Cornerstone Christian coach has heart surgery

The Cornerstone Christian girls basketball team isn’t only playing for another trip to the Division IV state tournament — the Patriots are also playing for their coach.

Lisa Stopp is expected to miss the remainder of the season after undergoing heart surgery Feb. 22. It’s the second heart surgery Stopp has undergone, along with one she had in August.

In an email to The NewsHerald over the weekend, Stopp wrote, “I’m not sure if you heard, but I had open heart surgery Wednesday. I actually had the same surgery in August. I’ve been at the Cleveland Clinic. Frank Soria is the interim head coach.”

Soria and Stopp coached together at Lake Catholic prior to coming to Cornerstone Christian. But whereas Soria was the head coach and Stopp was the assistant at Lake Catholic, Stopp is the head coach at Cornerstone.

The Patriots (13-10) will play Badger on March 1 with Soria running the show in Stopp’s absence, with help from assistants Rob Skrbis, John Gaydos, Kathy Somes and Emily Klemenc.

“It’s tough,” Soria said. “Having to deal with this is tough for her and her family. It’s got to be scary.”

Stopp was not available for comment Feb. 27, though she did contact Soria.

“She called me today and said she had some ideas (for the Badger game),” Soria said. “I would say that’s a really good sign, yes, that she called today.

Soria said Stopp had open-heart valve replacement surgery in August, but at a recent checkup, test results showed the original surgery did not yield the results the doctors had hoped for.

“I understand there was still some leaking and some blood clots they had to address,” Soria said. “So she had another surgery. They put in a pig valve at first, but it was leaking, so this time they went with an artificial valve, I think.”

Stopp missed the Patriots’ final regular-season game — a loss to Division I Massillon Perry — as well as the team’s Division IV tournament opener against Southington.

The game against Massillon Perry, Soria said, was most difficult because it came one day after the team found out Stopp was going to have another surgery.

The Patriots dominated their tournament opener against Southington, 6833. Afterward, the players joined the student section for a photo holding a massive banner that read, “We (heart) you Coach Stopp.”