Upgrades delight Beeghly backers
A column by Pete Mollica, Vindicator sports writer.
Mike Butch, long-time area official and the official scorekeeper for the Youngstown State men's and women's basketball teams for many years, was sitting in the media room Saturday afternoon when he brought up a question for YSU athletic director Ron Strollo.
"You know what would have been really great on Friday night would have been to have a high school preliminary game prior to the YSU-Clemson women's game," Butch said. Strollo, who is on top of just about everything that pertains to YSU athletics, quickly answered, "We weren't allowed.
"We thought about that for a long time and we even contacted Boardman and Ursuline girls about playing in the preliminary game, but the NCAA wouldn't allow it," Strollo said.
"We would have had to clear the gym after the high school game and charged everybody to come back in," Strollo said. "That would have been some preliminary game.
"The NCAA really makes it difficult," Strollo said. "We had some Poland boosters who asked if they could present flowers to Clemson's Maggie Slosser and YSU's Kristy Gaudiose, [both Poland grads] prior to the game. When we checked with the NCAA, they said no."
Hoops improvement
In the past three years, Strollo has made some tremendous improvements to the basketball facilities at Beeghly Center.
"For a long time, all I heard was that we do everything for football and nothing for basketball," Strollo said. "But they can't say that any longer.
"Since John [Robic] has been here, we completely renovated both lobbies of Beeghly at a cost of over $2 million," Strollo said. "We completely remodeled both the men's and women's locker rooms, added new lighting to the court and a complete new sound system."
Strollo said that by Jan. 1 the new coaches court room will be finished. The renovation is costing more than $80,000 and all of it has been covered by donations and the Penguin Club.
"It is really going to be some place that our club members will want to be," Strollo said. "We took two empty old classrooms and combined them into one room and it will have a huge screen to view replays of the games and will include a full bar."
Other uses
Strollo said that the room also will be used for recruiting purposes and press conferences and will serve as a faculty reading lounge when not in use.
He added that the YSU women's coaching offices are being moved up to the second floor near the men's offices and they are expected to be ready by early spring. "We wanted to get them both in the same location, since we only have one secretary for both teams," Strollo said.
That move will mean that the volleyball coaches offices will move to the old women's basketball site after some renovations, while baseball and softball will move into the volleyball offices. Right now, they are located in Stambaugh Stadium.
About the only thing that Strollo and the athletic department hasn't done at Beeghly is replace the current basketball playing floor.
"And we're working on that right now," he said.
Strollo also brought up an interesting note about the upcoming football seasons. "We've been thinking about moving the starting times of our home football games up an hour to 6 p.m.," Strollo said.
"We've got a lot of families that attend with their children and sometimes they have to leave before the game is over. Hopefully the earlier starting time would allow them to stay to the end," Strollo said.
"It is still something we're kicking around, but a lot of schools are doing it," he said.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.