Mother Nature a tough opponent

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - A winter storm is missing the Miami Valley, but the area is still feeling its impact from one team trying to stay hot to another trying to keep the lights on.

GAME TIME?

They can score from the outside and the inside, but the University of Dayton women's basketball team is about to face its toughest opponent yet, Mother Nature.

Having just come off a win Thursday night over Xavier, the Flyers are now 20-1 on the season.

But the blizzard hitting the East Coast is trying to do what other teams haven't been able to and that's cool off one of the hottest teams in the country.

UD is supposed to play Sunday at 7 p.m. at Fordham, which is in New York City, but getting there is proving to be difficult.

"We were going to fly out this morning at 7," says head coach Jim Jabir. "All those flights were canceled."

That's why coaches aren't big fans of traveling either on or off the court.

The team tried boarding a bus to the airport Friday afternoon only to find out while it could fly into Philly it couldn't get a bus from there to New York.

Fortunately, despite being the 6th youngest team in the country, these Flyers are some cool customers when it comes to pressure.   

"We'll get on the bus and we'll crack jokes and laugh and it turns into a party," Jabir says. "A dire situation turns into a good thing."

In fact the team has already played at Fordham before in the middle of a storm.

The bus got stuck on ice, but the team ended up taking part in a campus wide snowball fight.

"It turned into a great time," Jabir says. "We were all soaked. It was hysterical."

So perhaps this blizzard will just be one more in what has been a long line of victories for the Flyers.

"I think we'll get out there and give our best effort and hopefully it's good enough to get a W," Jabir says.

At last check the team was going to try to fly into New York on Saturday morning.

KEEPING THE LIGHTS ON

The radar may be clear here in the Miami Valley, but with a wicked winter storm bearing down on the Northeast, Dayton Power and Light is sending 100 line technicians and tree trimmers to Michigan, Connecticut and New Jersey.

"There's a certain amount of satisfaction that comes with restoring power for folks that have been impacted by a large event like this," says Dayton Power and Light Director of Operations Bruce Coppock.

In many ways it's payback for the workers from other states who helped get our power back on after a durecho blew through in June.

"We had close to a 1,000 resources from off property that came here to help us in the Dayton region," Coppock says.

Dayton Power and Light is part of two groups whose members help each other keep the lights on, the Great Lakes group and the Southeast Electric Exchange.

But no matter where they go to help, one thing is universal.

"You would be surprised by the amount of thanks our crews receive both here in the Miami Valley when the lights come on and also when they're out of town," Coppock says. "It's gratifying for the folks that are able to restore power."