YSU's Hill settles into new position
The toughest thing that new Youngstown State women's basketball coach Tisha Hill has had to handle in the past two weeks is trying to find a house.
Becoming just the fourth coach in YSU history, Hill was named to the position April 30 replacing Ed DiGregorio, who resigned after 20 seasons.
Hill, who came to the Penguins from Ball State University where she spent two seasons as an assistant coach, has already filled one of her staff positions.
Hill hired Kara Wile, an Indiana native, as one of her assistants and hopes to have a second on board shortly.
Relationship formed
Wile, who got to know Hill when the latter was recruiting her to play at UW-Green Bay, where she was an assistant for two seasons, has been an assistant at Southern Illinois and Indiana State.
"I was recruiting her out of high school and we've stayed in touch throughout the years," Hill said.
"I didn't get her for UW-Green Bay."
Wile spent last season coaching high school basketball while completing requirements for a master's degree.
Hill said that everything has been going smoothly with the Penguins, although she still knows little about the team's athletic talent.
"I got here during finals week and really didn't want to bother them during their studies," she said.
"Mainly we've been bonding and I've set up interviews with all of them," she added.
"This is a great group and they have all received their summer workout schedules.
"They are a hard working bunch and most of them plan to be around campus this summer working out," Hill continued.
"They know my expectations," she said. "NCAA rules don't allow me to supervise summer workouts."
Developing the program
Hill still has one scholarship remaining for next season, but says there's the possibility that she might just save it for the following year.
"Our recruiting is different from the men's. We can't go out until July, so I've been making a lot of phone calls right now," she said.
Originally, Hill had planned to go after a junior college player, one who would make an immediate impact on the team, but she has found the pickings to be slim right now.
"The Ohio high school junior class is expected to be a great one, so we just might wait and use that last scholarship on next year's class," she said.
Hill had talked with former YSU standout Caroline McCombs about an assistant's position, but McCombs has decided to stay at Valparaiso, where she's been an assistant coach for four seasons.
Hill said that she's pleased with the way everything has progressed during her first two weeks on the job.
Now, if she can just find a place to live.
Baseball
Youngstown State is getting ready for the Horizon League baseball tournament, which gets underway Wednesday at Wright State University.
The Penguins, who finished Horizon play with a 12-11 record, can finish no lower than fourth place in the standings, but going into last weekend had a chance to jump into third place as league-leading Illinois-Chicago played a four-game series with No. 3 UW-Milwaukee.
The tournament will begin with a play-in game between No. 6-seed Wright State and No. 7-seed Cleveland State.
The winner will go against the No. 1 seed in Thursday's first round.
Regardless whether the Penguins finish third or fourth, they'll probably play UW-Milwaukee. The tournament pairings were to be released today.
XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.