City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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It was a commitment Anna Stein never saw coming. 

A senior at Perkiomen Valley, Stein had seen her dream of playing college basketball derailed by a major knee injury which required two surgeries, cost her two summers of grassroots basketball and a whole high school season, limiting her greatly in another. While the rest of her teammates — her younger sister included — were picking up scholarship offers and collegiate interest left and right, she had to cheer them on from the sidelines.

But right as she was starting to think about other ways to keep her hoops career going after high school, an opportunity presented itself, and Stein didn’t need to think twice. She announced her commitment to Kutztown on Friday, becoming the third local senior who will be joining the Golden Bears’ roster to play for head coach Janet Malouf next fall.

“It literally just felt like a miracle, almost,” she said. “I didn’t think that it was possible.”

Stein started her whole freshman year at Perkiomen Valley, when the Vikings went 8-6 in the pandemic-shortened season, the majority of their current core still in middle school. Set to play a big role as a sophomore, she suffered a torn ACL while playing lacrosse just a few weeks before hoops tryouts, knocking her out for not just that season but the important 16U summer, when many college coaches are trying to figure out their recruiting priorities for the next couple classes. 

One setback in high school was something she was somewhat prepared for, knowing there was time to come back, her upperclassman years ahead: “I felt really down about it, but I kind of just saw it as an opportunity to come back from something, another obstacle,” she said.

But even when she came back for her junior year, sharing the court with sisters Ella (a senior) and Lena (a sophomore), there was still pain, still limitations. She played in 24 games as a junior, a deeper reserve on a team that won the Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 6A championships, but never really felt like herself. 

“I must have re-torn it somewhere along the line but I had no idea,” she said. “I was in a lot of pain, I got an MRi and they told me that they re-tore my meniscus, and it was a clean-up surgery also. It took me about four months to fully recover.”

She found out in March, but couldn’t have surgery until June, all of it horrible timing: instead of playing grassroots ball this summer, getting back out in front of all the college coaches, she was sidelined once again. The dream of playing college hoops suddenly seemed much less likely, Stein unsure when — if ever — she’d get the chance to show coaches what she can do.

She considered looking at junior colleges, or perhaps just going to a big school and playing club ball. Wrapping up her hoops career was not an option.

“I was just looking for another route,” she said, “Just because I didn’t think that it was possible. I was like, I’m going to still keep grinding and keep pushing for it, and maybe something happens, it will.”

Stein got cleared in August, just in time to go to a prospect camp at Kutztown in early September, the coaches inviting her sister Lena, not realizing Anna was able to participate until they did. Playing pain-free for the first time in years, she caught the eye of the Golden Bears’ coaches, who recruited her for the next few weeks. She went up to visit on Thursday, Oct. 12, and the connection was instant.

“It was like the second I walked onto campus, and I mean, that was the teller,” she said. “I just felt so at home and then the coaches, the players, everyone is just amazing and it just felt so welcoming. I didn’t feel out of place at all, it was awesome. 

“I was going to wait [to commit] and it was just on my mind — I knew. There was nowhere else to even look. I loved it.”

In her years off, Stein had become Perk Valley's unofficial graphics designer, doing most of the graphics work on the school's various athletics teams' Instagram pages. For the first time, she got to make a graphic for herself.

Stein becomes the fourth member of Kutztown’s incoming freshman class, along with locals Alexa Windish (Archbishop Wood) and Jess Aponik (Germantown Academy), both of whom committed earlier this fall. They all bring something different to the table: Windish is a 5-7 combo guard and sharpshooter, Aponik a big wing at 5-11 who can play the ‘2,’ ‘3’ and ‘4.’ 

“We’ve got a good group of girls coming in,” she said. “I played against them all, but don’t really know them that well, but they’re all amazing players, I’m super-excited. They all work hard.”

Before she gets to college, Stein’s looking forward to being a significant varsity contributor for the first time in her high school career, on a Vikings squad that’s the favorite to repeat as District 1 6A champs, with its sights on a much deeper run in the PIAA 6A tournament than their second-round exit a year ago. 

It’s also the first time she’ll really get to share a court with her younger sister Lena, who’s been an integral part of the rotation each of the last two years, with both of them healthy and able to contribute at a high level. That was the case at the Billy Lake ALS Memorial event on Saturday, when Anna had 14 points, six rebounds and three assists while Lena added 10 points, six rebounds and four assists as Perk Valley beat Archbishop Carroll.

“It’s awesome,” Anna Stein said. “Every single day, we’re working out together and just getting each other better [...]  it’s everything we’d ever want.”