BEAVER TOWNSHIP — When Bill Johnson assumed his duties as president of Youngstown State University in March 2024, he embraced the challenges presented as the school’s top administrator.

Everything from cultivating new donors, to working with the university’s four unions to improving academic curriculums, it has been a labor of love for the school’s 10th president.

He said his first year has flown by.

“I think things have gone great. Have we had challenges, absolutely we have,” Johnson told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “Higher education is undergoing a lot of reforms and transformations. Parents and stakeholders, lawmakers included, governors, presidents, many people are questioning the return on investment of a four-year college education.

“I am testimony to the fact that there is a great return on the investment of a college degree. We just need to do a better job of telling our story, but I think we are weathering those challenges. Our enrollment is up, it was up last fall by 11% and up again in the spring by 9.5%.

“If you look at orientations and those students that are coming to universities to check in with us to see if they want to come here, all of those activities are significantly up as well, so virtually every measure of higher education is heading in the right direction for us.”

One department headed in the right direction at the university is its athletics department, where 21 intercollegiate sports are offered.

“What impresses me so much about our athletics department is that we always rank near the top for our performance in the classroom,” Johnson said. “Our students are not only dedicated to their craft and their sport on the field or on the court, but they are also dedicated to performing and getting their education in the classroom. I am extremely pleased with the work that our athletic director, Ron Strollo, and his team do to make sure that our students are prepared, not only for the few that go on to play professional sports, but for all of our student-athletes that they are prepared for the challenges that their generation will present to them.”

YSU competes for the Horizon League’s coveted McCafferty Trophy — they won the all-sports trophy in 2022-23 and finished second overall three of the last four academic years — awarded annually league’s all-sports champion.

“To think that some of our programs have had to rebuild,” Johnson said. “Our basketball coach, Jarrod Calhoun, left at the end of last season, so we’ve got a new coaching staff and look what Coach [Ethan] Faulkner did. They went about their business and set records for most wins by a first-year head coach, going all the way to the Horizon League finals. On any given night, we could have won that game, so I am extremely pleased with not only our men’s team, but our women’s team as well.

“So many of our sports have done well. Our men’s indoor track and field team won their 10th consecutive championship, while the women’s indoor program won their eighth championship in the last nine years and their 10th title in 12 years. Our bowling team is nationally ranked, while baseball is completely revamped with a new coaching staff. They are a much different team than they were at this time last year.”

Conference realignment of the former power conferences, where they stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast remains a challenge for Division I mid-major programs.

“Mid-major schools, and I am engaged at so many different levels, not only in the Horizon League but the Missouri Valley Football Conference, but also with my colleagues that I used to serve with in the U.S. House of Representatives, something’s got to give with the way mid-major schools are being treated by the NCAA,” Johnson said. “I am going to continue to work on that. Passing off the lion’s share of the cost of this House settlement to mid-major schools, I don’t think that was a good thing that we’re going to go along like everybody else and make lemonade out of lemons. I’m frustrated with what is happening with mid-major schools and how the NCAA views us.”

Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal are also a concern.

“If Congress does not step in and put some guardrails around all of that, it is going to be the downfall of college sports,” he said. “I just don’t see a good outcome when you’ve got student-athletes that are determining their next move based on how much NIL money they are going to get. You’re not going to be signing students or having visits with student-athletes and their parents, you are going to have student-athletes and their agents that are going to be coming here. I don’t think this is good for college sports and I don’t believe it’s good for young people.”

Next Monday, Newton Falls boys basketball coach Roy Sembach will serve as guest speaker.