Local girls basketball teams set to open season this weekend

If you're a basketball fan, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Girls hoops season gets underway tonight and a number of local teams are playing in showcase events over the opening weekend. Midview, led by Bowling Green commit Mary Meng and Olivia DiFranco, will tip off what it is hoping will be a big season, when it travels to Westerville South to face defending Division I state champion Reynoldsburg in the Thrill In The Ville showcase. "We're excited for the challenge," Middies coach Brittney McNamara said. "It's going to be good for us to play such a high-caliber team early in the season. They say it takes three years to change a program, but we've been able to do it in two. By we, I mean the coaching staff and the girls. These girls give me the confidence to do what I do." Midview returns four starters from last year's 17-6 team that advanced to the district semifinals. Closer to home, Brookside, led by three-year letterwinner Haley Trowbridge, is hosting the first Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic. Tonight, the Cardinals will take on Wickliffe at 7 p.m. Lutheran West and Max Hayes get the night started at 5:30. "We're trying to bring some excitement to the girls basketball program," Brookside coach Richard Flowers said. "The girls are excited. Instead of going out to Vermilion like we did last year, now we have something of our own." Flowers said all of the proceeds from the event will go towards the Brookside Hall of Fame banquet. "This is a great opportunity for us to catapult our season before we head into the LC8," Flowers said. "We want to start to build a tradition. We want to showcase our beautiful facility. We're going to have an all-tournament team. We really want to make this something special for the girls." Amherst and North Ridgeville will head east Saturday to take part in the Great Lakes Classic at Cleveland Heights High School. The Comets will face Shaw at 1 p.m. The Rangers will open the season against Hathaway Brown in a battle of defending district semifinalists. The game will feature a matchup of North Ridegville's highly-recruited junior guard Grace Kingery and Hathaway Brown's Gia Piscitelli, one of the area's top outside shooters. "We start off the bat with strong competition and it doesn't get easier for us," North Ridgeville coach Amy Esser said. "We have a really tough schedule this year but I think it's only going to make us better." Besides helping teams get ready for the grind of their conference schedules, Esser thinks these events serve an important role in showcasing girls basketball across the state. "Anything that can highlight women's basketball is really important," she said. "The women's basketball is growing so much, from the WNBA to the collegiate level. Aanything we can do to publicize and promote the game on the high school level and get these girls some press and exposure on social media is crucial for the growth of the game." In other opening weekend games, Keystone will try to avenge last year's opening night loss at Western Reserve when it hosts the Roughriders tonight at 7:30 p.m. In the weekend's only matchup of Lorain County teams, Avon Lake and new coach Paul Appel will host Lorain on Saturday. The Maggie Ferrando era begins at Avon as the Eagles travel to Brunswick, while Elyria and Elyria Catholic open their seasons at home, the Pioneers hosting Bay tonight and the Panthers welcoming Revere to the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. In other games, Columbia travels to Normandy tonight, Wellington will face Norwayne in Rittman on Saturday and Black River travels to Plymouth on Saturday. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.