A few years ago, Michael Zordich had an idea to build a high school football stadium downtown.

He still does. And, he insists, the idea isn’t dead.

“It’s certainly not a dead issue,” said Zordich, a Chaney High graduate who played 12 years in the NFL. “It’s not something we’re just going to let die. One of these days, we’re going to get it back going.”

Zordich, along with local architect Ray Jaminet, wanted to build the proposed $5.5 million, 8,000-seat stadium next to the Chevrolet Centre. The stadium, which would serve Mooney, Ursuline, East and Chaney, would be an alternative to YSU’s Stambaugh Stadium, offering each team its own locker room. It would also have two press boxes, two visiting locker rooms, a turf field and an all-weather track, allowing soccer and track teams to use it.

Zordich met with Mayor Jay Williams soon after he was elected in 2005 and Williams showed interest in the idea. Earlier this week, Williams drove by the site and remembered the meeting.

“I would hope there is yet some viability in the idea,” Williams said via e-mail. “I am still very interested in the concept.”

So what’s the holdup? Time.

Zordich, a businessman and assistant coach at Mooney (where his oldest son is a senior), hasn’t had time to work on it. But, he says, he hopes to pick it up again — after the season.

“I think you have to have the proper campaign for it,” he said. “I need to get out there and politick. When the time is right, we’ll do it. I think it can be done.”

News and notes
after week 3

UMooney senior quarterback Dan McCarthy got a pleasant surprise at last Thursday’s practice when one of the Cardinals’ assistant coaches came up to him and said, “Hey, you’re in Sports Illustrated this week.”

“I just kind of laughed,” said McCarthy, a Notre Dame recruit. “I thought he was probably making fun of me.”

He wasn’t. McCarthy, along with linemen Greg Deniro and Zach Larson, were shown in a photo accompanying a story about a Gateway (Pa.) linebacker. (The Cardinals defeated Gateway 27-6 on Sept. 1).

“My dad has a subscription to Sports Illustrated and when I came home that night, I kind of ran to it,” said McCarthy. “My dad said, ‘I guess you already heard.’

“I never really thought about [getting in the magazine]. It was just kind of a lucky thing, I guess.”

UThe Metro Athletic Conference and Trumbull Athletic Conference will merge into a three-tiered league next fall.

But after three weeks, the MAC already seems to have two tiers. The top four teams (Canfield, Howland, Niles and Poland) are a combined 11-1. Poland has the lone loss against Parma Normandy, which is 3-0 and beat Division I power Massillon by a bigger score (27-13) than it did the Bulldogs (14-6).

The bottom four teams (Campbell, East Liverpool, Salem and Struthers) are a combined 1-11 with the lone win coming from Struthers, which defeated 0-3 Springfield in week 1.

UA lot of coaches have been grumbling about the new 7 p.m. starts, which the Metro Athletic Conference adopted in 2006 and the Trumbull Athletic Conference and Inter Tri-County League started this year.

Problem is, their complaints don’t get publicized for one reason: We media folks love it.

UWho in the world gave Beaver Local a first-place vote in Div. III in this week’s state AP poll?

The fact that the Beavers (1-2) are ranked and Poland isn’t (even though the Bulldogs beat Beaver Local 38-19 last Friday) is one of the reasons people don’t take the poll seriously.

UFederal League preseason favorite Canton McKinley lost three games in a seven-day stretch last week, falling to Tulsa (Okla.) Union 31-0 on Sept. 1, then forfeiting a 66-0 win over Detroit Pershing on Monday and losing to Uniontown Lake 24-6 on Friday.

UPlayer of the week: Warren JFK senior Jared Province, who scored six touchdowns (five rushing, one receiving) in a 35-7 win over Girard.

UQuote of the week: “We have a bunch of smurfs on this team who have a ton of heart, and Danny [Rosenberger] certainly ranks with the best of them,” said Niles coach Tim Johnson following a 17-0 win over Lakeview.

XJoe Scalzo covers high school football for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.