The story behind this Perkiomen Valley senior’s ‘miracle’ scholarship to Kutztown

It was a commitment Anna Stein never saw coming.

Stein, a senior guard at Perkiomen Valley, saw her dream of playing college basketball derailed by a major knee injury during her sophomore year, which required two surgeries and cost her two summers of basketball and an entire high school season. While the rest of her teammates were picking up scholarship offers and collegiate interest, she had to cheer them on from the sidelines.

But suddenly an opportunity presented itself, and Stein didn’t think twice. She committed to Kutztown shortly after coach Janet Malouf offered her a scholarship, becoming the third local in the Golden Bears’ class of 2024.

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

Stein started her entire freshman campaign at Perkiomen Valley, when the Vikings went 8-6 in the pandemic-shortened season. 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 the season.

“I felt really down about it,” Stein said. “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 her two sisters, Ella (a senior at the time) and Lena (then a sophomore), there was still pain, still limitations. She played in 24 games as a junior, serving as a deeper reserve on a team that won the Pioneer Athletic Conference and District 1 Class 6A championships.

“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 [I] re-tore my meniscus, and it was a cleanup surgery also. It took me about four months to fully recover.”

She found out in March but couldn’t have surgery until June. She was sidelined once again. The dream of playing college hoops suddenly seemed unlikely as Stein was unsure when — if ever — she’d get the chance to show coaches what she could do.

She considered looking at junior colleges, or perhaps just going to a big school and playing club ball. Completely ending 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.”

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Stein was cleared in August, just in time to go to a prospects camp at Kutztown in early September. The coaches invited her younger sister, Lena, not realizing that Anna was able to participate.

Playing pain-free for the first time in years, Anna caught the eye of the Golden Bears coaches, who recruited her for the next few weeks. She went up to visit on Oct. 12, and the connection was instant.

“It was like the second I walked onto campus, and, I mean, that was the teller,” Stein 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 graphic 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), who committed earlier this fall.

“We’ve got a good group of girls coming in,” Stein 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 is looking forward to being a significant varsity contributor with sights on a deeper run in the PIAA Class 6A tournament than the second-round exit a year ago.

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It’s also the first time she’ll get to share a court with Lena, who’s been an integral part of the Vikings’ rotation for the last two seasons.

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

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.