About 75 residents packed the Cleveland Heights Community Center on Thursday afternoon to watch the Winter Olympic women’s ice hockey final. They crowded around a big screen with eyes locked on Team USA – and on one of their own, Cleveland Heights native Laila Edwards. For once, the tension in the room wasn’t the familiar Cleveland sports dread. It was the kind that comes with watching a hometown kid play for something bigger.
Still, the old reflex surfaced when Team USA fell behind to Canada early, and stayed behind deep into the game. Cleveland knows heartbreak, the kind that defined the city for decades before the NBA’s Cavaliers broke through in 2016.
Then the room flipped.
Team USA tied it late on a goal set up by Edwards, then won it 2-1 in overtime. People leapt to their feet, shouting and hugging as if the moment belonged to all of them.
“My heart is pounding,” said Dena Bufford, a Cleveland Heights resident. “I’m so excited for the team, but to be able to watch the victory as it happened and for this to happen for one of our locals is just phenomenal. My mind is blown. This is awesome.”
On the screen, the Americans poured off the bench. The folks at the community center stood, cheered, and chanted “U-S-A, U-S-A.” A few kids ran around the rink.
To the people in the room, it wasn’t just Team USA winning. It was about Cleveland Heights – a suburb of about 40,000 that prides itself on being tight-knit and diverse – taking a lap with them.
“This city shows up,” said Jessica Schantz, the director of communications for Cleveland Heights. “It’s absolutely thrilling. The pride that Laila’s hard work has evolved in people is immense. We’ve been promoting these watch parties and sending her love through social media. The amount of comments and likes we’ve been getting is more than we’ve had. The engagement – the sense of pride that has blanketed the city – it’s a lot of good will.”
That pride has been building for months, long before the gold medal came down to one overtime winner. Edwards’s Olympic run turned into a shared project back home. Ahead of the Games, a GoFundMe helped her family cover travel costs. And in a twist that only made the story feel bigger, a major contribution came from Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs and his brother Jason Kelce, the former Philadelphia Eagles center, who had already celebrated Edwards when she became the first Black woman to represent the US women’s hockey team.
In Cleveland Heights, the Kelce donation landed like a signal flare: people outside the city were paying attention, too. But nobody inside the watch party treated it like a miracle. They treated it like confirmation.
“No one from Cleveland Heights was surprised with the outpouring of support,” Schantz said. “We have a lot of engaged residents that won’t sit in their house and not engage.”
The community center was an example of that pride and love. It was just after 1pm. On Thursday, the place brought not just retirees with flexible schedules, but also families, kids, and working people carving out time to be there. They not only came for Team USA. They came for Edwards who began playing hockey at the age of four in the Cleveland Heights Youth Hockey program. She was motivated by her father, who played in high school. She’d develop into an elite player, which led her to the University of Wisconsin. She has won two titles there.
Cleveland Heights mayor Jim Petras was pleased with the results for Edwards and his city.
“So much energy in this city,” Petras said afterward. “It made its way across the country. Can’t be more proud of her.”
Petras said the city plans to celebrate Edwards with a parade in April after her college season ends.
Iris Williams, who sat in the front row, tried to put words to what it felt like to experience a Cleveland sports moment without the usual dread attached to it.
“So many times in Cleveland sports it’s maybe next time and how hard they tried,” Williams said. “But not this time. It’s a solid win heard around the world.”
For Bufford, the moment hit on two levels at once: hometown pride and something deeper.
“I’m over 60 years old and I’m inspired,” she said. “Talking about the discipline, the vision – it inspires me to be physically active and supportive of what young folks can do. The sky’s the limit.”
She connected Edwards’ rise to her own memories of breaking barriers. “I was one of the first Black cheerleaders in my high school,” Bufford said. “I remember how my parents were so proud. My school was proud. It’s just a wonderful feeling to be put in position to inspire someone else.”
Then she said the part that several people in the room nodded at, almost instinctively: the historical weight of this, happening right now, in public, on the biggest stage.
“What Laila is doing for hockey … it’s 2026,” Bufford said. “To be the first Black [woman on the US team] – and she won a gold medal. I’m elated for her family and how she represents and inspires our community. And it’s Black History Month too? This is a time when we really need encouragement. Our ancestors are celebrating. I’m just so happy.”
As the crowd filtered out, several fans replayed the moment to each other, swapping details, telling kids to remember what they saw, and texting friends who couldn’t make it.
“People know she grew up here,” Schantz said. “They know her story. They know her family. This is what Cleveland Heights does.”
On Thursday afternoon, they did it again – together, on a random weekday, for a gold medal, and for a hometown name that suddenly belongs to the world.
