Oh man, to go back to senior year in high school. Wouldn’t that be something? You could get away with just about anything as a senior. Plus, you were the top dog — in sports, at school, at parties and pretty much wherever you went. Good times. No, great times. The same can’t be said ...

CORTLAND — The drive up state Route 11 provided no sense of anticipation, not even when my vehicle headed west on state Route 305 toward my destination. The road leading to Lakeview High School was barren, not a soul in sight as I made my way to the back toward Don Richards Stadium. ...

Sometimes it can be frustrating when you’re really good at something. I’m talking REALLY good, like there might be one or two people better than you, but you’d have to fly across the world and ride a camel 250 miles into the desert to find them. When someone is Egyptian-desert good, ...

Opportunities abound for all of us to become better fishers every time we go to the water, but whether we understand what nature is telling us depends on how much we are paying attention and how keenly we analyze our experiences. Many anglers miss the clues they encounter simply because they ...

Skepticism is pretty normal for Youngstown State football fans, and for good reason. It’s annoying to belabor the reasons, but they’re hard to ignore. Forget that the Penguins have reached the playoffs just twice since Jim Tressel left for Ohio State in 2000. While it’s the most glaring ...

While we wait for word from the Ohio High School Athletic Association on the fate of high school spring sports in Ohio, the Tribune Chronicle / Vindicator sports department has decided to begin publishing our spring sports preview stories and capsules. We regularly publish at the start of ...

Fishing remains a popular activity throughout the Youngstown-Warren area as we continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but that’s not to say precautions can be tossed aside when we head to the water. Officials in Ohio and Pennsylvania so far have not closed public access to our ...

As tumultuous as our world has become in March, it is difficult to imagine a time and place where things are normal. Remember normal? Not so long ago, people took things like going to work, the store, school, church and whatever for granted. Watching a live ball game on TV was just a ...

Now that the Major League Baseball season has been postponed indefinitely, it doesn’t seem possible that we had almost a month of spring training before COVID-19 pulled the plug. But all baseball fans need to keep the game alive in their hearts and minds. Today was supposed to be opening ...

The first time I saw full-out, unbridled passion for a sporting event came from an unlikely source. It was my mom. My mom doesn’t mind sports. To my knowledge, she was never an athlete, but she didn’t have much of a choice but to learn to like them when she married my father (and then ...

As we come to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic, it is increasingly evident we are in a crisis like none in recent history. When we think we’ve seen it all, a new day dawns with another wave of bad news. What the virus already has done is scary enough. What it might yet do is still unclear. ...

My idea of paradise is to get away for a few days, head for the sun of the southwest and take in a few spring training baseball games. The experience last week at the Goodyear, Arizona, training camps of the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds, plus side trips to Las Vegas and Prescott, ...

CHICAGO — Steve McClain looked over and saw Darius Quisenberry on the floor, crying. The UIC coach helped the Youngstown State University men’s basketball leading scorer to his feet. It looked like Garrett Covington, YSU’s junior guard and defensive specialist, had shed a few tears ...

Jerrod Calhoun sat in the second-floor film room inside the Beeghly Center surrounded by his assistant coaches. They discussed how to approach last week’s trip to Green Bay and Milwaukee. Eight, 12 and 17 wins. That’s the first three years for the Penguins under this coaching staff. ...

Perspective. It’s a word we hear a lot as an adult. We probably heard it from time to time as children, too, but we’re carefree. We brush it off as some deep word parents use. You find out why they do when you get older. You realize life can change in an instant, and there’s nothing ...

Simi Moananu was drenched in sweat. His shirt was a darker shade of gray than when Liberty’s wrestling practice first started. The big, burly Moananu pushed through the final minutes of the conditioning portion of practice and seemed rather elated to hear the final whistle blow. He brought ...

Jason Slay looked around as the Youngstown State University men’s basketball team began to warm up with some stretching exercises. The YSU associate coach glanced around and started clapping. He observed his players — some stretching, others dunking. The group gathered around the basket. ...

The initial response was curiosity. Most people wondered: Who’s Doug Phillips? Youngstown State’s choice for the next football head coach was somewhat surprising. A relatively unknown football coach from the Mahoning Valley, Phillips wasn’t thought to be the first choice. The names of ...

YOUNGSTOWN — The shine off the Beeghly Center floor glows with the LED lights from high above illuminating down on the 94-by-50 foot floor. It brought a glow to the empty surface and building. The white and red cushioned folding chairs signifying each bench lay empty, as well as the red ...

YOUNGSTOWN — Feb. 10, 2001. The date was significant as Youngstown State University and Valparaiso were vying for first place in the former Mid-Continent Conference. YSU revealed a month later its exit strategy to the Horizon League, a newly formed conglomeration with teams like current ...