Every year in high school sports, there are moments that cause people to, um, well, this: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yo, Medina girls basketball team — aka Team Better Together/Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/whatever else you want to be called — please take a bow because, at this point, what y’all are pulling off is pretty much inexplicable.
Medina’s Clover Kaple, center, Margaret Swiecicki, right and Emma Bobey celebrate a big fourth quarter comeback to beat Highland 46-41. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)
Entering a rivalry game Wednesday against their version of That Team Up North (Brunswick), coach Karen Kase’s Bees are 9-3 and fresh off winning a bracket at the KSA Holiday Tournament in definitely-not-Ohio Orlando, Florida.
That record in itself is surprising for a team projected to be approximately .500, but winning those nine times by a combined 36 points? Dude, seriously. Logic has been thrown out of the window completely.
Medina County basketball has seen stuff like this before, but 99.9 percent of the time a team that plays a bunch of close games is .500ish. The 2010-11 Buckeye boys went 7-5 in games decided by five or fewer points and/or overtime. The 1960-61 Black River boys were 6-5.
The Queen Bees already are 8-2 in that scenario — as the kiddies like to say: YEET!!!!!!! — so let that marinate in your brain. Ten of their 12 games have been decided by five or fewer points and/or overtime. Today is Jan. 5, for crying out loud.
One that didn’t fit the criteria was a seven-point win over Elyria — led by Middle Tennessee State signee Shayla Middlebrooks — that saw Medina watch a 15-point lead wither to four in the second half before Hiram recruit Clover Kaple hit 6-of-6 free throws in the final 1:08.
Along the way, Medina knocked off Highland and Mentor, who have a combined 20-3 record and Division I prospects at center (6-foot-1 Marlee Profitt and 6-2 Teagan Ochaya). The epic 46-41 win against the Hornets ended with a 17-2 run, while the equally intense 55-50 upset over the Cardinals that no one saw coming (too bad hardly anyone was in the standings to witness it) had the Bees almost blowing a seven-point lead in the final 54 seconds.
Let’s be perfectly clear: All-time stars like Lori Koenig, Karen Alber, Shelly Miller, Caroline McCombs and Sarah Kinch aren’t trotting out there for Medina.
What has made this sometimes offensively challenged squad successful involves heart, determination, defense, rebounding and chemistry, along with confidence that doesn’t need a boost by reading the self-help book the movie “Mean Girls” is based off, “Queen Bees and Wannabes” (Oh, the irony).
Chris Hassinger gave birth to the program motto “Better together” in 2009, and Kase, Hassinger’s understudy and a kick-butt Medina player in the mid-1990s, kept it when she took over in 2013.
The family-above-all philosophy was tested with a 22-24 record over Kase’s first two seasons. Being sub-.500 is hard for teenagers to comprehend after watching their peers win three straight league titles, but there always was a sense of (for lack of a better corny cliché) sisterhood (and, for the record, nothing like Regina George’s squad The Plastics in “Mean Girls”).
Watch the bench during a Bees game and count the number of times a player stands up, leans over the baseline and screams “Yaaaaaa, (player name).” Then add every time someone jumps up and down like a sugar-high 3-year-old on Christmas morning after an exciting play.
Here’s a hint: You’ll need a pen and piece of paper.
That’s just one example. No wishy-washy, faker-than-a-three-dollar-bill smiles come from the faces of Jessie Holzman, Margaret Swiecicki, Kaple, Delaney Cullen, Emma Bobey, Amanda Holzman, Abby Teske, Olivia Hutchman, Anna Marie Smith, Katie Neate, Emily McLeod and Sydney Koch. They’re all real.
The trip to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex on the campus of Walt Disney World Resort further entrenched Medina’s claim as one of the most lovey-dovey, tight-knit teams in the history of, like, ever.
It featured coloring books on the plane, riding Splash Mountain, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, The Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Toy Story Midway Mania, an 8:30 a.m. stomach drop on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, napping on or next to picnic tables (you can do that in 85-degree weather) and posing for pictures with the Spaceship Earth and Sleeping Beauty Castle in the background.
The Bees also met Mickey Mouse, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Chewbacca — Kase wanted to see Aladdin, but he was off on a magic carpet ride or something — sang their hearts out at the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration (can’t make that up), chillaxed at a swimming pool and lived it up at a tournament-sponsored New Year’s Eve party that they instead turned into noted ice cream lover Jessie Holzman’s 18th birthday party.
Last but not least, in case anyone needed a tour guide since they were a gazillion miles away from Medina High, super-duper smart Disney fanatic Swiecicki provided answers to trivia questions and pointed out Hidden Mickeys — a representation of Mickey Mouse inserted subtly into various objects — at every turn.
Oops, maybe that wasn’t last but not least. There was ridiculously intense basketball, too, at the 80,000-square-foot, six-court Jostens Center.
The first game had Amanda Holzman making a layup with 6 seconds left in a 51-50 overtime win over Bishop Eustace Prep (N.J.), which started three girls 6-2 or taller.
Two days later, Medina survived Mount Blue (Maine) in a 25-24 slugfest. Finally, there was a physical, come-from-behind 48-45 win over Skiatook (Okla.) in which Bobey made 6-for-6 free throws in the fourth quarter.
Only fate knows if the Bees continue to beat the odds. Nine of their final 10 regular-season games are against Greater Cleveland Conference opponents, with Berea-Midpark (8-3) the only non-league foe. Then Medina will go the Valley Forge D-I District, where it has the ability to beat anyone, including heavy favorite Magnificat on the right night.
No matter what happens from this point, however, Medina has proven it can hang with just about anyone. The Bees also have proved “Better together” is more than simply a catchy way to break a huddle.
It’s a way of life.