UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.- As women's basketball head coach Carolyn Kieger seeks to solidify the future of her young program, she wants to start by looking no further than the state of Pennsylvania itself.
"Any time you have a state that's rich in women's basketball, you want to build a fence around your home and keep the best players around their friends and families," Kieger said. "[Penn State] has a rich history of Pennsylvania players doing a lot for the university and we want to carry on that tradition."
Kieger's 2020-21 squad currently includes five Pennsylvania natives, a Penn State women's basketball single-season high dating back to 2010.
Despite the age differences, and the fact that their hometowns are within an approximate 730-mile radius of one another, it's been a common bond that has pulled the group together.
For senior graduate transfer and Pennsylvania native Kelly Jekot, it was the shared feeling of home pride that aided her in constructing friendships with two of her new teammates and eased the transition from Villanova when she first joined the team in January of 2020.
"When I first committed, me, Anna, and Makenna created a group chat on iMessage," Jekot said. "It's something really cool that we all have in common and it all played a role in our commitment because our hometowns were really excited, and our families can come watch us play."
The sense of comfort that State College presented certainly played a role in Jekot's decision, but as did Kieger's track record with the Marquette Golden Eagles, a program and staff that Jekot was well familiar with before she had even entered the transfer portal.
"I actually played against Kieger's teams for three years in the Big East," Jekot said. "That was always a really challenging game for us."
"When I was at Marquette, I remember speaking with someone on my staff and being like 'We need someone like Kelly on our team,'" Kieger said. "Fast forward two years later and she's playing for me, and it's funny how things work, but she's a tremendous player and I think we're going to bring her game to another level."
For Jekot's close friend, sophomore Makenna Marisa, the decision to play at Penn State was actually relatively easy.
Marisa sports a Penn State bloodline dating back to 1954, a year in which her grandfather, Rudy, helped guide the Nittany Lions men's basketball team to the Final Four, the program's best finish in the history of the NCAA tournament.
"On both my mom and dad's side, there are Penn State people, including my two older brothers who went there and my aunt," Marisa said. "I've had a ton of family come here, so it felt like home away from home, and helping change this program around is just extra special because of that."
After a highly successful high-school career at Peters Township in McMurray, Pa., in which she scored 1,730 points and led her team to an undefeated senior season including a state championship, Marisa had a wide selection of prestigious basketball programs at her discretion.
However, the guard chose to stay home and carry on her family's lineage, influencing other future commitments such as senior Johnasia Cash in the process.
Though they were a few years apart from each other, both Cash and Marisa were actually members of the same AAU organization throughout high school. However, the two never actually had a chance to step onto the court together up until this season.
"Makenna was one of the big reasons I chose Penn State," Cash said. "Knowing that she was there, and since we played in the same program, it really gave me a sense of safety and security."
From Mckeesport, Cash originally committed to Southern Methodist University, where she made 55 starts and averaged career numbers of 7.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. After an impressive junior season in which she finished third in the AAC in rebounds, Cash was lured back to Pennsylvania by the prospect of being close to her family, her friendship with Makenna, and Kieger's well-regarded demeanor.
"I followed my heart and it was time to be closer to my family," Cash said. "The fact that [Kieger] is willing to invest time in me to help my dreams come true--that's what drew me to Penn State."
As Kieger and some of her players can attest to, a major part of the reason that Pennyslvnia produces excellent talent is due to the high level of competition and coaching across the state.
"Whether you're in the Philly area or Central Pa., it doesn't matter. There's so much great, fundamental basketball," Kieger said. "But then spicing it up with the new-age speed and athleticism, you see that Pennsylvania has a lot of talented not just high school, but AAU programs."
"It's insanely competitive in every league, and you can see that through all of the talent it produces on the next level," Maddie Burke said.
Burke, a freshman guard from Doylestown, is not just a four-time All-State and first team All-League honoree in high school, but she's the type of home-grown recruit that Kieger hopes to continue to bring in, on the basis of a hardworking and tight-knit atmosphere.
"I just liked the culture that the coaches set out," Burke said. "The way they ran things at Marquette was really impressive and I want to be a part of that here."
Sophomore Anna Camden out of Downington is another player that epitomizes the level of talent that Pennsylvania is capable of producing, as she graduated as the all-time leading scorer at The Shipley School (1,535 points) after leading the team to back-to-back state championships.
Despite all of her prowess and past successes, Camden points to how the love that she and her teammates have for the state has brought them closer together in pursuit of bigger goals.
"I think there's something unifying that we all decided to stay home and play for our home state and it's cool to have that common ground between us," Camden said.
In essence, the most powerful first step is to look inward, and Kieger wants to dominate the state in recruiting so that her program will dominate on the court in the future.
"I think it's neat for them to come together and share a common bond, and then work towards representing their home state and getting this program back where it should be," Kieger said.
