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Coaching debuts highlight Week 1 of high school football

Backyard rivalries, a cross-country matchup and coaching debuts highlight the start of the 2022 high school football season, which kicks off tonight with a slate of eight games involving area schools. Highlighting tonight’s schedule is the 48th consecutive meeting between Niles and Howland. The two schools have met every year since 1975, with the Red Dragons leading the series 25-22. Howland has won each of the last two matchups by six points. In 2020, the Red Dragons and Tigers played in the final week of the season, with Howland prevailing 42-36. Last year, a pair of Ashleigh ...

A coaching masterpiece

Trumbull County has been blessed with a number of high school football coaching legends. In two different eras, Tony Napolet molded Warren John F. Kennedy into a football powerhouse. Andy Golubic Jr. lost just 31 of the 135 games he coached at McDonald. Bill Bohren is one of 17 coaches in Ohio history to log 300 career wins. Niles’ 48-game unbeaten streak which included a pair of state titles earned Tony Mason “Coach of the Century” honors in a 1999 Tribune Chronicle poll. Phil Annarella’s resume ranks right up there with the best of the best. The Ohio High School Football ...

Bass action picking up as summer transitions to fall

A few weeks remain for my surgery-induced fishing sabbatical, but the countdown is made easier by the fact I’ll be back in action when the smallmouth bass are transitioning to the fall bite. My doctors say I’m getting close to the day when I can tow and launch the BassCat, be strong enough to cast for hours and withstand the jarring hooksets on what I consider the premier gamefish of Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Regardless of your preferred style of fishing, smallmouth bass are out there to eat your lures and provide heart-pounding action. It’s a good thing my own ...

Fishing from youth can inspire lifelong adventure

Something surreal exists in the minds of young anglers who imagine oversized adventures in tiny waters close to home. That’s the way it was for me. And judging by recently received information, that’s the way it was for a couple of my fishing friends. Friday afternoon, Tyler Woak recounted that day’s great fishing in a little creek that drains into the Mahoning River near his home in Niles. On a whim, Tyler trekked out to the stream where he’d cut his teeth in the fishing game. He grabbed a spinning rod and a pocketful of Ned rigs to drag through the current for the ...

Intriguing games of Week 9, 10

Two weeks from today, teams will be putting on their pads and plunging into their regular season schedules. This will mark the final week of our series discussing the top high school matchups in the area. As such, today we’ll delve into Weeks 9 and 10. Week 9 Harding at ...

Couch Fan: The end of college football

One of my elders back in the day used to tell me that history didn’t repeat itself, but it sure does rhyme. Well, that old adage can certainly pertain to the history of U.S. Presidents when talking about the similarities between Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, but I didn’t thinkt it pertained to sports history. Not until the last day of June, that is. I was in Progressive Field watching the Indi... er Guardians come back on their division rival the Minnesota Twins when my iPhone tweeted out news that USC and UCLA were talking about entering the Big Ten. Two West Coast icons, ...