Basketball
Favorite athlete: Lebron James
Favorite teams: Philadelphia Eagles or Miami Heat
Favorite memory competing in sports: Making a three-pointer in the last five seconds to win the game against Academy of Notre Dame my sophomore year at South.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: I was playing soccer in the rain and the fields were very slippery. I kicked the ball and completely missed. It was like the Lucy and Charlie Brown moment.
Music on iPod: Beyonce
Future plans: Go to West Chester University and play basketball while pursuing a degree in business.
One goal before turning 30: Run a half marathon
One thing people don’t know about me: I used to play the piano.
By Mary Jane Souder
Alysha Lofton is back.
The Central Bucks South senior wasted little time establishing that fact in her team’s season opener against Notre Dame in the opening round of the Springfield-Delco Tournament, and no one was happier than South coach Beth Mattern.
“We got the opening tip, and she got an offensive board and the putback for the first basket,” the Titans’ coach said. “Literally 10 seconds later on our first defensive trip, they see her, they pass the ball to her player, and she just makes a great break on the ball, and it’s a layup at the other end.
“It was at that moment I just kind of smiled to myself, and I was like, ‘Yup, she’s ready.’”
Lofton was born ready, but the gifted senior – poised to have a stellar junior season – was derailed when she tore her ACL in South’s fifth game of the season against North Penn.
It has been a long journey back since that December night, but Lofton served notice in the first weekend of the season that she is going to make up for last time, scoring 40 points and copping MVP honors while leading the Titans to the tournament title.
“I absolutely loved it,” Lofton said of being back on the court again. “It was the rush I missed, it was the competitiveness and just everything I did not get to do last year. It was enjoyable to be with a group of girls that lets me share that with them.”
Lofton, according to her coach, brings a special skill set to the court.
“Alysha is a great player because of her natural ability to see the floor,” Mattern said. “She is athletic, strong and uses her instincts to excel on the court.
“Alysha is a versatile player who can at any given time be the point guard or the center, depending on the need of the team. She also is able to defend anyone from the point guard to center on the court.”
Lofton is defined not only by her talent but by her love of the game and her ‘team first’ attitude.
“The most difficult part (of the injury) wasn’t the therapy because it’s physical exercise,” she said. “The body can get back and used to that. It was knowing I couldn’t help my team.”
A four-year varsity player, Lofton came off the bench as a freshman and immediately made her presence felt on the defensive end. Her offensive game developed over the years.
“Her offensive game and her growth just really impressed me to the point where, as a junior, she really was looking like a complete player, the total package,” Mattern said.
Although she became an offensive weapon for the Titans, Lofton’s calling card was her defense. Her six-steal effort to go along with 19 points in an early season win over Abington last season figured to be a preview of things to come.
“She showed her true athleticism and her natural ability to read what’s going on on the court and react,” Mattern said. “A lot of what she does you can’t teach someone to do.
“She understands the game. She’s athletic, she works hard, and she reacts to it.”
One week later, in the Titans’ game against North Penn, an already depleted South team saw Lofton go down hard in a collision on a fast break.
“My teammate tried to help me up, but I was like, ‘No, no, no – I can’t straighten my knee,’” Lofton said. “I just thought I hurt it really bad or landed on it weirdly.
“I could walk on it, and I thought, ‘Okay, I’m fine, I’m fine.’”
But the swelling didn’t go down, and an MRI confirmed that Lofton had torn her ACL and would need surgery. Her junior season was over after five games.
“I was heartbroken for her,” Mattern said. “It took me a little bit to get over that for her.
“Personally, I tore my ACL my junior year in high school, right at the beginning of the season. I knew in my gut what it was going to take. She’s a 100 times better player than I was, and I knew the effort it would take to get back to where she wants to be. I knew she was a kid who could do that, but I sympathized with her. It was hard to watch her go through that.”
Lofton’s injury was a devastating loss for the Titans.
“She’s our centerpiece, and she’s such a leader on the court,” Mattern said.
Lofton somehow managed to put her injury into perspective.
“I thought, ‘Okay, nothing too major. You come back from an ACL in six months. Dr. Boylan is the best doctor in our area, and he can get you back to where you were,’” Lofton said. “I could only think positive.
“Me being negative won’t help by team at all.”
Lofton – cleared to play on August 17 – appears to be back. Yes, she’s wearing a knee brace, but that might be the only reminder of her injury.
“It feels good,” she said of her knee. “It feels stronger. Everyone kept telling me – ‘You’ll come back stronger than ever.’
“I was like, ‘Okay,’ and trying to be real optimistic about it. Now I feel like, ‘Yeah, they were right.’ It’s actually stronger.”
Lofton has been playing basketball since she was seven. She also tried her hand at soccer, karate and gymnastics. While karate and gymnastics were the first to go, soccer stuck until she was a junior in high school, but basketball has always been number one for Lofton.
“I like the teamwork and togetherness more than soccer,” she said. “It was a little more fast-paced. In soccer, you score one goal and it’s hard to come back from that.
“Basketball has that comeback game.”
Lofton was a natural on the court, and it wasn’t long before she had joined the AAU circuit. Even though she was sidelined for the better part of her final AAU season, Lofton’s story has a happy ending as she will continue her basketball career at West Chester University next year.
“The injury slowed the recruiting down because I couldn’t really show the coaches during the AAU season that I’m back, I’m ready to play and my knee is better,” she said. “Thankfully, West Chester was always there and recruiting me.
“I played in one AAU tournament this fall, and West Chester was there. I was like, ‘Thank you for always being there.’ They weren’t the only ones, but I was happy they were there.”
Lofton chose West Chester from a final list that included East Stroudsburg, Colgate and Eastern Illinois.
“I narrowed it down to my priorities of where I could get the best education, where I could get the best college experience, and it was West Chester,” she said.
Lofton, with four years of language studies under her belt, hopes to major in international business or business and marketing.
“She’s 100 percent solid kid,” Mattern said. “She’s friendly, courteous, polite, an awesome worker in the classroom, always has great things to say to her teammates, always has a smile on her face when she’s walking down the hallway.
“Sometimes Alysha and (senior center) Lauren Mosher will alley oop passes off the backboard to each other for hours if I’d let them. They’re just having fun playing basketball, which is what she really loves to do. Alysha is an awesome kid. She’s just a great kid to be around.”
