LOCAL

LOCAL

Pavlik to speak

BOARDMAN — Kelly Pavlik will be the guest speaker when the Curbstone Coaches Association meets for its noon luncheon on Monday at the Blue Wolf Catering Center on Lockwood Blvd.

The WBC and WBO middleweight champion’s trainer, Jack Loew, will accompany his fighter to the event, which is open to the public.

Trumbull County
hall to meet

WARREN — The Trumbull County Sports Hall of Fame will meet Wednesday at Buena Vista Cafe. Dinner will be at 6:30 p.m.

The club’s Hall of Fame induction banquet will be at the Golden Gate Restaurant on Nov. 4. The buffet is set for 6 p.m.

Dave Smith, the General Manager of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, will be the guest speaker.

For tickets call (330) 540-2733 or (330) 637-6910.

Rock volleyball
team on mission

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. — Slippery Rock University’s women’s volleyball team is on a mission to post a record number of digs when it plays host to Indiana Univ. of Pa. Nov. 3.

Players hope the digs will propel the Rock to victory, but more importantly, each dig will represent a contribution to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

This is he second year the team is participating in the national ‘Dig for the Cure’ campaign.

Last year the Rock raised more than $2,000.

Fans who want to make a pledge or donation can do so by contacting Laurie Lokiash at (724) 738-2817.

Berdis honored

YOUNGSTOWN — Chaney High School will honor former football coach Ron Berdis during halftime of Thursday’s Chaney-East game.

All former players and coaches are invited to attend the 7 p.m. game.

Basketball show

CORTLAND — The internationally-acclaimed Harlem Ambassadors will offer an exhibition basketball game and show at Lakeview High School on Oct. 29 at 6:30 p.m.

The Harlem Ambassadors offer a unique brand of Harlem-style basketball, featuring high-flying slam dunks, dazzling ball-handling tricks and hilarious comedy routines. 

Opposing them will be the Mosquito Lakers led by Jim Lambert and Brandon Bakker, and coached by Frank Newton (Lakeview High freshman boys basketball coach.)

The Mosquito Lakers includes a number of past area high school male and female standouts, as well as former college and semi-pro basketball stars to challenge the highly skilled Harlem Ambassadors.

Ticket prices are $7 for adults and $5 for adults and students.

They are available at the Wollam Insurance Agency, 214 W. Main Street.

Napolitan is third

ORLANDO, FL. — Anthony Napolitan took third place in the BMX Dirt final of the AST Dew Tour-PlayStation Pro tournament at Amway Arena.

The Fitch High graduate scored 87.83 points in the event which was won by Luke Parslow of Australia with 88.17 points.

In the final season point standings of the BMX Dirt event, Napolitan, 21, was seventh with 205 points.

WORLD

Adu scores goal

LISBON, Portugal — Freddy Adu came on to score the tying goal in Benfica’s 1-1 draw with Setubal in their fourth-round Portuguese league cup match Saturday.

The 18-year-old U.S. international angled his shot home in injury time to equalize after appearing as a substitute in the 71st minute. Matheus earlier gave the visitors a 12th-minute lead.

Adu also scored a late equalizer in the previous round against Amadora in September. Benfica went on to win that game on penalties.

One of the highest-profile players in U.S. soccer, Adu has seen little action since joining the Lisbon club from Real Salt Lake in July for a $2 million transfer fee.

He made his league debut as a substitute last month and played in one Champions League game in August, again as a substitute.

Adu has two national team appearances for the U.S. He became the youngest player in the history of the U.S. team when he joined it as a 16-year-old.

Operation Raw Deal

HOUSTON — The lead investigator in the latest federal crackdown on illegal steroids said Saturday that athletes “at every level” have been identified in the case, and he would like to share those names with anti-doping enforcers in their various sports.

Special Agent Jack Robertson of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was the lead investigator in the recently executed Operation Raw Deal, a bust that recovered 11.4 million doses of steroids from 56 labs in the largest crackdown on illegal steroids in U.S. history.

Robertson reiterated that the DEA targeted labs and suppliers, not athletes, but he acknowledged suppliers compiled customer lists.

The names on those lists could be revealed to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and others as the case progresses.

“I want to be able to share this information with USADA so they can run their pool of names against people they’ve identified,” said Robertson, part of a U.S. Olympic Committee panel discussing the fight against doping in sports. “I want to do that in pro sports and collegiate sports.

“If an athlete is dumb enough and is cheating, they’re going to pay the cost of supporting that.”

Also on the panel was Don Hooton, whose 17-year-old son, Taylor, committed suicide in 2003. Doctors believe Taylor Hooton became depressed after he stopped using steroids. Since Taylor’s death, Hooton has traveled the country, speaking at schools about the dangers of steroids.

He said there’s still too big a disconnect in the public about the true risks of using performance-enhancing drugs.

“When we’re talking about whether someone should have an asterisk by his record or not, we’re missing the point,” Hooton said.

“We ought to be talking about how many years in the penitentiary some of these boys could be spending if they use this stuff.

We need to quickly get into that discussion and see that the discussion starts changing in texture.”

The 90-minute discussion was lively and included lots of good interplay between the panelists and some high-profile members in the audience.

Hooton long has been a proponent of mandated testing in high schools, the likes of which recently was passed by the Texas legislature.

USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said that with all due respect to that plan, people know how to beat that system.

He thinks a more draconian penalty structure might go further in deterring cheats.

Vindicator staff/wire reports