Finding the elusive bass at local lakes

July 4, 2020

Like the proverbial needle in a haystack, the bass in a weed bed can be difficult to find. Bass love aquatic vegetation. Lakes like Mosquito, West Branch and Pymatuning are loaded with a variety of leafy green plants that harbor largemouth bass and the food on which they prey. But thousands of acres of grass flats and lily pads are puzzles with which many anglers struggle. With all that greenery, the bass can be anywhere, so the temptation is to try to fish all of it. Success, however, depends on weeding through the water to find spots likely to harbor the food that bass want ...

Jaws drop at move Howland makes

June 21, 2020

Jaw-dropping moments are pretty common in sports, and they come in all types. The last-second shot to win the game. The big hit or amazing catch in football. A walk-off hit or a diving catch in the outfield. Heck, they’re a big reason sports are so much fun. There are other shocking moments that have a similar effect but for a different reason (think LeBron James taking his talents to Miami). There haven’t been many awe-inspiring instances lately — thanks a lot, MLB — but the Mahoning Valley did have one last week. The Howland school district chose not to renew the contract ...

MLB needs reform before it’s too late

June 12, 2020

It's nice to finally be able to catch a baseball game at one of the local parks in the area as baseball is starting to begin play around the Mahoning Valley. Groups of men and women came together, along with Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health, to find a way to work around the COVID-19 pandemic and bring baseball back. And yet owners, players, lawyers, unions or any other type of national mediator can’t do the same with Major League Baseball. Let this sink in for a minute: Youth leagues created ways to play the game safely at sandlots in a matter of weeks, but ...

’20 senior class can learn from experience

May 10, 2020

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 for the Class of 2020. These poor kids have had so much taken away. You can’t help but feel for them. Most student-athletes build up to that senior year as the pinnacle of their career. All the hard work, sacrifice, time and effort leads up to that last hurrah. And that’s just sports. There ...

Eerie quietness comes over Cortland

May 6, 2020

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. ...

Bowden proving haters are wrong

April 27, 2020

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, it can irritate people to the point that others start searching for anything negative they can find. Often times, they create some fabricated reasoning or fictitious stereotype simply to dislike them. It’s a sad path, but it’s one we’ve all probably taken once or twice (think Derek Jeter/New ...