New coach must be right pick for YSU

February 22, 2020

The initial response was curiosity. Most people wondered: Who’s Doug Phillips? Youngstown State’s choice for the next football head coach was somewhat surprising. A relatively unknown football coach from the Mahoning Valley, Phillips wasn’t thought to be the first choice. The names of Akron Hoban High School coach Tim Tyrrell and James Madison offensive coordinator Shane Montgomery were the ones being reported in the days following the resignation of Bo Pelini, and yet they seemed to be smokescreens (or their asking prices were too much). Phillips snuck under the proverbial ...

Penguins in position to make history

February 22, 2020

YOUNGSTOWN — The shine off the Beeghly Center floor glows with the LED lights from high above illuminating down on the 94-by-50 foot floor. It brought a glow to the empty surface and building. The white and red cushioned folding chairs signifying each bench lay empty, as well as the red plastic chairback seats behind. They’re pushed back on the opposite side for the midnight cleaning crew. It’s 11:30 p.m. Thursday night. About two hours earlier, there was a decent crowd filling certain parts of this building which has stood on the Youngstown State University campus since the ...

Recalling a packed Beeghly Center

February 19, 2020

YOUNGSTOWN — Feb. 10, 2001. The date was significant as Youngstown State University and Valparaiso were vying for first place in the former Mid-Continent Conference. YSU revealed a month later its exit strategy to the Horizon League, a newly formed conglomeration with teams like current rival Cleveland State, Butler and Wright State. Teams like Valparaiso, Oakland and Northern Kentucky soon followed to the Horizon. The YSU-Valparaiso matchup drew the interest of area fans back then as the teams sought supremacy in the MCC. The Penguins were looking to tie the Crusaders, the elite ...

Penguins must embrace journey

February 12, 2020

Matt Manley and his crew of student assistants had those cases of water, Gatorade and other snacks stacked and ready to go into the storage compartments of the tour bus parked behind the Beeghly Center. Some were heading for overhead compartments in the middle part of the bus that was being prepared to carry the 30-or-so people traveling with the Youngstown State University men’s basketball team. The trip is one of the shorter ones of the year, heading to southeastern Michigan, about four to five hours away. Most on the bus are concentrating on a variety of things — game film, ...

Student section needed at Beeghly

February 8, 2020

YOUNGSTOWN They come in, look around and take their seat. It’s in the upper level of the Beeghly Center. Some sit on the hard, wooden benches on the ends behind the baskets, other take refuge on wooden bleachers. They are students, Youngstown State University students. They come for the free food, which I’ll never pass up myself. Others are curious about the men’s basketball team. The Penguins play tonight at 6 against Cleveland State (9-15, 5-6 Horizon League). YSU (13-11, 6-5) is in fourth place in the Horizon League, a half-game behind Green Bay, which lost at the ...

MLB issues return with sign stealing

February 5, 2020

History tends to repeat itself, especially in the sporting world. Take Major League Baseball. It was during the 1919 World Series that a band of Chicago White Sox players — back then the best team money could buy— conspired with a group of gamblers to throw the championship to a team of inferior Cincinnati Reds. In 1920, the commissioner of baseball — Kenesaw “Mountain” Landis — cracked down on the perpetrators of the scandal and banned eight players from the game for life. Say it isn’t so, Joe? Now almost a century later, the question turns into “Say it ...