The Gilmour Gladiators (OH) have plenty of pride in their hearts and locker room at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls Tier II 19U National Championships in Strongsville, Ohio.

“Our team is focused,” said Andy Baskin, Gilmour’s head coach. “We’ve been in this situation before where we’re down one game and won tournaments.”

After losing their first game of the tournament on Wednesday, the Gladiators responded with a 4-1 win against Team Wyoming (WY) on Thursday.

The Gilmour Gladiators play out of Gates Mills, Ohio, which is a 30-minute drive from downtown Cleveland. They are the only team playing out of Ohio that is present at either the 1A or 2A tournaments in the Cleveland area this week.

“We represent our state, we represent Gilmour and our girls from Cleveland,” Baskin said. “There’s a sense of pride on all three of those levels.”

The Gladiators do have some company from other midwestern states in Strongsville. Gilmour is joined by teams playing out of hockey powerhouses such as Premier Prep White (MN) and the Kensington Valley Ravens (MI), with the Ravens also in the 1A division with Gilmour.

“You get into these situations, and you get intimidated because you’re playing against a team from Minnesota or Michigan,” said Baskin. “The games we’ve had this year against top-notch teams, we’ve been able to compete, so we’re not intimidated.”

Baskin is an Ohio lifer. He played hockey in high school at Cleveland Heights High School before attending Kent State in Portage County, Ohio. Before becoming Gilmour’s head coach, Baskin was well-known in the Ohio sports media scene as he worked for multiple local TV and radio stations. He still hosts a daily radio show on a local CBS affiliate in Cleveland.

For coach Baskin, there’s a lot more at stake for him and his team this weekend than just statehood pride and championship bragging rights. This is also the last shot he’ll get at coaching his own daughter on the ice.

No. 8 for the Gladiators is forward Brynn Baskin. Andy has been coaching Brynn since she was 7 years old. Now, Brynn is 19 and in her last year of competitive hockey alongside her father.

“We know this is probably our last weekend playing hockey together and I’m not looking forward to when they tell us we’re not allowed back on the ice anymore,” said coach Baskin.” I can’t think of a better father-daughter experience on Earth than what we’ve gone through for the last decade and a half.”

Baskin has gotten used to balancing the father-coach relationship with Brynn over the years.

“Sometimes it’s easier when you’re a coach to sit your own kid because you know you’re not going to get heat from any of the parents,” Baskin said. “She’s felt that pain sometimes this year when I go with someone else, and it’s not because I don’t want to hear it from another parent, it’s just how things shook out.”

Although it may seem nice to play in nationals so close to home, that does apply a bit more pressure for the Gladiators.

Even with the pressures of a potential home championship game and one last hoorah for a parent-child duo, the goal remains crystal clear for Baskin and the Gladiators.

“It would be the ultimate goal, it would be amazing,” Baskin said of winning a national title. “Especially for the girls who grew up in Northeast Ohio.”

Girls hockey is a tradition off the shores of Lake Erie in the small towns of Elyria, Parma, and Mentor. For some of the Gladiators playing in the tournament, this is another home game in a long line of competitive hockey in Northeast Ohio.

“We know these rinks, we’ve been here a million times,” said Baskin. “A lot of these girls came in here when they were playing as kids and now you sit here whether you have the opportunity to play in Mentor or Strongsville, either way it’s home.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.