Playing basketball was a natural choice for Janae Patterson.

Just like her older siblings, Patterson began playing in the New Holland Upward Basketball League when she was in second grade. Her dad was her coach. She described her family as "a basketball family."

A decade later, Patterson is now the all-time leading girls' basketball scorer at Pequea Valley (PV) and was recently named to the PA Sports Writers All-State second team for the second year in a row.

"I don't really know if I was expecting it the first year I got it," remarked Patterson, who will graduate in May. "But this year, I kind of knew I was going to get it. It feels good; it's like all the hard work that I put in has paid off."

Even before Patterson entered Pequea Valley's middle school basketball program, she was instantly identified as one to watch in the future.

"I remembered who she was, and just the fact that she was a great kid who loved playing basketball," remarked PV varsity coach Jason McDonald, who watched Patterson play at camps and youth travel ball. "You knew it right away ... she just had the skill set. She could shoot, she could drive, she passed, she was on the floor. She could do more as a seventh-grader than a lot of kids can do when they're a lot older than that."

Once Patterson reached high school, she hit the ground running. McDonald put her on the floor as the starting point guard in game one of her freshman year. It's safe to say that Patterson never looked back.

"I was definitely nervous about it," she said. "Sometimes I felt like I had to show that I deserved that spot ... I kind of just took it in stride and took it one step at a time."

Step by step, Patterson led the Braves to a pair of District 3 Class 3A championship games and one state playoff win this past season. In the process, Patterson was a Lancaster-Lebanon (L-L) League Section 4 first-team selection in all of her four years of high school and was unanimously picked by coaches as Section 4's player of the year in her senior season.

Patterson also got the chance to play in the L-L League senior all-star game on April 21 at Manheim Central.

"Sometimes you just sit back and watch," McDonald said. "Because you know how good she is ... no matter what happens on the floor, you know you have the best player. She can control the whole game, not just on the offensive side, but on the defensive side as well."

Patterson averaged 19.2 points per game in her senior season. She dropped a career-high 38 points in a home win over Lancaster Mennonite on Jan. 5, making her the highest-scoring player in program history.

She finished her senior year with 1,741 points, considerably ahead of previous record-holder Alyssa Hershey, who graduated in 2016 with 1,477 points. She became the 225th girls' player in L-L history to reach the 1,000-point plateau when she did so in her junior season.

"Being in that environment, Pequea Valley community, is such a blessing," she said. "I never really looked at the numbers. I just played basketball because I loved the game."

"She's just a great kid," McDonald added. "The great ones usually are great kids, but she's fantastic. That made it even more special to have her break that record for us."

College coaches have tried to recruit Patterson for years, but she doesn't think that college is the best route for her. She is currently leaning toward being a real estate agent while trying to get into either coaching or officiating basketball on the side. She would love to do so at Pequea Valley.

"I don't know where I would be without the game," she said. "It's just taught me so much in my life. I really hope I can continue that."