The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
They’re in it for the long haul
Between Lorain and Western Cuyahoga counties, Morning Journal area teams are in for a grinder of a year as the season gets underway
When going over the 2017-18 girls basketball schedule, nearly every coach on hand at the Lorain County Girls Basketball Preview at Lorain on Nov. 20 described the season with the meat grinder metaphor.
No more appropriate adjective could apply.
With nearly all of the teams in Lorain and Western Cuyahoga counties squaring off against one another in either the Southwestern Conference or Great Lakes Conference, the nonconference schedule for nearly every team includes local powerhouses.
Combine all of the improved squads after last season with a nearly unprecedented number of college commits and you get the meat grinder.
“Well, you look at last year and we had three (SWC) teams that went to regionals alone. So the amount of players in the conference that are committed to go to college is ridiculous,” North Ridgeville head coach Amy Esser said. “It’s just an amazing conference to be in. You don’t have an easy game. There’s just not one team that you can overlook.”
That belief was echoed by fellow SWC head coach, Meghan Larrick of Avon. The grind within the SWC will be a tough challenge for every team.
“This will be a year where which every team in the conference that brings their A game will come away with the win, no matter the records coming in,” Larrick said. “You have Olmsted Falls and Berea-Midpark that return a lot of talent, but you can’t sleep on us or North Ridgeville or Avon Lake or Amherst, even without Sydney Roule. It’s just like a meat grinder every game and then you have a chance to see teams again in the postseason.”
Losing last year’s Lorain County Co-Miss Basketball in Roule, who shared the award with Keystone’s Mc Kenah Peters, the Comets still possess a deep roster that will make them a challenge for any team in area.
“We had three teams from our conference get to regionals last year. Two of those teams didn’t really lose anything. I think one of them actually got even a little bit stronger,” Amherst coach Kevin Collins said. “Those are the two that I think everyone is gunning for in Berea-Midpark and Olmsted Falls, but I think the rest of us are right up there too between us and Avon Lake and Avon and Ridgeville.
“It’s just a deep conference and with so many conference games it’s going to be a conference where whoever survives is probably going to end up on top.”
No one team will know the harsh struggles of this brutal schedule better than Bay and coach Brian Hill. With plenty of returning starters and contributors, the Rockets will see the brunt of the Lorain County schedule after a very successful campaign last year.
Opening up the year against Avon, the Rockets will also see Avon Lake and Westlake as Hill looks to build his team’s resume in addition to a stout GLC schedule.
“It’s an absolute meat grinder when you go through any of those teams. I don’t care which school you face, they are going to be really, really good, especially in the SWC,” Hill said. “They have no nights off. They always have to play someone tough who can always knock each other off. And playing all the teams we’re playing now, we’re just hoping now it prepares us for the tournament for when we see some of the better teams.”
In the GLC, the Rockets will still have to go through the cream of the crop in Elyria Catholic. Winning the conference in each of its first two years, coach Eric Rothgery had to go out of the area for his nonconference schedule, but knows his Panthers will have to face off against the best of Lorain County to make another regional run.
“Southwestern Conference is just crazy this year,” Rothergery said with a laugh. “In our conference, I expect Bay to be good, as usual. I expect Normandy to be good. Parma and Holy Name, there’s a lot of them out there but it will be especially competitive even though we’ve won it the past two years. But it hasn’t been easy.”
Despite all of the powers coming together in the county, one of the most dangerous outliers can be new faces and youth, which Avon Lake and coach Dave Zvara has on his side.
“The only experience we don’t have is starting because we had those four seniors. We have what we call the triple A club in Anna Robinson, Amber Achladis and Arianna Negron, They’re quick, they came off the bench, Grace Dean is a sophomore who can contribute,” Zvara said. “Right now I think we have 13 strong girls.”