Every young athlete dreams of playing at the next level. For junior Anna Rafferty, this dream is becoming a reality. So far, this talented individual has an offer from Kennesaw State, with multiple schools showing interest. 

Anna received her first offer from Kennesaw State in June of 2020. 

“I was really excited. I actually hugged my brother for the first time in like two months,”  said Anna. With emotions running high, Anna told her older brother, Ben,  the exciting news first. The next to hear, her parents. When asked, Anna stated that her parents support her decision on whether or not she wants to play in college.

“They just want whatever is best for me. Whatever would make me happiest,” says Anna. Kennesaw State is a division one college located around ten hours away in Kennesaw, Georgia. Being so far away, this young athlete has a tough decision to make as to whether she wants to attend the school or not.

“I’m thinking about it, but I’m not sure that I would want to go that far,” said Anna. With the college being around 670 miles away, Anna has to decide whether or not she wants to be that far away from her closely knit family. It would be very hard for the 16 year old to choose to leave her two brothers (Ben and Sam), and her sister (Abby).

Luckily for this talented forward, Kennesaw state is not going to be her only option. Multiple colleges have shown interest in Anna such as Albany University, Chicago State University, Delaware University, Seton Hill, and many more. While none of these schools have officially offered her yet, they are keeping a close eye on her junior basketball season in hopes of making offers in future. To ensure that these schools keep interest in her, Anna has been putting in work in her free time.

“I play AAU and train at the gym.”Anna puts in the work inside and outside of practices. With two and a half hour practices 6 days a week with the school team, and full summers spent working with her AAU organization (WPA Bruins), she has certainly put in the work necessary to make it to the college level.  Although she has been preparing for this moment for years, Anna still has some work to put in.

“I need to get into better shape,” she laughs. 

Anna hopes to better herself as a player to hopefully land an offer from Saint Francis University. Although playing basketball in college will not make or break her decision, she still hopes to play  at the next level. With dreams like these, there are often many obstacles. Anna’s biggest obstacle this season will be Covid-19.

“It has made it a lot more stressful. Everything has got pushed back. It’s hard to tell which colleges are still sending out offers,” says Anna. While the recruiting process is already a challenging one, Covid-19 is creating more obstacles than usual for young recruits. Covid is also affecting the regular season. From the pregame referee’s meeting to the end of game handshakes, there have been many changes made this season due to the pandemic.

“I think it’s kind of unnecessary. We are going to be up against each other all game, it doesn’t make sense that we aren’t going to be able to shake hands at the end,” states Anna. From incoming offers, to the current pandemic, this season is sure to be an exciting one.