City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson | (@ADRobinson3)

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Nadia Yemola always knew where she was going to end up, even if she didn’t completely realize it right away.

Last fall, Yemola took a trip up to Kutztown to participate in the Golden Bears’ annual Elite Camp for college prospects and had caught the eye of the coaching staff. A few weeks later, they invited her back for a campus tour and made sure the sweet-shooting guard left with an offer for good measure.

Yemola made what she’d already known for a while official and announced her commitment to play college basketball at Kutztown last month.

“It’s important to go where you’re wanted and that’s how Kutztown made me feel,” Yemola said. “I knew exactly what they wanted to see from me, how I could fit into the program and overall just really wanted. I just knew it.”

Yemola enters her fourth year as a varsity player for Lansdale Catholic, the 5-foot-8 guard from Harleysville a regular starter for much of them including two state title game appearances. In between seasons at LC, Yemola was also a regular on the Lady Runnin’ Rebels HGSL team where her ability to run the floor was an asset.

Between her size, shooting ability and speed, the KU staff liked what they’d seen. Once Yemola put together a good performance on campus, their interest only intensified.

She recalled being a little nervous at first, but once all that got out of the way, Yemola left feeling pretty confident about how she’d done in the drills and scrimmages.

“They’d started watching me during my sophomore year through AAU going into my junior year,” Yemola said. “After I went up for the Elite Camp, they started talking more to my coaches, talked with me a little bit and they kept coming to our open gyms. It all went really well, they had me up last October and that’s when they offered.”

Aside from Kutztown,Yemola said she had interest from a few other local D-II and D-III programs. Subconsciously, she found herself comparing everything back to Kutztown and realized something her mom had said on their tour was right, it was the place she wanted to be.

“During my AAU season it was always in the back of my mind, whoever I talked to, whatever other schools I visited, I kept coming back to Kutztown,” Yemola said. “Even at the end of the summer, after the live periods when all the coaches were there, I couldn’t stop thinking about Kutztown. I checked a lot of my boxes and through being in contact with the coaches, I was just really set on going there.”

Yemola is the second member of the 2025 class for Kutztown, joining Lancaster Catholic’s Stella Higgins. The LC senior becomes the latest in a long line of local players to play for the PSAC program, with the Golden Bears welcoming Jess Aponik (Germantown Academy), Kitty Randa (Hatboro-Horsham), Alexa Windish (Archbishop Wood) and Anna Stein (Perk Valley) as part of their 2024 class.

A lot of her conversations with Kutztown head coach Janet Malouf and assistant Justin Hallman were focused on fit and development. The Golden Bears staff had a clear vision how Yemola fit into their team and how they would continue her development as a player to make that fit seamless.

“They really liked my shooting ability, that’s a big part of what their offense is,” Yemola said. “They like using the fast-break, which is how I played with the Rebels, plus the fact I can really shoot the three.

“They talked to me about getting stronger, because that’s just going to help with everything, and my defense because at the next level, it’s even better players so that’s a really big aspect.”

Yemola may have locked up her college decision, but she’s far from lacking motivation for her senior year. After playing in state title games as a freshman and a sophomore, winning one along with a PCL title in 2023, Yemola and Lansdale Catholic fell short of their expectations last season.

Yemola and Sanyiah Littlejohn, who committed to George Mason earlier this summer, return for their fourth  season as top varsity players and Grace McDonough, who has two dozen D-I offers, is back for her second season with LC off an all-state junior. That senior trio wants to make up for last year and Yemola feels having her college choice out of the way will help do that.

“It hurt a lot that we didn’t get as far as we wanted to, but we’re already talking about the plan for this year,” Yemola said. “We have a lot of motivation to win it all this year. With the pieces we have, between our big players in Sanyiah and Grace then Aubrey (Mobley) and Allie (Esposito) in the mix and even some of our newer players, you can see them developing and fitting in really well.”

Last winter was also frustrating at times on an individual level, Yemola struggled at times during the season and didn’t always have the same impact she did as a freshman or sophomore. She also knew the Kutztown staff had come to or watched a lot of her games during the season and it was their reaction to any struggles she might have had that only strengthened what she already knew.

“Ever since they started contact with me, they’ve always been in contact,” Yemola said. “It means so much. They’d see me have a not-so-good game and text me immediately after just ‘keep your head up’ or ‘remember who you are’ and that went a really long way.

“I always wanted to play in college, even through all the ups and downs, I’d get really mad sometimes and feel like there wasn’t any hope but Kutztown really helped me with that. They’ve always been in contact, they’ve seen me play at my best and my worst and it means a lot to me, the loyalty and sticking by me.”