Midview Proves Size of School Doesn’t Mean Anything When It is Size of Heart That Succeeds

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Photo Credit – Mrs. DiFranco

Midview Girls Basketball 2022 – 2023

Head Coach – Brittany McNamara-Cole

Colors – Blue, Silver and White

Secret Weapon – Heart

In February of 2020 I sat in the very gymnasium and called the game that saw an underdog Midview team led by Izzy Patarini knock off Berea-Midpark on the road.  Midview, had so much heart that day, it jumped off the page and I noticed something very special about the group.  I had a feeling that they were starting to build something there, and could see it starting to develop that very day.

Meanwhile, the Titans were coached that day by none other than Brittany McNamara.  The “Cole” would come a bit later on.  I saw something in her that day too as I watched the young woman coach.  She was doing it with heart, living and dying on every call.  Keeping her players upbeat and coaching until the very last whistle despite the growing upset that was starting to form that Saturday afternoon.

Flash forward one year later, as I sat there yet again and covered a Midview road playoff game as they traveled to take on Westlake this time.  They were a heavy underdog to Westlake, but you couldn’t tell them that, as they led almost the entire game until Westlake went on a crazy rally to tie it with seconds remaining.

After an Izzy Patarini bucket made it 34-25 early into the fourth, Midview would not score again as the Demons Summer Salem and Abbie Gardner combined to go on a 9 run over the game’s final minutes to tie it at 34 before Olivia DiFranco introduced herself to the Ohio High School Girls Basketball world.  The incredible freshman nailed a buzzer beater to send Middie Nation into a frenzy.

I had seen her older sister Mya DiFranco play for two seasons at that point and knew she was good, but at that very moment, seeing the freshman take over, I said to myself, “this kid has it!”  This past weekend in Medina, trailing Solon, time running out, the Middie’s needed a clutch shot to win it, they went to Olivia DiFranco, and once again, she thrived in the moment.

I’ll flashback again to last year, senior Night at North Ridgeville, and Olivia DiFranco had a remarkable game in front of a hostile crowd.  I said to myself again that night, “this kid has it!”.  Scary to think at the time she was only a sophomore.  No moment was too big for her as a freshman or sophomore, and now she is showing that no moment is too big as a junior.

While a lot of attention gets put on Olivia DiFranco, and as well it should, this team of Middies is loaded from top to bottom.  What can I say about Mary Meng that hasn’t already been said?  Being tall in High School Basketball means absolutely nothing if you don’t know how to use it.  Meng does, she uses her body to rebound, block shots, score and defend.  She does it all, and there isn’t enough film in this world for a team to study to find a way to shut down this attack.  When Meng and Liv are both cooking, you can forget about it.

But, I want to go back to that gym in Berea on that fateful day in February of 2020.  Mya DiFranco was a freshman, but part of an upset victory that planted the seed for the turnaround in the Midview basketball program with a postseason win. Also, on that team was fellow (current senior) Grace Seymour.  Those two may have not known it that day, but they were about to be a part of something incredibly special.

Brittany-McNamara was part of the oldest sports analogy, and sometimes life analogy in the book, “sometimes you have to learn to lose, before you can learn to win”.  She became a better coach that day in defeat, then she would have ever become in a victory.  Again, the seed was planted.

Now, McNamara-Cole is coaching in some of the biggest games of her life, and the biggest games in Midview school history, and she is winning!  She arrived there in 2021 and it was like a rebirth as she took to the program like a fish in water.  She had to suffer defeat one more time last year in the postseason, to win big this year.  That’s sports folks, that’s life.  Nothing worth having is ever easy.

After falling behind against St. Joe’s in the District semi’s, they put their foot to the gas and claimed another postseason victory.  A hungry Brunswick team couldn’t stop them and they spent a Friday night cutting down the nets.  This past week, they blew out Hoban 70-45 and then played in an instant classic with the Regional Final win over a very good Solon team.

A lot has been said recently of Midview being one of the smallest schools in Division 1 history to reach a State Final Four.  You know what I have to say about that? Who the Hell cares how big or small a school is.  The only thing that matters is the coaches on the roster, and the players playing for them.  Those are the girls you have to worry about, not the fact that maybe a science class has only 20 kids in it, that means nothing right now, nothing!

A lot of people wanted to claim that Laurel could easily beat any Division 1 team in the state, while playing in a lower division.  Guess what, they’re watching the Final Four from home next weekend. Save your texts, save your assumptions and save your what if’s.  Midview is here based on heart, passion, hard work and skill!  Never, and I mean never, judge a team or school based on size.

If I personally listened to that logic that you have to be big and powerful to succeed, Kee On Sports would have never been born.  It is heart that matters in the closing moments of a game.  Midview has that, and it makes them deadly.

For McNamara-Cole it started in Berea and blossomed in Grafton.  For Mya DiFranco, it is a four-year odyssey that is two wins away from a State Championship! For Mary Meng, it started with the great decision to transfer to Midview. And for the newest superstar Olivia DiFranco, it started the day she was born.  Because it is clear to a blind man, she has basketball in her blood and making the most out of raw protentional that you could possibly ask for.

“Underdogs win all the time. Why, then, are we shocked every time a David beats a Goliath? Why do we automatically assume that someone who is smaller or poorer or less skilled is necessarily at a disadvantage?

Courage is not something that you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you’ve been through the tough times and you discover they aren’t so tough after all.

The best students from mediocre schools were almost always a better bet than good students from the very best schools.” – Malcom  Gradwell

All great quotes, but I think the one that sums this team up the most, comes from none other than Bret Hart himself,

““The best chance you have if you want to rise to the top, is to give yourself up to loneliness. Fear nothing, and work hard. One thing you’ll discover is that life is based less than you think on what you’ve learned, and much more than you think on what you have inside you right from the beginning.”