For the last week or so, I’ve had a hard time finding the words. It’s wildly different from my usual writing efforts, but this felt like a once-in-a-career chance to write about a sport we never get to talk about. From the moment Youngstown State announced that Tony Hawk would be ...
My drives south on Route 7 enroute to the Ohio River are always in inky blackness, which is appropriate considering the great mysteries that await when I reach my destination. I love getting up before dawn to go fishing for smallmouth bass on the Ohio River, but not because it is the greatest fishery. In fact, many in the bass world consider our Ohio River a joke in terms of its fish population. But it’s not a laughingstock, in my opinion. For precisely the reasons that others disdain the Ohio, I love it. It is not an easy fishery. The river rarely fishes the same two times in a ...
It was the fall of 1957, and Bob Zajack was anxious to play his sophomore season of football at McDonald High. A year earlier, Zajack was already a solid enough player that he earned a spot on the Blue Devils’ varsity roster and lettered as a freshman. However, Zajack suffered a shoulder injury late that season, and effects of the injury carried over to the following year. So much so that Zajack’s sophomore season ended in abrupt fashion. Seemingly, his association with the football program had come to an end. Fast forward to Sept. 9, 2022. Prior to McDonald’s home ...
YOUNGSTOWN — Just like that, nonconference play has ended for the Youngstown State football team. The Penguins, as expected, posted a 2-1 record during the opening three weeks of the season, with wins over Duquesne and Dayton before last week’s 31-0 loss at Kentucky. With it being ...
Sometimes the fish defy logic — at least in human terms. We all have our own expectations about where and when we might put ourselves within range of our favorite species. Our expectations are based on our years of experience. Whether we’re targeting crappies, walleyes, bass or catfish, we know approximately where to put our bait or lures with reasonable hope that a fish will bite. But nature has a way of saying, “Not so fast, Buddy.” Just when we think we know where, what and when, the fish are following a different guidebook. Last weekend, for example, I was ...
There aren’t many things that can tie together a group of athletes quite like a championship season. There are memories that are created, moments that are shared, and times that can be looked back on as something those athletes will never forget. After being honored before, and during halftime, of Warren G. Harding’s matchup with Ursuline Friday night for the 50th anniversary of their state championship run, the players of the 1972 undefeated Warren Western Reserve Raiders football team convened at Enzo’s in Warren to continue the celebration Saturday afternoon Warren mayor ...
