The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cornerstone coach counts her blessings
Stopp thankful to lead Division IV state-qualifying Patriots after October stroke
Weaving through the sea of bodies at Massillon Perry last week, both her jubilant Cornerstone Christian girls basketball teammates and the dejected girls from the Dalton team the Patriots had just defeated, Riley Stopp searched for the eyes of the person she was looking for.
Intermittently, the junior forward stopped to hug a teammate or pat a Dalton player on the back in consoling fashion, but there was someone specific she was looking for.
Finally, their eyes met. They approached each other, then they shared a long embrace.
It was her mother, who also doubles as her coach. Lisa Stopp.
Two weeks before the season started, Lisa Stopp suffered a stroke that at least momentarily put her coaching the 2019-20 season in question.
There was anxiety. There were tears. There was plenty of prayer. And there was an added perspective to life.
So when Cornerstone Christian girls basketball team hits the floor for a Division IV state semifinal at 6 p.m. March 12 against Fort Loramie, the Stopp family — which extends to the other players on the roster, the coaches on the staff and its tight-knit fan base — will do so with full hearts of gratitude.
Because back in midOctober, no one knew for sure if this entire cast would be together at this point if their leader — Lisa Stopp — would have either chosen not to coach or wasn’t physically able to coach following her stroke.
“The day after, I thought, ‘OK, should I quit coaching?’” Stopp said after her team’s practice March 9. “It makes you think twice about your priorities and where you’re at in life.
“I don’t live there. I don’t live in fear. You can’t. You’ve got to live free.”
The morning of Oct. 10, 2019, began like most others had. There might have been a little more of excitement to it because the previous day, Stopp and her Cornerstone Christian girls basketball coaches had gathered for a preseason meeting to discuss the approaching season.
Energy and anticipation was high. After all, four starters (and all but one player) from the 201819 team that advanced to the state final four were returning. With practice two weeks away, there was a noticeable positive vibe.
As she crawled out of bed that morning, Stopp shook her left leg, thinking she slept on it wrong. After laying back down for a while to let the “heavy leg,” as she put it, come back to life, she arose again, and her left arm felt numb and sluggish, too.
“I went to put makeup on, and my left cheek was numb,” Stopp said. “Immediately, I went into panic mode.”
Stopp had her brush with heart issues a few years back. In 2016, she had openheart surgery to insert a pig valve to her heart. Months later — in the midst of the 2017 season — she had another surgery to replace that pig valve with a mechanical valve.
It had been a while — two years to be exact — that she worried about her health. But here, she was in full-blown panic mode.
“I went to the mirror to make sure I could smile,” she said, fearing a stroke had happened. “They say your eye might droop or your speech might be off if you had a stroke, so I was talking out loud to check my speech.”
Rushing off to the hospital with her husband John, tests began immediately. By mid-afternoon, the Stopps had the answer to their question of what had happened.
“It was a stroke,” Stopp said. “I had a clot on my thalamus.”
The thalamus is a small structure within the brain located just above the brain stem between the cerebral cortex and the mid-brain and has extensive nerve connections to both. The main function of the thalamus is to relay motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex.
Doctors surmised Stopp’s blood thinners, medication she takes because of her mechanical heart valve, were not at the right level, thus causing the stroke.
“It wasn’t due to cholesterol or bad arteries,” Stopp said. “There was nothing wrong vascularily. It’s just that my thinners were not at a therapeutic level.
“(The stroke) was obviously a minor one. But it could have been much worse.”
Meanwhile, their daughter Riley was playing in Cornerstone’s soccer game that afternoon. It was senior day, but even though Riley is a junior, she noticed her parents’ absence and thought it to be strange they weren’t at the game.
After the game, at the request of John and Lisa Stopp, Riley was informed by a close friend of the family what had transpired.
“Everything just stopped,” Riley said. “I was bawling. I’m like, ‘Is she OK?” I called her, and she calmed me down. I was so worried.
“Some of my friends prayed with me. That gave me peace. Your first instinct isn’t about basketball. It’s about Mom. Would it affect her? Was she going to be OK?”
Since that scary week or two, Lisa Stopp’s blood-thinner medication has been adjusted to its proper levels. She is more cognizant of her dosage and not missing one.
From a dietary point of view, she keeps an eye on her greens, such as lettuce, spinach and cabbage, with she points out promotes blood-clotting. Those could have all interacted with her medication to contribute to the stroke.
“It was overwhelming,” she said. “You don’t think at 55 you’re going to have these issues. I’ve always been active and running. But it was a good wakeup call. I’m blessed.”
Despite the preseason scare, Lisa Stopp hasn’t missed a game or practice, like she did in 2017 when she missed the Berlin Hiland game with her in-season heart surgery.
Every day is a blessing, she said. The stroke has even made her a little more nostalgic.
“I remember going down to the state tournament with Riley and the Cloonan Twins,” she said, referring to the bond with her daughter and current Cornerstone seniors Madison and Michaela Cloonan. “They said they didn’t just want to play here at state. They wanted to win here.”
That trio, along with Kailey Tyna — with whom they played AAU long before high school — are all returnees from last year’s state-qualifying team.
They’re back in Columbus this weekend.
All together. Will full hearts.
“When something like that happens, it makes you thankful for what you have and all the time you have together. It shows you it can all end like that,” she said, snapping her fingers.
To be sure, the Cornerstone Christian Patriots are going to Columbus this week to win a state championship. But no matter how the journey ends, they have perspective and love for life — and for each other.
That was all prevalent before, but accentuated by their coach’s stroke back on Oct. 10.
“I still have some numbness from my elbowdown,” Lisa Stopp said, rubbing her forearm. “It doesn’t function as well as it did before. But the Lord has protected me so that I’m able to coach. I’m blessed just to be here.”