Move to get Martin good idea

Youngstown State athletic director Ron Strollo made a very quick decision when it came to hiring a new women’s basketball coach, but Strollo figured he didn’t have a lot of time if he wanted to get the coach he felt was best for the program.

Friday Strollo introduced Cindy Martin as the Penguins’ new coach. Had Strollo waited until Saturday he might not have gotten her.

“I knew that she had two or three more interviews scheduled and I also knew that she was the right person for this job so we just moved very quickly to get it done,” Strollo said.

Recruiting background at WVU bred success

Martin has had nothing but success in her short head coaching career, but it was really the success that she had while she was the top assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at West Virginia that caught Strollo’s attention.

“She helped turn that program around with the people that she brought in, so we knew that recruiting would not be a problem for her,” he said.

Martin was the head coach at Indiana (Pa.) for the last three years after leaving West Virginia, where she was an assistant for four seasons.

The 32-year-old had an outstanding 70-23 record at IUP, including marks of 24-9 and 27-5 her last two seasons.

And if there was any doubt that Martin has had aspirations of moving up the next level, it should be noted that she would have had her entire team returning next season at IUP.

“I think that whoever comes in to take over the job should have a great shot to win a national championship there,” Martin said Friday at her press conference.

Only two candidates were interviewed

The Penguins only interviewed two candidates for the job, Martin and Darcie Vincent from California (Pa.)

“I talked with so many people at IUP and everybody couldn’t say enough good things about the lady,” Strollo said. “I couldn’t get their athletic director off the phone talking about her.”

The only downside, if it is a downside, is that Martin is an up-and-coming young coach and Youngstown State is just the second step to where she eventually wants to get and that would be in major college basketball.

And that’s not a bad thing, because for her to move up to the next level she must make her presence known here and get this program back on its feet.

There is nothing wrong with losing your coach to a better job, because she will have to turn things around here for that to happen.

Ten players return for Martin’s first team

There are 10 young players returning next season for the Penguins who are excited about the new coach, especially when she’s made it known that she expects to have this group winning right away in the Horizon League.

Martin got a 5-year contract at $95,000 a year. She may never fulfill it, but if the Penguins can get three or four good years and she gets the program back to its winning ways it will all be worth it in the end.

Football spring game Friday night

The YSU football team is winding down spring practice with the Red and White spring game set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.

The Penguins held their only jersey scrimmage Saturday and there were a lot of good things that came out of the contest.

The defense finally won back the red practice jerseys which the offense has held for nearly two years. The defensive win was the first in the last four jersey scrimmages.

Going into the scrimmage defense was one of the big concerns this spring since it was hardest hit by graduation, but after Saturday’s performance everybody feels a whole lot better about the defense.

And that came after the offense, led by first-year starter Todd Rowan at quarterback, drove 80 yards in 14 plays on the scrimmage’s first series to score what turned out to be the only touchdown of the game.

Still the offense showed that it has the capabilities of being a good one. Rowan is the key since the 6-foot-3, 223-pounder from LaBrae High School has been injured most of the past two seasons. If he and the Penguins’ veteran offensive line stay healthy the offense will click.

There are plenty of good running backs and good receivers and even Rowan has a couple of pretty good backups if he would happen to go down.

It should be an interesting spring game.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.