Gazette MVP: Family, church help Medina's Olivia Klanac to tremendous success

Olivia Klanac put up some monstrous numbers in her unparalleled four-year career at Medina High, beginning with Medina County records of 1,837 points and 202 3-pointers made. It goes well beyond that, though, for the 18-year-old Klanac, who is now a two-time Gazette MVP and four-time All-Gazette and All-Greater Cleveland Conference selection, along with a two-time, first-team Division I All-Ohio pick and two-time Northeast Inland District D-I Player of the Year. The 5-foot-9 guard and four-year starter, who will continue her career at Coastal Carolina, did not miss a game in her career while leading the Bees to a 75-28 record (.728), the D-I regional finals as a junior and the regional semifinals as a senior. Klanac scored in double figures 92 times in 103 games, including in all 25 as a senior, 52 times in 53 games over her final two seasons and 74 times in 78 games over her final three. For her career, she had 53 games between 10 and 19 points, 32 between 20 and 29, six between 30 and 36 and a school-record 44 against Shaker Heights as a senior. Despite being the focal point of every opposing defense as a senior, Klanac averaged a county-record 23.7 points, plus 6.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 4.7 steals and 1.2 blocks — all but rebounds were team highs — while shooting .376 from the field and .822 at the line. In 25 games, she had seven games between 10 and 19 points, 13 between 20 and 29, four between 30 and 36 and the 44. All that being said, the home-schooled Klanac, a devout member of Grace Church, prefers the kind of numbers that lead to New Testament verses like 1 Peter 5:7, which states, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you" and 1 John 4:4, which says, "You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." Those verses often written on the inside of her forearm prior to games, Klanac used the first to deal with nerves. The second was something her mom Jessica, like dad Mark a former basketball player at Brooklyn High in Cuyahoga County, said to her every night when she put her to bed as a child. "I grew up pretty much at Grace Church and it has been a big part of my life," Klanac said. "The people I have met there have been some of the most impactful people in my life. They've helped me through so many life decisions and little things." Klanac gave special thanks to her parents and older brothers Bryce, 26, and Luke, 20, along with Luke and Becca Peters, who now live in Colorado. "This may sound bad, but to me it didn't really matter what other people believed," she said. "I was just using my platform to honor God. If they were interested, I would talk to them about it. "Growing up, our faith was always the most important thing. Luke would always remind me to rely on that and not worry about what other people thought." Klanac's faith also played a role in her college choice. She originally made a verbal commitment to Youngstown State in April 2024, but that summer her AAU team was playing in Houston when Coastal Carolina coaches saw her and also offered a scholarship. From July 16-21, after having visited Coastal Carolina and clicking with her potential teammates and coaches, not to mention loving the fact the campus was very close to the beach, Klanac went to a church camp called "Momentum" at Indiana Wesleyan University and spent the week praying for guidance regarding her college decision. In addition to two church services a day and several classes dealing with topics like finding time to prioritize God, she also played in and won a dodgeball tournament and a co-ed 3-on-3 basketball tournament in which her brother Luke, a counselor and former All-Gazette player, was the team's coach and boys 2024 Gazette MVP Quinn Barnett of Brunswick was one of her teammates. On July 28, Klanac committed to Coastal Carolina. In November she made it official by signing her national letter of intent. "I wanted to take the risk of going far away and stepping out of my comfort zone," she said. "I'm not saying I couldn't grow at Youngstown State, because it was great there, but there were different opportunities at Coastal and I wanted to take the leap of faith. "I'll definitely be uncomfortable, but one of the things I prayed on that whole week was giving up my comfortability to God. Going 10 hours away is pushing me out of my comfort zone, but the Lord has given me the strength." That decision made, Klanac led Medina to a 19-6 record this season as the team's lone senior. "Her IQ is super high, so it helps me on the court," junior teammate Abby Dress said. "Her leadership is something I really looked up to this year. She's definitely really good." Bees coach Karen Kase, a 1995 Medina graduate who played with previous program scoring leader Caroline McCombs, doesn't hesitate to call Klanac the best player in school history. "What she's done the last year and a half to elevate her whole game — she can score in many, many ways — made her an all-around player," Kase said. "She made players around her better. So did Caroline, and she may have been a better athlete, but I think Liv was the better basketball player. "She became a grown-up player and a grown-up person. She was 14 and now she's 18. There were a lot of expectations put on her, but she definitely grew up. She had a more relaxed way about her and learned to realize sometimes it was going to fall her way and sometimes it wasn't. Our team tried to celebrate all her milestones along the way, but celebrate them in a team atmosphere. Obviously they're Liv's milestones and she's got her name next to them, but I made it clear the team helped." Klanac is the first to acknowledge that, and she's even quicker to thank her parents and brothers. Her family having moved from North Ridgeville to Montville Township when she was 5, Klanac pointed out her parents recently jumped in the car and drove her 14 hours each way so she could watch Coastal Carolina play in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Pensacola, Fla. "They're a huge part of who I am today," she said. "I don't think I thank them enough for how they brought me up. I take for granted a lot of the time just how much they do for me. They've sacrificed a lot for me for my entire life in basketball, but also for my whole life in general. "My brothers spent a lot of hours with me in the gym, especially Luke. Whether it was playing outside or in the gym, they'd always be shooting with me." Klanac and her dad are now back in the gym, where he's either rebounding for her or putting her through various weight training and agility workouts. "Working out with my dad and my brothers and seeing what they would do, I looked up to them a lot," she said. "My dad was definitely a huge part of my success. There was a joke when I got the ball presented to me for the all-time (county) scoring record that he needed a ball for getting one million rebounds." That's yet another big number that surrounds Klanac, who set school records for points as a freshman (321), sophomore (399), junior (524) and senior (593) — the latter is also a county record for a season — while averaging 17.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 4.1 steals and 0.9 blocks over, count 'em one more time, 103 varsity games. Again, though, she prefers a simpler notation like "AO1," which she also wrote on her inner forearm prior to games. "It stands for audience of one," Klanac said. "It was to remind me who I was playing for." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.