by Photo credit Ben Nichols Photography
Kee On Sports has named Olivia Klanac of the Medina Bees as our 2025 Girls Basketball Player of the Year in the GCC.
Olivia often says how she plays for an audience of one ( Jesus Christ ), and that is just one of many reasons she is a great teammate, great player and our MVP in the GCC. As a media member she is the perfect example of the kind of young woman you want to cover. She is humble, hardworking and driven. Olivia is the exact type of player young girls should watch play and mold themselves after for her bality to lead on and off the court as a teammate and role model. We couldn’t be prouder and happier to reward her this award.
As Klanac and the Medina Bees approach the postseason she is the reigning all time leading scorer in Medina County Girls Basketball history with nearly 1800 career points.
She does a lot for the Bees against a very difficult schedule. Her 23.3 ppg scoring is 2nd amongst NE Ohio leaders. Olivia is a 4-year starter & 3x All-Ohio player. Multi-year All-District, All-Conference, Medina County, WTCBCA player. She was the Bees only returning starter from a season ago and led them to a 17-4 record and #3 seed in D1. She is also a Coastal Carolina commit at the moment.
Olivia has played 99 games in her high school career, never missing a game and only missing 2 starts (due to coaches decision on senior nights when she was a soph & junior.) Medina doesn’t track minutes, but there’s no doubt she has played the most minutes in Medina Girls Basketball history as well. There are times when she is being doubled, face-guarded, grabbed, pushed, fouled….and all the while she also guards the other team’s best offensive player on the other end.
(25 games as a freshman, 25 games as a sophomore, 28 games as a junior and with 1 more regular season game to go this season will make it 100)
I spoke with Medina Bees head coach Karen Kase who has this to say about what makes Olivia so special, “Liv has had a remarkable high school career, and I’ve loved being a part of it and having a front row seat to all we have accomplished together. She has taken this program to new heights and elevated what we do in terms of our schedule, how we play and what the team is capable of. She has brought new fans in, become a role model to our younger players and generated attention because of her accolades.
It hasn’t been easy – she is the target on scouting reports and by all definitions of defense. And she’s learning a lot of lessons and to rise above a lot. This season, it seems that the lessons learned have been heightened as more difficult or more amazing because we are in rare territory with all that is being accomplished.
Liv is an exceptional player. She is the best individual player to have played for Medina Girls Basketball and she is at the top of the list for Medina County. For me, as a player and now head coach who’s been immersed in this program for a long time – I’m comfortable saying she’s the best because I played alongside Caroline McCombs, who has been our top player for all these years and made others around her better. I’ve seen Liv grow as a student, as a person, as a player, as a leader and it’s been very extraordinary to see.
She has rewritten our record book and holds almost every single offensive record. It’s amazing, and our team has had fun celebrating these milestones along the way. She plays with a high basketball IQ, a lot of knowledge and passion for the game, and a lot of dedication to get her to where she is right now. She is fierce and relentless about being in the gym to shoot and get better.
What I really like about her game is that she was a scorer when she came in as a freshman, but I knew she was capable of much more. More as in being a top defender and playing smarter and grabbing more rebounds as a 5’9 guard and utilizing her court vision.
She has evolved into that all-around player who is the best in the area and one of the best in Ohio. Even in games when we were overmatched or our offense was struggling or players were sidelined, I felt that we’ve had a chance to win the game b/c we have Liv and they don’t. We are so proud to say she is a Medina Bee!
Here are just of a few of the stats she has put up while rewriting the Medina record book.
- Only returning starter from last season for the Bees
- Increased her averages over last season in points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks
- Has led her team to a 17-4 regular season record and a #3 seed in D1
- Ranks very high among NE Ohio leaders in almost all categories
- 23.3ppg (2nd), 4.8spg (1st), 5.8rpg, 3.6apg, 1.1bpg
- Has scored in double digits in all 22 games this season; has led our team in scoring in all but one game
- Has connected on 119-139 FT’s this season, 85.6%
- Set the Medina girls program record for points in a career on Nov 27, 2024
- Set the Medina high school record – boy or girls – for points in a career on Dec 7, 2024
- Set the Medina girls record for 3’s in a career on Dec 7, 2024 (150)
- Set the Medina girls record for points in a game (44) and 3’s in a game (8) on Jan 22, 2025
- Set the all-time girls career scoring record for Medina County on Feb 5, 2025
- Is a 3x All-Ohio honoree (1st team, Special Mention, Honorable Mention)
- Earned Greater Cleveland Conference MVP, Medina County MVP, NE Inland District Player of the Year as a junior
- Is a 2x team captain and leads the way by helping with youth camps, clinics, connecting with our travel teams, middle school teams and JV/9th teams
