YSU

YSU
Basketball
YOUNGSTOWN -- Senior Jen Perugini was selected to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV First Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Perugini, from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., has a 3.66 grade-point average with a major in physical education.
The 6-foot-2 forward leads the Horizon League and ranks 11th nationally with 10.9 rebounds per game and ranks second in the HL in scoring (14.4). She is the only player in the Horizon League averaging a double-double.
Soccer
YOUNGSTOWN -- High school recruits Kaitlin Messer, Nina Pannoni and Carrie Wack were signed by YSU coach Anthony James.
Messer, a defender and three-year letterwinner for West Carrollton High was a first-team all-league, all-area selection. She also received first-team all-state academic honors and well as being named to the Academic All-Star team.
Pannoni, a defensive standout at W.T. Woodson High School in Lorton, Va., was a three-year letterwinner and second-team all-district. She led her club team, the Annandale Sparks, to two quarterfinal finishes, while her U-19 Vista United team was ranked second in the country.
Wack, from Harmony, Pa., was a four-year letterwinner and a two-time all-section player. She helped her team to four consecutive WPIAL playoffs. Her club team, International Football Club, was State Cup finalists three times and semifinalists three times.
LOCAL
Umpires meeting
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Metro Umpire Association will hold an OHSAA baseball/softball meeting Sunday at 1:15 p.m. at St. Nicholas Activity Center on Shady Run Road.
Umpires must attend at least four meetings to meet state requirements.
Call John Mang at (330) 502-6665 for more information.
Academic awards
Mike Drahos of Bethany was named second team, and Westminster's Mark DeMonaco (New Castle) and J.D. Collar of Grove City were named third team to the 2005 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District II College Division Men's Basketball Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
Jackson-Miltonnames coach
NORTH JACKSON -- Mark Assion, a 1992 graduate of Mooney High, has been named varsity football coach at Jackson-Milton.
Assion later played at John Carroll University and in a semi-pro league in Europe.
Assion began his coaching career in North Carolina before returning to the area as an assistant at Warren Harding from 2000-04. Last season he was defensive coordinator and strength coach at Stow.
Assion earned a bachelor's degree in education at John Carroll and a master's in educational administration at Youngstown State.
Correction
Two wrestlers were omitted this week from list of district qualifiers -- Boardman sophomore Justin Powell, at 215 pounds, and Hubbard senior Adam Graban, at 130 pounds.
REGION
Indians sign Bragg
CLEVELAND -- Outfielder Darren Bragg signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians on Thursday.
The club said Bragg will report to their minor league camp next month.
Bragg, who played with the San Diego Padres and Cincinnati Reds last year, has a career .255 batting average with 46 homers and 260 RBIs in 11 seasons. The 35-year-old had his best season in 1997, when he batted .257 with nine homers and 57 RBIs in 153 games with the Boston Red Sox.
Bragg spent the 2003 season with the Atlanta Braves.
Steelers will replace Heinz Field turf, again
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers are replacing the much-maligned turf at Heinz Field -- again.
The work, however, actually began before the NFL Players Association released a player survey rating it among the five worst playing surfaces earlier this month. In that survey, Steelers players rated their own playing surface as the worst in the league.
Two years ago, the Steelers installed DD GrassMaster -- a hybrid surface that combines real sod with synthetic fibers -- after complaints that the footing was poor on the sand-based grass surface in place when the field opened in 2001.
Earlier this month, workers again scraped off the surface -- about a half-inch of top soil -- but they're not changing turfs, they're again installing a DD GrassMaster surface.
Reports claim Bruschihad possible stroke
BOSTON -- New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi has a broken blood vessel in his head and might have had a minor stroke, according to newspaper reports.
Bruschi was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday with unexplained headaches.
The possibility that he had suffered a stroke was reported in Thursday editions of The Boston Herald, which cited unidentified sources.
Franchise tag slappedon Chargers' Brees
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Chargers used their franchise tag Thursday on Brees and will offer him a one-year contract at just more than $8 million. The quarterback made $1.56 million in base pay last season, when he led the Chargers out of the NFL's basement to the AFC West title at 12-4.
The Chargers needed to put the tag on Brees, the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year, to keep him from leaving as an unrestricted free agent.
Vindicator staff/wire reports