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Dawn Staley offers insightful commentary on Caitlin Clark's Olympic snub

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Dawn Staley offers insightful commentary on Caitlin Clark's Olympic snub


In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, the media was saturated with contentious arguments about Caitlin Clark’s omission from the U.S. women’s basketball team. The debate devolved into a pointless back-and-forth, exploited for cultural warfare.

The debate centered on the paradox of Clark being both highly qualified and overlooked. While arguments were rooted in both basketball performance and external factors, the discussion spiraled into a full-blown media frenzy. That saw the likes of Stephen A. Smith, Colin Cowherd, and Tony Kornheiser vehemently criticize Team USA for passing on such a significant marketing opportunity, let alone talent.

As other sports media figures suggested, NBC could have capitalized on Clark’s popularity by hiring her as an analyst if ratings/marketing were a primary concern. However, other considerations likely influenced the decision, and it might have proved challenging to justify overlooking established WNBA players who have already cut their teeth in professional basketball and with Team USA.

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In any event, the discourse ultimately reached its plateau, as Clark’s going to Paris wasn’t in the cards. But that discourse has come back to life, thanks in part to NBC’s Mike Tirico, who asked South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley, a member of the USWNT selection committee, about her read on Clark being left off the team.

“As a committee member, you’re charged with putting together the best team of players — the best talent,” she said.
“Caitlin is just a rookie in the WNBA; she wasn’t playing bad, but wasn’t playing like she’s playing now. If we had to do it all over again, the way that she’s playing, she would be in really high consideration of making the team because she is playing head and shoulders above a lot of people.

“Shooting the ball extremely well; I mean, she is an elite passer. She’s just got a great basketball IQ. And she’s a little more seasoned in the pro game in a couple of months than she was two months ago.”

It shouldn’t be surprising that Staley handled this situation with grace and offered insightful perspective on Clark’s significant growth since the initial snub. Whether her development is directly linked to the Olympic omission is irrelevant, but Staley’s acknowledgment highlights why she has such a high standing in women’s basketball.

[Scott Agness]





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Cleveland, OH

Anti-ICE demonstrators gather downtown during snow squall

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Anti-ICE demonstrators gather downtown during snow squall


CLEVELAND — A snow squall didn’t stop anti-ICE protesters from taking to the streets in Cleveland this Tuesday.


What You Need To Know

  • Anti-ICE protesters took to the streets in Cleveland despite a snow squall Tuesday evening
  • The demonstration was planned in response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis over the weekend
  • “It’s just so in your face,” Mike Bellamy, one protester, said. “It makes it hard not to come out here even in weather like this. You just have to speak out.”
  • Local faith leaders are also expressing their support for the Minneapolis community, calling on people to participate in a nationwide strike planned for Friday

“It’s just so in your face,” Mike Bellamy, one of the protest organizers, said. “It makes it hard not to come out here even in weather like this. You just have to speak out.”

Bellamy and others braved the cold to protest President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Tuesday’s demonstration was planned in response to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis over the weekend, but it was just a few weeks ago that Bellamy helped plan another protest after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Good in her car.

“They were murdered for serving the people, and everybody here sees that,” he said. “Of course, they’re not the only ones that got murdered. There are dozens others, who have been murdered off camera, in the detention facilities while being arrested.”

Top Trump officials called Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse for a Veterans Affairs hospital, a “domestic terrorist,” saying he brandished a gun and posed a threat to federal agents, but video of the shooting does not appear to show Pretti holding a firearm. 

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Faith leaders from across Cleveland are also expressing their support for the Minneapolis community. Representatives from the Fifth Christian Church, Christ Episcopal Church, the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and more held a press conference calling on people to participate in a nationwide strike planned for Friday. They’re asking people to skip class or work and not spend any money.

“We cannot be the people who sit idly by and hope somebody else will do something someday,” Rev. Charles Graves of the Christ Episcopal Church in Shaker Heights said. “If not us, who? If not now, when? How long will you put up with the injustices of our neighbors being kidnapped in the dark of night and in broad daylight?”

President Trump is changing his immigration approach in Minneapolis, pulling Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino out of the city and replacing him with Border Czar Tom Homan, but it’s not enough for organizers, who say they won’t stop until ICE is out of their communities completely. 



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Cleveland, OH

Boys basketball postponements, cancellations for Tuesday

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Boys basketball postponements, cancellations for Tuesday


CLEVELAND, Ohio — The following boys basketball games for Tuesday evening are postponed or canceled, starting with ones involving teams in the cleveland.com Top 25:

No. 7 St. Vincent-St. Mary at Youngstown Ursuline

Avon Lake at No. 16 Berea-Midpark

No. 21 Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy at Lake Catholic

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No. 24 Solon at Twinsburg (will be played Feb. 17)

Barberton at Revere (will be played Feb. 18)

Cuyahoga Falls at Copley (will be played Feb. 19)

Field at Mogadore (will be played Feb. 16)

Kenston vs. Mayfield (will now be played Jan. 28 at Mayfield and Feb. 17 at Kenston)

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Maple Heights at North Ridgeville (will be played Feb. 18)

Norton at Orrville

Woodridge at Manchester



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Cleveland, OH

Jane Carol Maisch Probst

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Jane Carol Maisch Probst


November 8, 1934 – January 22, 2026

Jane Carol Maisch Probst, 91, formerly of Ellicottville, NY and Bay Village, OH, passed away on January 22, 2026.

Born November 8, 1934, in Cleveland, OH, she was the daughter of the late Sterling Maisch and Irene Rothermel Maisch. She married Hubert “Bert” Probst on December 1, 1962, in Cleveland, OH, who predeceased her after 54 years, in 2017. She met Bert on a blind date in 1958 and married 4 years later.

Jane earned a degree in Medical Technology from Ohio University. She worked as a medical technologist at Lakewood Hospital in Lakewood, OH, and for a brief time in Saginaw, Michigan. She was instrumental in setting up the laboratory in the Pulmonary Medical Group in Fairview Park, OH, where she retired from before moving to Ellicottville, NY with her husband.

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While raising a loving family in Bay Village, OH, winter weekends were spent traveling to and from Ellicottville, NY to ski at Holiday Valley Ski Resort, where they passed on their life-long passion to their children and grandchildren. Their ski adventures took them throughout North America and Europe. In 1985, Jane joined the Holiday Valley Ski School as a ski instructor. In 1988, Jane founded the Lounsbury Adaptive Ski Program at Holiday Valley, empowering people with disabilities to enjoy skiing using adaptive equipment. At the time, this was one of the first adaptive ski programs in the nation. Jane recruited the original staff of instructors and grew the program to what it is today. After 15 years she retired from adaptive ski instruction. Today the Lounsbury Adaptive Program provides over 200 adaptive lessons each season with over 40 qualified instructors.

After Jane and Bert moved full-time to Ellicottville, Jane spent 10 years as a volunteer at the Ellicottville Memorial Library. In 2019, Jane moved to Canterbury Woods Retirement Community in Williamsville, NY. There she volunteered for the on-site library, started a reading program for residents in assisted living and started a weekly singing club.

Jane was a longtime parishioner of St. Raphael Roman Catholic Church in Bay Village, OH, and Holy Name of Mary Roman Catholic Church in Ellicottville, NY, where she was a member of the choir.

Jane is survived by her children: Joseph (Donna), Mary (William), and Timothy (Tahira), 8 loving grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

In addition to her husband, Jane was predeceased by her brother John Maisch.

Friends may call at O’Rourke & O’Rourke Funeral Home, 25 River St, Salamanca, NY on Thursday, January 29, 2026 from 5 – 8 p.m.

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A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at Holy Name of Mary Roman Catholic Church, 22 Jefferson St, Ellicottville, NY on Friday at 10:30 a.m. with Rev. Charles Johnson as celebrant.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Lounsbury Adaptive Ski Program, Holiday Valley Resort, PO BOX 370, Ellicottville, NY 14731 or www.lounsburyadaptive.org/donate or the Ellicottville Memorial Library, 6499 Maples Rd, Ellicottville, NY 14731.

E-condolences can be sent to orourke.orourkefh@gmail.com or facebook.com/onofh



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