Basketball
Favorite athlete: Joel Embiid
Favorite team: Sixers
Favorite memory competing in sports: When we beat North Penn in districts last year. This was probably one of my better overall season games, but we blew a 13-point lead, and I committed a foul with two seconds left and the game was tied. I was shocked. Their player made the basket and the foul shot to go up three. I inbounded the ball to Jordan Vitelli, and she took two dribbles and swished a 60-footer to send the game into overtime. I went from complete shock and despair to exhilaration in a matter of seconds. I ended up making two foul shots in overtime to help us win.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: When one of my best friends, Melissa Veal, who is my teammate, got told to go into the game sophomore year and when my coach turned around five minutes later she was still sitting there. My coach asked what she was doing and she said, "I can't go in without Meghan."
Music on your iPod: Country
Future plans: Attend Towson University and major in Elementary Education.
Words to live by: “You only get out of life what you put into it.”
One goal before turning 30: To have the job of my dreams and have a family of my own.
One thing people don’t know about me: I played my whole senior year of basketball with a torn meniscus.
By Mary Jane Souder
Meghan Kuypers had her future plans neatly in place.
The Central Buck South senior – who gave up soccer in favor of basketball after her sophomore season – would use her junior year of AAU basketball to get looks from college coaches. The only question that remained was where she’d continue her basketball career after high school.
The script didn’t exactly go as planned.
Kuypers remembers all too well the night last spring that altered the course of her future. Although she didn’t know it at the time.
“I remember the specific practice,” Kuypers said. “I went from open gym for South to AAU practice.
“I practiced at open gym and I was fine. Right when I got to AAU, I started running, and I don’t remember what I did, but I couldn’t bend my knee. I walked off, and my knee was really swollen.”
When a week away from basketball didn’t reduce the swelling, Kuypers visited the doctor.
“I found out I just needed surgery on my cartilage to smooth it out,” she said. “I got that in July, and it was supposed to be a quick recovery. I was supposed to be back by September.”
After a summer of rehab, Kuypers assumed she’d be ready to go for her AAU team’s final tournament of the season – a major showcase – in September.
“I got to the tournament, and I couldn’t even play the first game,” she said. “I couldn’t even run.
“I was shocked because I did everything I was supposed to. They said it was supposed to be fast (recovery), but it wasn’t, so I was like, ‘Clearly, something’s wrong.’”
Kuypers took more time off but still wasn’t able to run when South’s open gyms began last fall.
“I couldn’t bend my leg,” she said. “It was weird. I couldn’t even explain the feeling.
“I went back to the doctor in early December, and I found out I had a tear in my meniscus. If I had gone earlier, I could have had the surgery, but I went too late into basketball season, so I got a cortisone shot and got my knee drained because it was really swollen.”
The cortisone shot dulled the pain for a brief stretch but wasn’t a solution. Kuypers was playing in constant pain. Late in the season, she got a second cortisone shot.
“I was trying to be refreshed for districts and states,” Kuypers said. “The first one didn’t even last long, so I knew the second one was a long shot. I wanted to see if it would help, but it didn’t.
“I had to just play through (the pain), but it was really hard. I’ve never had an experience with something like that. I know what Jordan (Vitelli, who had compartment syndrome in both legs) was going through. It’s honestly so hard to play through the pain, but I wanted to finish my season.”
Kuypers admits there were moments she briefly forgot about the pain, recalling the Titans’ 48-34 win over SOL Continental Conference champion North Penn as one of those occasions.
“I guess I didn’t feel it because of the adrenaline,” said Kuypers, who scored 11 points and was a key factor in the win. “I was so into the game, but after the game, I could not move my leg. I couldn’t even get off the bus because it was throbbing.
“After every game, I thought, ‘Is this my last game?’ But I couldn’t make it my last game.”
Kuypers made it through the season but will have surgery to repair her torn meniscus on Tuesday.
“She’s just an amazing kid,” South coach Beth Mattern said. “Her personality and what she brings to the table – she’s so fun to have around, to be around and to coach.
“She’s really competitive, and this season meant a lot to her. We were successful last year but trying to replicate that and having goals – for it to never pan out for her the way she wanted was definitely hard for her, but I think she’s also grateful that she was able to be on the court and that she did get to play. Although it wasn’t the way she wanted it, she at least was a participant and was definitely a contributor to the team.”
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Kuypers grew up playing both soccer and basketball and wound up playing travel for both through middle school. As a sophomore, she was a member of the varsity soccer team.
“Honestly, during middle school, I was really competitive in soccer, and I thought I would want to play soccer more than basketball, but when I got to high school, I realized soccer wasn’t for me and that basketball was,” Kuypers said. “I had so much fun doing it, and I just felt I connected with the girls more.”
According to Mattern, Kuypers – the owner of a spot-on 3-pointer when she’s healthy – was a quick study.
“When she first started as a freshman and would come to open gyms, she shot the ball two-handed,” the Titans’ coach said. “What was fun with her was she just started trying to shoot the way we showed her, and actually, she shot the ball pretty well coming in. We just tried to clean it up a little bit.
“She was always a worker, and you always knew she was going to be a big part of the team.”
As a junior, Kuypers was a key contributor on a varsity squad that made history by earning the program’s first ever state berth and then winning a state playoff game. With the loss of four senior starters from that squad to graduation, Kuypers admits that no one was quite sure what to expect this season.
“We thought it was going to be a tough transition, but we had the same connection as they did last year,” Kuypers said.
And it is that connection that Kuypers will remember most.
“We all just have a great bond,” she said. “Not that everything is about fun. We can be serious, but we all have a connection.
“They’re all my closest, best friends. Just playing with them made it 10 times better. Last year when we lost Jordan (Vitelli) and all the seniors we were so bummed, but even though we lost some of our closest friends, we still have the same bond we had last year.”
Mattern can’t help wondering what might have been had Kuypers been healthy.
“She never really did a full-out practice,” the Titans’ coach said. “She would shoot and be active, but other days, she wouldn’t even shoot.
“She was just icing her knee and trying to keep her symptoms at bay the best she could. There were games – when we were at North Penn (the 48-34 win), she was fantastic. She had some spurts when she was definitely able to play the way she wanted to, but she never was able to do what you would imagine she would be able to do those 32 minutes. Half the time she couldn’t put pressure on her leg, and that makes it difficult to play basketball. You know what – that never stopped her drive and her fight. I will always give her the utmost credit for the season because she gave more than I thought she could.”
Kuypers is hoping that club basketball will be part of her future when she enrolls at Towson University next fall.
“I can’t imagine not playing,” she said. “When I went to visit, I talked to the one girl, and she said it was really competitive.
“I’d rather it be competitive than not. I don’t want it to be something that people don’t take seriously.”
An honors student, Kuypers, who is also involved in Titans Connect and the school’s Black and Blue Night, has her sights set on one day becoming an elementary school teacher.
“I love little kids, and it’s something I want to do,” she said.
