With one of the coldest winters in Northeast Ohio since the 1970s, it is fitting that 2026 is a Winter Olympic year.
Game photos click here.
With one of the coldest winters in Northeast Ohio since the 1970s, it is fitting that 2026 is a Winter Olympic year.
Not only is it cold and snowy outside, as sports fans, we are able to watch sports on television that are played and performed on snow and ice.
In fact, Geauga County sports fans have the opportunity to watch Team USA Freestyle Aerial Skier and former Bainbridge resident, Derek Kreuger perform at the Olympic Games.
In addition to watching skiing, a main team sport which takes center stage in the Olympics is Hockey.
In one of the all-time great stories in Olympic Ice Hockey history, the 1980 USA Men’s Hockey Team defeated the Soviet Union on their way to winning the gold medal.
A main motivational mantra that Team USA Hockey Head Coach Herb Brooks repeatedly told his players before their “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union was, ‘Play your game’, ‘Play your game’.
Just like Coach Herb Brooks, NDCL Lions Head Girls Basketball Coach Pete DeMichele provided a similar message to his team before their 42-37 victory over their rival, the Lake Catholic Cougars at NDCL on Feb. 7.
Coach DeMichele tells his athletes to “Be Us”.
“The message (before each game) is always back to being us,” Coach DeMichele said. “Are we doing things that we want to take care of, taking care of the basketball, getting stops defensively, communicating on defense, being the first to rebounds?”
The coach continued: “Be Us” is what I always write on the board. Because when we are playing together and we are having fun and when we’re competing you can tell (we are performing optimally).”
Coach DeMichele said that the “Be Us” mentality has been integral in changing the culture and improving his teams’ performance over the past few seasons.
“From where we were a couple years ago to where we are now, you can tell that there is buy-in to (a ‘be us’ mentality),” Coach DeMichele said. “Sometimes you see the other jersey, and you pre-determine what could happen or what couldn’t happen.”
He went on. “There should be no expectations, (and the game should be played) one possession at a time, one play at a time. Do your best, do your job, every single play, every single time, and then however it falls, it falls.”
“‘Being Us’ is really having a passion for playing the game, being supportive of one another and making sure the greater goal of all of them together is more important than their individual goals.”
Senior Captain Brynn Munn emphasized that before their rivalry matchup with the Cougars, Coach DeMichele reminded the team to focus on what they needed to do to be successful during the game, which was to, ‘Be Us’.
“He just told us specifically (before the game) that we have to be us, it’s a big moment, there’s a lot of stuff going on, we just have to be us, be who we are, do what we always do best,” Munn said.
Taking that mentality and focus to the court, Coach DeMichele said that the Lions did an excellent job of demonstrating the “Be Us” mentality in their 42-37 victory over the Cougars on Feb. 7.
In particular, Coach DeMichele said that his players gave their best effort on each possession and that they showed the ability to not dwell on mistakes as they stayed in the present moment throughout the game.
Helping the Lions stay focused on the task at hand was their goal of scoring at least 50 points and holding the Cougars to 40 points or less.
“We came up a little short (of the goal) on the offensive end, but from the defensive side of things, we did exactly what we needed to do,” Coach DeMichele said.
Offensively, sophomore Coco Cochran, who led the Lions with 11 points, said that her team did a good job of staying in the moment and dictating the pace of the game.
“Today, we just pushed (the pace), we got up the floor, we got good looks that we needed to get, and we got shots off that ultimately helped us win,” Cochran said.
After a first quarter which ended in an 8-8 tie, the Lions defense did not allow the Cougars to score for the first 4:29 of the second quarter.
With a great defensive effort, the Lions took a 19-16 lead into halftime.
In the second half, the Lions stayed focused on their effort and kept playing their game.
“We just did a good job (in the third and fourth quarter) of not letting up,” Munn said. “We kept working hard even though it was getting physical and it was tough, we still kept our foot on the gas and we did what we needed to do.”
By keeping their energy up and their effort strong, the Lions outscored the Cougars 13-4 in the third quarter as they took a 32-20 lead into the final quarter.
Although the Cougars mounted a comeback effort in the fourth quarter, the Lions stayed calm, cool, and collected down the final stretch as they secured a 42-37 victory over their rival.
For the game, the Lions were led offensively by Cochran (11 points), Emma Surbey (9), Munn (7), Gia Roberts (4), Maya Rowan (4), Fallon Campolieti (3), Frankie Sargi (2) and Sadie Wurm (2).
The Lions next return to the court on Feb. 9 when they host the Elyria Catholic Panthers.
