NFL visit about more than new helmets

May 22, 2018

It’s not odd to see an NFL player in Warren G. Harding High School. Heck, the city of Warren has produced dozens of professional football players over the years. On this day, however, the appearance was, indeed, strange. Members of the Cleveland Browns organization were at the school on May 15 to surprise Harding’s players and help in a community service effort … or so the Raiders thought. As players and coaches sat in the school library during a study table, the Browns arrived. Harding football coach Steve Arnold then informed his players they would be taking part in the ...

Daniels adds to Warren legacy

April 25, 2018

The gentle giant wasn’t being so gentle on this day. It was just a regular season high school football game back in 2014 to most people, but to Warren G. Harding’s James Daniels, there was extra incentive. Daniels was a three-star prospect offensive lineman who was receiving scholarship offers from teams all over the country, including Alabama, Iowa and pretty much every other team in the Big Ten. One team was holding out, even though he was a star at their summer camp. It was Ohio State, one of the schools he coveted the most. It was late in the recruiting process, so the fact ...

Local racing season about to begin

April 20, 2018

The first sign of spring is here as race cars have been sighted at the Shenango Valley Mall during the Twin State Auto Racing Club’s car show. The 2018 racing area season was scheduled to start tonight as Sharon Speedway was to play host to some of the top Late Model drivers in the country, but the last sign of winter — a light blanket of snow covering the area Thursday morning — has delayed that. The good news is the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and RUSH Sportsman Modified event scheduled tonight has been postponed until Monday, July 2. All pre-sale tickets will be good ...

Weaver’s personality part of Flashes’ success

April 14, 2018

COLUMBIANA — If you don’t come away feeling better about yourself, maybe you don’t have a soul. That’s most people’s experience after talking to Champion softball coach Cheryl Weaver. It’s her demeanor, something that has you at ease when you say hello and engage in conversation — something you rarely find these days. When she calls in a box score, it turns into a 5- or 10-minute conversation. It’s not hard to see why her players find her so endearing and grasp her words as gospel. I was intrigued, eagerly looking forward to Thursday’s game at Crestview High ...

Who wears the pants in area baseball?

April 5, 2018

The first few weeks of high school baseball are always rough in northeast Ohio, but Mother Nature is really trying her hardest to show who wears the pants around here this season. How teams even got a few games in over the last two weeks was hard to believe. As is often the case, we’ll have mid-50s and sunny weather one day and snow and 30s the next. Throw in some rain, hail, strong winds and a couple nice days, just for good measure, and that’s a typical week. That makes it hard to determine who the contenders and pretenders are early in the year, but let’s take a shot at it ...

Looking at wins, losses for YSU men

March 23, 2018

Check Twitter. Type in Youngstown State. Hit the button that says latest. Scroll down. Repeat action a couple more times in the day. The Penguins men’s basketball team kept the transaction wire active Thursday with three players asking for their release and having that request granted, which was confirmed by YSU men’s basketball media contact Jamie Hall. Sophomores Braun Hartfield and Jeremiah Ferguson, along with freshman Jacob Brown, are leaving the team. The 6-foot-6 Hartfield was the team’s second-leading scorer (13.7 points), but only scored in single figures four of his ...