This original article was written by Mary Jane Souder of The Intelligencer

February 13, 2020

The Germantown Academy senior is sidelined with a knee injury that came when she was just 57 points shy of 1,000 for her Patriots career.

Elle Stauffer belongs on the basketball court.

The Germantown Academy senior, last year’s Inter-Academic League MVP, should be creating havoc for opposing defenses, but she’s not. Instead, Stauffer is leading the cheers from the bench, sidelined with a knee injury.

One word pretty much sums up Stauffer’s emotions.

“Jealous,” the GA senior captain said. “Jealous of everyone else that’s playing.

“I would love to go to practice, I would love to be playing in a game. You don’t appreciate it until you’re not able to do it.”

Stauffer went down in GA’s win over Archbishop Carroll on Jan. 12 in her first game back after missing five games with Achilles tendonitis.

“I had a steal and I went for a layup, and I landed really weird and my knee twisted,” she said. “I thought I tore my ACL immediately. I heard a pop. Everybody always talks about that’s what happens.

“I went right down and I was crying. I think a lot of tears came from me thinking, ‘I just tore my ACL, and I’m out for eight months.’ I had a lot of friends who have done it, and it’s always been one of my biggest fears.”

It marked the beginning of an emotional roller coaster ride for Stauffer.

“When I first went to the doctor, they were like, ‘You didn’t tear it,’” she said. “Then I went again, and they said, ‘Oh, you might have torn it.’ I had to wait three weeks to know.”

Stauffer went into surgery on Jan. 31 with a lot of questions, and the answer was better than even she expected.

“I had a small meniscus tear, but they said it wasn’t a big deal, and they shaved it off,” she said. “I was really relieved.”

Stauffer will be ready to go by the time she heads to Cambridge, Mass., for her freshman year at Harvard University. She chose the prestigious university from a final list that included Columbia, Yale, Lehigh and Colgate.

“My AAU director wanted me to go up to the Harvard camp, and I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go,’” said Stauffer. “I went to a lot of the other Ivies, but I was like, ‘I’m never going to go to Harvard, so it’s kind of a waste of time.’ Me and two of my teammates went up, and I was like, ‘Wow, this is actually really cool,’ and I fell in love with it.

“The coaches were interested and they started coming to watch me. I went up for a visit a couple months later. Something clicked. They always say you know, and I definitely knew. I think it was a mix of academics, and I met some people on the team and just the team chemistry — you can always tell, and you can also tell when the coaches care.”

Stauffer is undecided on a major but wants to work with people.

“I love working with kids,” she said. “Sometimes I think I want to be a physician’s assistant or something where I can work with sports medicine and kids.”

It’s been quite a journey for Stauffer, who has had a passion for basketball for as long as she can remember.

“I have two older brothers and they always pushed me,” she said. “I fell in love with the game more than I could fall in love with other sports, and it was something I wanted to do.”

Stauffer was 57 points from the coveted 1,000-point mark when she was injured.

“There are so many things outside of individual accomplishments that I wanted,” she said. “I wanted a state championship, I wanted the fourth Inter-Ac championship, but I have faith in my team that this is something they can still get.”

The Patriots, winners of their sixth straight title, completed a perfect Inter-Ac season on Tuesday.

“She’s still a leader on the team,” coach Sherri Retif said. “She’s the loudest on the bench, she’s the first person off the bench at a dead ball to meet the players coming off the court.

“Your heart breaks when you see someone put in so much for so many years. This is the year she should shine. She just hasn’t missed a step in being a leader for us. I appreciate that about her, and I’m just so grateful it wasn’t an ACL tear and she can move on and prepare for her freshman year in college. Being Inter-Ac MVP last year — she’s accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.”