YSU softball coach Brian Campbell retires

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown State Head Softball Coach Brian Campbell, the all-time winningest coach in program history, has announced his retirement after a 30-year college coaching career, including the last 18 seasons at the helm of the Penguins.

Campbell led the Penguins to 435 victories from 2009-26 with three Horizon League regular-season championships and a 210-181 record in conference action. He retires with a 26-year head coaching career record of 720-587-2 after winning 285 games at Tiffin University from 2001-08. He also spent four years as an assistant coach at Tiffin.

“It has been an honor to be the Head Coach of the Youngstown State softball program for 18 years,” Campbell said. “I want to thank Ron Strollo for giving me the opportunity to lead the program back in 2008. I deeply appreciate the hard work and dedication all of the assistant coaches that have worked with me over the course of my time here at YSU.

“I also want to YSU Presidents David Sweet, Cynthia Anderson, Randy Dunn, Jim Tressel, and Bill Johnson for their leadership over the past 18 years. Most importantly, I want to thank all of the student-athletes that I had the privilege and opportunity to coach at Youngstown State.”

While leading the Penguins, Campbell coached 48 All-Horizon League picks, five freshmen/newcomers of the year, three pitchers of the year and three players of the year, and eight National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region selections.

Florida AG wants NFL’s Rooney Rule gone

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has issued a subpoena to the NFL as his office investigates whether the league has committed potential civils rights violations related to the Rooney Rule and the league’s other employment practices, policies and programs.

Uthmeier, who threatened possible enforcement actions against the league in March if it didn’t suspend the 23-year-old rule, sent the subpoena along with a letter to NFL executive vice president and attorney Ted Ullyot on Wednesday.

The subpoena commands the league to appear at the attorney general’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, on June 12. It asks the league to produce extensive documents, including “all diversity reports, coaching census data, or demographic surveys that reflect the race and sex of coaching staffs of the teams from 2017 to the present.”

“All in all, the Rooney Rule and the NFL’s related ‘inclusive hiring’ policies — and the NFL’s representations about these policies — continue to raise significant concerns under Florida law,” Uthmeier wrote in the letter.

The Rooney Rule requires teams to interview at least two external minority candidates for head coach, general manager and coordinator positions. At least one minority candidate must be interviewed for the quarterbacks coach position.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, speaking at the league meetings in Phoenix in March, acknowledged the changing political landscape for diversity initiatives in the U.S., but added that he didn’t believe there should be any legal issues with the league’s policy. “The Rooney Rule has been around a long time,” Goodell said then. “We’ve evolved it, changed it. We’ll continue to do that.”

The NFL didn’t comment Wednesday on the subpoena.

From staff, wire reports