrom left to right, Indya Nivar, Bobbi Smith, Kyla McGhee, Reychel Douglas and Sydney Barker eat brunch together on May 24, 2025.\u00a0
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<\/p>\n
Though they were now opponents instead of teammates, the girls continued training with each other, and Douglas said just talking about recruitment helped them all through the process. \u201cHaving those funny stories to share with each other,\u201d Douglas said, \u201crather than it being all business as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group\u2019s support didn\u2019t stop at basketball recruitment. McGhee said that when she opted not to pursue collegiate basketball, her friends supported her fully through her college application process, and the four girls tracked when application decisions would be released. \u201cThey were the ones who told me when the UNC decisions came out and texted the group chat,\u201d McGhee said.<\/p>\n
In her junior year of high school, Douglas committed to play at the University of Alabama; Nivar spent her first year of college ball with Stanford University, before transferring to UNC-CH her sophomore year; Smith chose to spend her four years with East Carolina University; Barker started at UNC-CH as a walk-on and earned a scholarship in her sophomore year; and McGhee studies sports journalism at UNC-CH.<\/p>\n
\u2018Truly sisters\u2019<\/p>\n
Through all the years of basketball and life moments, the five girls have piled on accolades and memories, and they have never faltered in their support of one another. \u201cWe grew together,\u201d Nivar, a guard for UNC-CH, said. \u201cWe grew as people, as basketball players, and just developed a relationship that\u2019s going to last forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girls hold fond memories of surprising Nivar at the airport when she returned home after winning gold in Argentina with Team USA at the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championship and traveling to Chicago when she was named a McDonald\u2019s All-American the same year. \u201cHaving them there to celebrate another accomplishment that I had,\u201d Nivar said, \u201cit just meant the world to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same love and support is extended to each girl, and it doesn\u2019t stop during hard times. Nivar struggled with the adjustment when she transferred to UNC-CH her second year, and even then, all four girls were there to support her. Barker said she believes it helped to have two of the girls in close proximity to Nivar.<\/p>\n
Today, Nivar, Barker and McGhee live together at UNC-CH, but they miss their two counterparts. \u201cHopefully we can have all five of us together soon,\u201d Nivar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To memorialize their friendship and remember each other when they\u2019re apart, the group got matching tattoos in December 2022 \u2013 five hearts, one for each girl.<\/p>\n
Despite uncertainty about what might come after college, the girls know they will have each other. \u201cI just see us sharing a lot more life memories with each other,\u201d Nivar said. \u201cBeing there, supporting each other through the milestones.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their middle school AAU coach put it simply: \u201cThey are truly sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n
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