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Even windy weather can’t stop Penguins

CHICAGO The incandescent glow of laptops and phones began to illuminate the quiet lull of a bus headed eastward toward Youngstown in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the final day of 2019. Youngstown State University men’s basketball trainer Todd Burkey was busy watching seminars on his laptop to renew his certification. Assistant coach Ethan Faulkner was intently analyzing Monday’s win over UIC as the Penguins go to 9-6 and 2-0 in the Horizon League, the only team to win two straight road wins to start this conference season. This mode of travel, taking a bus back from ...

Area wrestlers take on the challenge

Stepping on the line seems so easy. It’s a flat line on a mat. You simply step on it. And yet so many miss it. So many avoid it. And so many are scared to death of it. The lines on a wrestling mat are approximately 3 feet apart from another and painted either red or green, and each competitor must step on their designated line before a match can start. They’re right in the middle of the mat. You can’t miss them. Well, usually, you can’t miss them. Standing in front of a large crowd with all eyes on you as you prepare to tussle with someone who is often stronger, faster ...

Penguins begin Horizon schedule

Assistant coach Jason Slay is sitting near the front of the team’s bus. His AirPods are in, black ballcap is on his head and his focus is straight ahead as the vehicle starts motoring down I-71 Friday afternoon toward its final destination in Indianapolis. The attention of the Youngstown State University men’s basketball associate coach is on a video of the team’s opponents the next two days — IUPUI and UIC, the alphabet soup teams of the Horizon League — which is playing on his laptop. Today at noon the Penguins begin league play against IUPUI in Indianapolis. YSU coach ...

Who will be watching the Penguins?

YOUNGSTOWN — The echoes are almost deafening with every bounce of the air-filled, leather ball. Shoes are squeaking with the sounds ringing in the ears of dozens of fans occupying the red chairback seats and bleachers in the upper part of the Beeghly Center, built in the early 1970s. Most are familiar faces, season-ticket holders. The famous George Junior and St. Vincent-St. Mary game featuring a young LeBron James, when people had to sit on cold, concrete steps because there were no seats available. That was me and my wife, watching that Sunday afternoon contest. Five Youngstown ...

Tradition of fishing needs to be passed along

People who enjoy fishing and other outdoor sports would do well this year to consider giving a different sort of gift as we celebrate the Christmas season. Instead of rods, reels, clothing and accessories, anglers might consider giving back to the sport they have grown to love. We all enjoy getting and giving Christmas packages packed with the lures, tackle and gear that make fishing fun and catching more likely. Well-crafted rods and reels, cool-looking shirts and high-tech electronics are sure to cause big grins across the land on Christmas morning. Then again, lifetimes of ...

Can’t we all just get along with leagues?

Boardman football coach Joe Ignazio began explaining how his team was preparing for the 2019 season in his warm office with a fan circulating the humidity — an office parallel from the team’s practice field. Sweat occasionally dripped down from this reporter’s brow. Good, warm times. After the preview, I asked Ignazio about the current state of the All-American Conference, Red Tier, which was an Independent Tier this past fall for football. Canfield, Howland, Warren G. Harding, Austintown Fitch, Boardman don’t have a unified home for the 2020-21 season. Ignazio told me his ...