Madison Curry Settles into Seattle, Ready to Make an Impact as the 2025 Season Approaches
After signing with the Reign in December 2024, defender Madison Curry is settling into Seattle, both on and off the pitch.
In her first offseason as a free agent, Curry chose to make the move to Seattle from Angel City FC in Los Angeles, initially intrigued by the positive culture that surrounded the team.
“The first thing that interested me was just the culture of the team, from the outside looking in,” said Curry. “It just seemed like everyone is very connected and even through harder times, it seemed like they enjoyed each other's company and that was something that really appealed to me.”
The defender started her NWSL journey when she was selected by Angel City FC as the 51st overall pick in the 2024 NWSL Draft. She burst onto the scene, making her professional debut against the Orlando Pride on March 22 as a substitute before earning her first start the following match on March 30 against the Kansas City Current, where she also scored her first professional goal.
"Last year was honestly one of the longest of my life in a lot of different ways,” shared the Coto de Caza native. “Coming into this league at this time is just incredibly challenging, as a person and player. I was really lucky to be close to home.”
After an unpredictable rookie season that saw Angel City finish in 12th place, Curry learned a lot of important lessons that she plans to take with her as she enters her second professional season.
"The biggest thing for me is the mindset shift,” said Curry. “A lot of last year, I really struggled with Imposter syndrome and sort of feeling like I shouldn't be starting or I shouldn't be playing, when it's a really big privilege to have that pressure. So I think this year, my mentality is just to help the team right away and sort of have that gritty attitude and help in whatever way I can instead of sort of taking the back seat like I did last year.”
Through a series of preseason friendly matches, the versatile defender has had the opportunity to slot into the Reign’s backline on multiple occasions and is becoming increasingly comfortable with the team.
"I feel great to be able to be playing in the backline,” noted Curry. “It's preseason, so we're sort of getting back into game shape and game awareness, which I think we can sort of see as the games go on, it just keeps getting better."
She continued, “Everyone here has been so helpful, and the girls are great. We're all striving together through the discomfort to sort of push towards our goals. It's been a really enjoyable experience so far, which is not always the case for preseason, so that's really been really special.”
A lifelong soccer player, Curry knew that she wanted to become a professional from a young age, inspired to use the game as a method not only to grow her skillset as a player, but to become a better person.
“I had two really great mentors in Walid and Ziad Khoury from Slammers,” recalled Curry. “Their biggest thing was, for me personally, having soccer as a method to grow as a person. You want to learn as much as you can every time you step on that field. Soccer has led me to such pivotal moments in my life and it made me learn a lot about myself.”
Her love of the game drove her to continue her path from youth soccer to Princeton, where she majored in neuroscience.
“Princeton was kind of a random pick for me,” Curry admitted. “I really wanted to find the balance between school and soccer so I could best position myself.”
"I've always been a STEM person growing up. Neuroscience really connected with me because I love doing sort of like odd niches and I love the brain.”
In addition to majoring in neuroscience, she took a gap semester before her senior year to gain experience as an aerospace engineer intern.
On the field as a Tiger, she made 48 starts in 51 appearances, recording three goals and four assists. She earned three consecutive First Team All-Ivy League selections and was named to the United Soccer Coaches Third Team All-American and All-East Region Second Team.
With just five days until the Reign’s 2025 Home Opener at Lumen Field, Curry can’t wait to get started in front of a home crowd.
“I think this year is going to be electric and I think we need every fan possible in Seattle to come to the game because I think it's going to be a really exciting season with a really exciting bunch of women and people around us, and I just don’t think they're going to want to miss one second of it.”
Fans can get tickets to Reign FC’s Home Opener on Saturday, March 15 now by visiting reignfc.com/tickets.