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 ...
Matt Manley and his crew of student assistants had cases of water, Gatorade and other snacks stacked and ready to go into the storage compartments of the tour bus parked behind the Beeghly Center. Some were heading for overhead compartments in the middle part of the bus that was being ...
YOUNGSTOWN — They come in, look around and take their seat. It’s in the upper level of the Beeghly Center. Some sit on the hard, wooden benches on the ends behind the baskets, other take refuge on wooden bleachers. They are students, Youngstown State University students. They come for ...
History tends to repeat itself, especially in the sporting world. Take Major League Baseball. It was during the 1919 World Series that a band of Chicago White Sox players — back then the best team money could buy— conspired with a group of gamblers to throw the championship to a team ...
Anglers who have experienced the joys of fishing understand the basics about tackle and where to go on our local lakes and rivers for fat walleyes, slab crappies, jumbo perch and big largemouth bass. But for every person experienced in fishing, dozens more are wondering how and where to ...
The news was a little hard to believe. A high-profile coach who had been successful leading one of the nation’s storied programs was coming to Youngstown State. Bo Pelini, the intense and oft-criticized Nebraska coach who won more than 70 percent of his games with the Cornhuskers, decided to ...
YOUNGSTOWN — Intensity, it’s easy to say, hard to display when exhaustion runs through your being. School and other factors can affect the all-out intensity in preparation. It’s about being ready for 40 minutes of dribbling, shooting, rebounding and boxing out on a hardwood surface with ...
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has been known for questionable, or frankly, downright stupid decisions over its lifespan. The Hall of Fame class for the NFL’s centennial season was a chance to make up for all the mistakes that have been made. All the legends over the years who have yet to ...