Basketball
Favorite athlete: Kevin Durant
Favorite team: UNC Men’s Basketball
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning third place at Nationals with my ninth grade Fencor AAU team.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: We were doing a backpedaling drill during practice, and I tripped over my own two feet and fell flat on my butt. My teammates never let me live that one down!
Music on iPod: Hip Hop/Pop/Rap and lots of Maroon 5
Future plans: I will be attending either Philadelphia University or Drexel University and majoring in Graphic Design.
Words to live by: “The only person you have to prove anything to is yourself.”
One goal before turning 30: I want to have a job that I enjoy and hopefully have a family.
One thing people don’t know about me: Even though I’m tall, I’m deathly afraid of heights!
By Mary Jane Souder
January 16, 2014
It’s a date Souderton coach Lynn Carroll and senior Sarah Derstein both remember quite well. Not so much for the outcome of the Indians’ game at North Penn that saw the eventual league and district champion Lady Knights earn a 51-46 victory, but rather for what transpired during that game.
“Sarah was on the court, and she looked at me and pointed at herself and indicated, ‘I want the ball,’” Carroll recalled. “I have never seen that kind of determination from her in terms of wanting to be ‘the man.’
“She always works hard, she’s always willing to do what the team needs, but it wasn’t until that point that I thought that was something she would be interested in. It was very clear after that moment – that was something she was capable of accepting, that was a role she was willing to take on.”
That defining moment is equally clear to the soft-spoken Derstein.
“I remember the exact moment – I can still picture it in my mind,” the Indians’ senior forward said. “I think it was at the time when (North Penn center) Mikaela Giuliani had been having nose issues, and she got hit in the nose again. At that moment in the game, I thought she was distracted by that, and I was like, ‘Give me the ball.’
“Coach Carroll looked at me like, ‘Okay, pass it in to Sarah.’ I think that’s when everything changed.”
Derstein, a standout defender and rebounder, went on to score 15 points while also pulling down eight rebounds and blocking four shots. She closed out the season strong and was the centerpiece of Carroll’s game planning for the 2014-15 season.
“We were going to have to find ourselves as a team because we were so new, but if there was one thing I was sure of, it was Sarah was going to average a double-double and teams were really going to focus on her,” Carroll said. “It was going to open everything else up.
“Offensively, she continued to get better. She really put in a lot of work during the offseason, and she was shooting three’s. She was working on her ball handling, she was getting much more comfortable playing a more diverse game on the offensive end. We were expecting a lot of good things for her senior year.”
Derstein had equally high expectations of herself.
“After last year’s school season, I had it in my mind I wanted to be more like Alex Louin,” she said of her former AAU opponent who excelled at Mount St. Joseph Academy and is now playing at Villanova. “I wanted to become someone that would be able to handle the ball, I wanted to extend my range, so I definitely worked on that a lot over the summer.
“I actually asked my AAU coach to move me into a three position so I could work on my ball handling skills, and that helped with my shot because I was able to get those kind of looks outside the paint.”
Everything was in place for Derstein to have a stellar senior season.
Until Sept. 27 and her Fencor AAU team’s final tournament game of the season at Spooky Nook in Lancaster.
“I don’t remember anything that happened in that game except setting to take a charge against a girl that had been driving all game, so I thought, ‘I’m going to be able to take this charge because she’s not going to pull up. She’s going to go right to the basket,’” Derstein said. “I remember hitting the court.
“I knew right away I had a concussion, but I think I was in denial that it was as serious as it was. I knew my season was coming up, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.”
Initially, Derstein believed she would be back in plenty of time for her final high school season.
“Even two weeks into it, I was thinking – ‘Oh, this will be over in the next week or two. I won’t have the headaches anymore. It’ll be great,’” she said.
The script didn’t exactly go as planned for Derstein.
“I went to a concussion specialist, and I needed to go to therapy and then glasses were thrown into the equation with my vision being messed up,” she said. “That’s when I realized – oh, this is more serious than I thought it would be.”
The vestibular therapy helped retrain her eyes to read and process information.
“When I first got my concussion and even a couple of months into it – when I would read, my eyes would shake back and forth just trying to keep up with my brain,” Derstein said. “I had to do exercises where I moved my eyes in different directions, just trying to focus on not getting them to shake while I was reading.”
Derstein – who also excels in the classroom - attended classes for only half days from the time of her concussion until early December. By that time, basketball season was underway, and she was still a long way from getting back on the court.
“At that point, it was just difficult for me to sit there and listen to the basketballs pounding on the court,” Derstein said. “A couple of times when I was having bad days I would give coach Carroll the nod and head out because I couldn’t take the pounding of the basketballs.”
Three times over the course of the season Derstein was projected to return to action. Three times she failed the concussion test.
“To hang in there and hang in there and be disappointed and be disappointed again and you keep trying to come back and it’s not working out – I would have given up a while ago,” Carroll said. “I would have stopped trying to come back. Repeatedly failing the concussion test, but she didn’t.
“At one point, I think it was after her second time failing it – I said, ‘Do you think at some point you might say that maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe we should just move on and avoid more disappointment.’ She said, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’
“For whatever reason, it seemed like between the second and third time, she was just more determined where I think most people would have been less. She just had it in her mind she needed to make this happen.”
And Derstein did make it happen.
The fourth concussion test - taken in late January with the season winding down - was the charm. In order to ensure Derstein had the two required practices before she could see game action, the team held a voluntary practice on a Sunday to make it happen.
The final four games of the season read like a storybook.
In 18 games without Derstein, the Indians were 6-12. With their senior leader back in the lineup, they were 3-1, notching wins over three teams that went on to compete in the district tournament. Their only loss in that span was by four points to a North Penn squad that is playing in the state tournament.
“For the freshmen, it’s really the first time they ever played with her,” Carroll said. “It was like new life. It felt like our season just started.
“I knew we were going to be better, but we were a completely different team. The attention she attracted was instant. It happened right away, and it was all of the time – even if she didn’t have the ball. We had one real practice with Sarah before she came back, and it was seamless. It was as if we had been doing it for 18 games, and we hadn’t been.”
In her first game back, Derstein – who had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots - was a catalyst in Souderton’s 50-41 win over Pennridge.
“I was thrilled to be back,” Derstein said. “I was just so thrilled to be back and help the girls in any way I could.
“It’s hard knowing that I missed out on a lot of my senior year, not being able to play. I feel fortunate that I was able to get the last four games in because I’d feel so much worse if I wouldn’t have gotten those games in. I was so excited to be back, but I think the girls were even more excited than I was.”
As impressive as Derstein is on the basketball court, the senior captain – according to her coach – is even more impressive off it.
“For some reason, to describe a person as kind doesn’t sound like a big deal, but everything about Sarah is kind,” Carroll said. “I don’t think there’s a better word for it.
“She just has a good heart. Some people you can just tell everything about them is good – to the core, they’re a good person, and that’s Sarah. I can’t imagine you could find anyone that could say something bad about her. I know her teammates thought highly of her. She’s just to the core a good, solid person.”
***
Derstein came by her love of basketball honestly. Both her parents – Corey and Kristen (Muschert) Derstein – excelled at sports. Blessed with both height and talent, she was a natural, earning a spot on the varsity as a freshman. She went on to become a three-year starter.
“It was pretty clear that she was going to have a good career for us almost immediately once her freshman year started,” Carroll said. “Up until halfway through her junior year, she did all the little things.
“She rebounded, she blocked shots, she defended, she got a ton of deflections and maybe she would score 4-6 points because she didn’t have a strong desire to score.
“She was happy helping other people score. Even as her ability to score grew, she was always a pass-first kind of player. What she does defensively is just so difficult to replace. We drill everything repeatedly – even if you know where to be and when to get there, Sarah just had that extra piece that just made her better than most on the defensive end.”
Carroll can’t help but wonder what might have been if the Indians had a healthy Derstein for the season just completed. For Derstein, it was her final go-round since she does not plan to continue her basketball career at the collegiate level.
“It’s extremely hard,” she said of the decision to not play. “Since our last game to now is probably the longest break I’ve had without basketball, and it’s so hard not to play.
“I know going forward it’s going to be tough, but at some point, I’m going to have to move on with my life.”
Derstein – at the suggestion of AAU coach Eric Glemser – may look into the possibility of serving as manager of the basketball team next year.
An honors student and a member of SAVE, Derstein is deciding between Philadelphia University and Drexel University and has been accepted at both. Wherever she goes, she plans to major in graphic design with possibly a double major in either marketing or computer science.
“Anything with art interests me,” she said. “Art has been one of my passions. I think I have taken almost every art class they offer at school.
“I just enjoy it so much. They always say – whatever you enjoy most, that’s what you should do as a job.”
Ask her what she enjoyed most about her high school basketball career, and her answer is telling.
“Honestly, the girls made the whole experience what it is,” she said. “The friendships I’ve formed – that’s the most rewarding part of being on the team.
“Forget about actually playing the sport, the wins and losses. Just the friendships you form off the court are the most valuable thing to me.”
