By SEAN BARRON
news@vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN
A few years ago, Allison Ludwig left her home in Dayton to attend Youngstown State University and cited the people, the welcoming atmosphere and the facilities as the main draws.
She couldn’t have known it at the time, but one of YSU’s newest additions would reinforce her feeling that she made the right move at the right time: the Watson and Tressel Training Site.
“I love this facility,” Ludwig, a member of the university’s soccer team, said after Tuesday’s WATTS Donor Recognition celebration in the athletic facility on the north end of campus.
About 100 people attended the 45-minute ceremony to recognize and thank the nearly 350 families, organizations, individuals and others who donated more than $4 million to help build the $11 million indoor practice and athletic facility, which opened last fall.
The state-of-the-art center is named after Jim Tressel, former YSU and Ohio State University head football coach, who coached at YSU from 1986 to 2000 and guided that program to four national championships; his wife, Ellen, a YSU graduate; and Frank and Norma Watson, Tressel’s in-laws.
Offerings include a full-length football field, a 300-meter track, four batting cages, a high-jump pit, two long-jump pits, a training room and several locker rooms. The center is used mainly by the university’s baseball, football, softball, golf, soccer and men’s and women’s track teams.
Ludwig, a junior who’s majoring in middle-school education, said she feels the WATTS center has made her team better, largely by providing improved facilities for game preparations.
Calling the center “a difference maker,” Eric Wolford, YSU’s head football coach, predicted that it will change many people’s lives.
“When a recruit comes to our campus and walks in this facility, there’s a ‘wow’ factor, correct?” he said to applause. “I can assure you of this: The future at YSU looks bright.”
The climate-controlled WATTS center will be an excellent place for athletes to practice year-round and can be used for community events, said YSU President Cynthia E. Anderson, who noted that it also has hosted high-school track meets.
“This facility is in constant use,” she said.
Tressel said he’s grateful to those who made his dream a reality, adding that the facility will positively impact many people for years to come.
Making additional remarks during Tuesday’s gathering were Ron Strollo, YSU’s athletic director; Anthony M. Cafaro Sr., retired president of the Youngstown-based Cafaro Co., one of the country’s leading developers of shopping centers; and R. Scott Evans, vice president for University Advancement.
Comments
Nice picture of a national football cheat, a gangster and an enabler...along with their spouses. Younstown must be so proud.
Nice picture of a national football cheat, a gangster and an enabler...along with their spouses. Younstown must be so proud.
DITO < DITO
Nice picture of a national football cheat, a gangster and an enabler...along with their spouses. Younstown must be so proud.
Give it a break. He paid the price for what he did, no one got hurt, and he's done a lot of good things for YSU, and I don't mean football titles. In the light of other revelations in college football, his breaking a rule is akin to a minor misdemeanor in everyday life. This has been beaten to death. Move on and just be happy that somebody has done something for the Youngstown area - or what's left of it. Youngstown has a storied history of shady people and shady dealings, many of which have been completely accepted by the population. I don't see how this is any different, other than the offenses are much less severe.
I agree. I still never understood how they can hold a coach responsible for some idiots on the team and what they do. I can't even fathom with the way some of the kids now act, how anyone can coach/manage/tutor and also be a parent to some of these idiots. If anything their parents are responsible for not teaching them common sense. Tressell has paid a price but he still is a class act and hope he goes pro someday.
And the football GOD is still live and well in Ytown . Next it will be Penn state. All class acts for sure
Please tell me how YSU, and Youngstown in general, would have been better off without a Jim Tressel?
Its good to know there are so many people are perfect around here that can look down on a good man who did a heckuva lot for this area.
The comments on this board are more entertaining than ever. The parade of bitter, angry,sad people here is hilarious. As if one city in Northeast Ohio is the only home to corruption.
It would be a good idea to actually get out of the womb and go live somewhere else.
You can talk all the trash you want now but you weren't talking smack when JT had YSU in the Big Dance almost every year. As others have said, JT has paid his price, lost the job he coveted the most and is not out of football for probably the remainder of his life.
There are not many nice things about Y-town and the fact that the university and community leaders came together and built this great center with private donations is remarkable. The university I attended would have built the center then charged the students for building it and using it. The fact that the center is open to the public during the winter months for a small fee is a plus.
Jim Tressel is a liar who wrote a book about morals and then was exposed for not having them. But thats not who i have a problem with in this photo. Its Cynthia Anderson that i have a problem with. YSU has declined since she took over. They have less students, they annually increase their costs, they are receiving less money from the government, but she still had the nerve to spend 4 million dollars on the wick inn. Are you serious? It would probably costs less to build a new one, but they do not care. It shouldnt have been renovated at all.
I never really cared for Dr. Anderson... I do find it disgusting they spent so much to renovate a building students will not benefit from.
And I've heard more than a few stories of Tressel from back in the day at YSU...
I heard Cafaro only makes his "donations" via cash in an envelope. Maybe he's standing in back so he can stuff envelopes down the back of their pants.
And yes, spending 4 million to fix up an old mansion for Anderson is a disgrace.
I finally got inside the building and it is quite nice. This is something in which the whole community can take pride, no matter whom donated large sums of money for it. YSU is far better off because of Tressel's years there and the money the Cafaro's have donated in the past. Do you think the Cafaro's stuffed the money into these politicians pockets without permission or knowledge? It takes two to tango and, in case you haven't noticed, money has always been the mother's milk of politics.
Would all you whiney negative calicified old Youngstown coots stop your pitiful complaining.