LOCAL

LOCAL

DiBella to talk
on Inside Boxing

YOUNGSTOWN — Lou DiBella, the trainer for WBC middleweight champion Jermain Taylor, will appear on “Inside Boxing” with Mike Cefalde, Mike Cefalde Jr. and Gregg Augustine at 6 p.m. Wednesday on WBBW-AM 1240.

Taylor will fight Youngstown middleweight Kelly Pavlik for the WBC title on Sept. 29 in Atlantic City.

Correction

The 2006 Cardinal Mooney football team was the third in school history to go undefeated.

The 1980 and the 1971 teams also accomplished the feat. The Cardinals are the second to go unbeaten since the playoffs began in 1972.

Football tickets

YOUNGSTOWN — Chaney High will sell tickets for Friday’s football game at Austintown Fitch. Tickets will be sold Wednesday from 6-to-8 p.m. in the new gym lobby.

Giuriceo wins, now 7-2

WARREN — Jake Giuriceo of Struthers beat previously-undefeated Travis Harris of Cleveland in an amateur middleweight boxing bout at the Brawl at the Hall last Saturday at Packard Music Hall.

Giuriceo won on a split decision over three rounds and was named the outstanding fighter of the night.

Giuriceo improved to 7-2, Harris falling to 10-1.

NATION

NBA vets rave
about coach K

LAS VEGAS -- No one can blame the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant if he’s having a serious case of “what could have been” playing for Team USA this summer.

From Jason Kidd (the point guard the Lakers did not trade for last season) to Michael Redd (the perimeter shooter the Lakers did not draft in 2000), Bryant has reminders everywhere.

But the biggest “what if” for Bryant is Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who flirted with the Lakers’ coaching job before Rudy Tomjanovich was hired in 2004.

“I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time,” Bryant said of Krzyzewski, who has averaged 26 wins a season in 27 years coaching at Duke and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001. “I’m very excited about having the opportunity to play for him and to have a relationship with him. It’s been everything that I thought it would be.”

Only Krzyzewski, 60, knows how serious he was about making the jump to the Lakers. With a roster that includes proven veterans such as Bryant, Kidd and Chauncey Billups along with young superstars such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, Krzyzewski has been able to get his team to bond by treating everyone like family.

Former HR king
Aaron honored

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Former home run king Hank Aaron grew up in segregated Mobile and learned to play baseball in a pecan grove — too poor to own a bat.

On Monday he received a hero’s welcome at the state Capitol as he was sworn into the Alabama Academy of Honor, joining prominent politicians, industrialists and luminaries from the state such as novelist Harper Lee and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

He compared the tribute from his home state to his greatest honors, including winning the NL MVP, a World Series title and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“I was thrilled beyond words,” Aaron said.

Aaron held the major league record for career home runs with 755 until last month when San Francisco’s Barry Bonds passed that mark.

The academy recognizes living Alabamians for accomplishments “reflecting great credit on the state.”

Aaron received several standing ovations from the more than 200 people who crowded into the old House chamber for the ceremony.

“It’s good to be back in Alabama where I learned to play the game and that’s been such a big part of my life,” said Aaron, 73, an Atlanta businessman and executive with the Atlanta Braves.

Vindicator staff/wire reports