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SPORTS STORIES of the YEAR
SPORTS STORIES
of the YEAR
A LOOK BACK AT THE TOP LOCAL SPORTS
1: Cardinal Mooney wins eighth title.
2: Jim Tressel out at Ohio State; his YSU days make SI article.
3: YSU football program has better year, then stumbles.
4: Jason Kokrak emerges for spot on PGA tour.
5: Bruce Zoldan’s horse wins the Kentucky Derby.
6: Boxer Jake Giuriceo emerges.
7: Champion and Poland win state softball titles.
8: Area hockey players picked in the NHL draft.
9: Austintown’s Mike Trgovac wins a Super Bowl ring.
10: YSU’s Anthony Conn is crowned Greatest Golfer.
Staff report
YOUNGSTOWN
New competitors emerged, raw talent grew and fresh hardware was added to trophy cases. It was 2011 in the Mahoning Valley where sports lovers sometimes got what they wanted — and sometimes suffered dreary losses.
Here is the list of Top 10 sports stories of the year, compiled by The Vindicator staff.
Photo
Members of the Cardinal Mooney football team, including (from left) seniors Cameron DiVito, Joe Deniro (6), coach P.J. Fecko and Roosevelt Griffin (3) hold the Division III state championship trophy following the Cardinals’ 21-14 win over Springfield Shawnee at Fawcett Stadium in Canton.
1.) ST8 CHAMPS:
It came down to the waning seconds, but the Cardinal Mooney football team walked off Canton’s Fawcett Stadium on Dec. 2 with a 21-14 win over Springfield Shawnee for the school’s eighth state championship.
The Cardinals held a 21-7 lead at halftime and held on to down the previously undefeated Braves who were playing in the Division III state title game for the first time.
Ryan Farragher caught four P.J. Quinn passes for 39 yards on offense, but his most important play came on defense. The senior swatted away a fourth-down pass by Brad Jarzab in the left corner of the end zone to secure the victory.
With eight championships, Mooney is ranked second in the state behind only Cleveland St. Ignatius which has won 12.
Under 12-year coach P.J. Fecko, the Cardinals have won four state championships.
2.) TRESSEL OUT AT OHIO STATE
Stemming from NCAA violations surrounding the Ohio State football program, head coach Jim Tressel resigned on May 30. Nearly six months of turmoil haunted the program with allegations arising from as far back as 2002. At least 28 players alledgedly received improper benefits — namely tattoos in exchange for memorabilia including team championship rings. In December 2010, five Buckeyes players, including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, were found to have received cash and discounted tattoos from a Columbus tattoo parlor involved in a federal drug trafficking case. It was uncovered that Tressel had learned of these players’ involvement, but did not tell anyone within the OSU athletic department and lied to the NCAA.
Sports Illustrated’s cover story on the Ohio State scandal included reports of Tressel’s tenure at Youngstown State (1986-2000). Former YSU president Leslie Cochran was quoted: “What bothered me was that the family knows. Inside the family, everyone knows what’s going on,” referring to how Tressel ran the football program.
Cochran later said his portion of the report was “fabricated.” Tressel compiled a 106-22 record in 10 years at Ohio State.
3.) YSU FOOTBALL SURPRISES, STUMBLES
On Nov. 12, the Youngstown State football team did the unthinkable by knocking off top-ranked North Dakota State on the road. All the Penguins needed a week later was a win over 1-9 Missouri State to reach seven wins for the first time since 2007 and a very-likely playoff berth. It didn’t happen.
The Penguins blew a 17-point halftime lead to fall to the last-place Bears, 38-34.
The loss marred an impeccable turnaround for a 3-8 team in 2010. Quarterback Kurt Hess emerged as a passing threat in the Missouri Valley Conference, setting single-season school records for touchdown passes (26), 200-yard passing games (eight) and completion percentage (64.8). As a whole, the offense averaged 36.2 points per game — a new school record.
4.) KOKRAK CARDED
In 1984, John Hamarik of Youngstown appeared in 23 PGA Tour events. Thirty years later, another Mahoning Valley native will get his chance. Jason Kokrak, a 2003 graduate of Warren JFK, earned his PGA Tour card for 2012.
Kokrak finished fourth on the 2011 Nationwide Tour — the PGA’s main feeder circuit — money list. He picked up a pair of wins in just over half of the events to net $338,092. His first PGA event will begin Jan. 12 in Honolulu for the Sony Open.
5.) ANIMAL KINGDOM WINS KENTUCKY DERBY
For 15 years, Youngstown businessman Bruce Zoldan, the chief executive officer of B.J. Alan Company, has been a partner in the horse racing ownership syndicate Team Valor International.
In 2008, Team Valor’s Visionaire competed in the Derby, finishing 12th. Last spring, Team Valor’s Animal Kingdom qualified for the Kentucky Derby.
“My dream as being an owner of a horse or being in a partnership, as every other horseman has, is to be in the Kentucky Derby and obviously to win it,” Zoldan said. “What I thought was a once in a lifetime experience when Visionaire was in it ... To be in it [again] is unbelievable, sensational.”
On May 7, Zoldan’s dream came true when Animal Kingdom went from last to first to win the Kentucky Derby. The 20-1 longshot used a late-burst to fly past the field as they came down the home-stretch to win American horse racing’s most prestigious event.
“It was surreal,” Zoldan said. “The stars were aligned.”
Two weeks later in Baltimore, Animal Kingdom finished in second by half-a-horse at the Preakness, just missing the chance to contend for racing’s Triple Crown.
6.) JG BECOMES A KO
With the downfall of boxer Kelly Pavlik littering the headlines, a new local boxer has risen to the top. Campbell’s Jake Giuriceo is undefeated (14-0-1) and holds the Universal Boxing Organization’s American lightweight championship belt.
Trained by Frank Duarte and Keith Burnside and managed by Joe Corvino, Giuiceo has been nicknamed “The Bull.” Recently, he earned a unanimous decision over Bryne Green in “November Fury” at St. Lucy’s in Campbell. There, he was christened with the UBO title after the 10-round bout.
7.) CHAMPION, POLAND WIN TITLES
The rainiest spring in memory delivered a bumper crop of championship softball teams from the Mahoning Valley.
In Division III, Champion pounded Baltimore Liberty Union, 11-2, at Akron’s Firestone Stadium on June 4 to win state title. It was the Mahoning Valley’s first softball championship since Canfield won in 2008.
Three hours after Champion’s win, Poland defeated Keystone LaGrange, 4-0, for the Div. II title.
Champion head coach Cheryl Weaver took her third team to state and finished an unbeaten season when the Golden Flashes (27-0) walloped Liberty Union with a 10-run fifth inning that included two triples by shortstop Tawny Rogers.
“Everyone [in the lineup] got on and everyone scored — you can’t ask for more than that,” Weaver said.
With 502 career victories, Poland head coach Reid Lamport guided his Bulldogs (25-2) to the school’s first softball championship. Junior pitcher Erin Gabriel (16-1) threw a one-hitter.
8.) ON THE ICE
Three hockey players with ties to the Valley were early-round picks in June’s National Hockey League draft. East Palestine native JT Miller was drafted in the first round by the New York Rangers. Miller played two seasons with the U.S. National Development Program.
Early in the second round, defenseman Scott Mayfield, a Youngstown Phantom from 2009-11, and forward Brandon Saad of Gibsonia, Pa., a Mahoning Valley Phantom in the 2008-09 season, were picked.
The New York Islanders selected Mayfield. Nine picks later, the Chicago Blackhawks took Saad.
Saad was impressive in training camp and was in the Blackhawks’ lineup for the their first two games this fall. He and Miller are continuing their careers in the Ontario Hockey League (Saginaw Spirit for Saad, Plymouth Whalers for Miller) while Mayfield is a freshman at University of Denver.
9.) TRGOVAC EARNS RING
Following the 2008 NFL season, Austintown Fitch High graduate Mike Trgovac stepped down as the defensive coordonator of the Carolina Panthers and joined Mike McCarthy’s staff the Green Bay Packers’ defensive line coach.
The move paid huge dividends on Feb. 6 when the Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31-25, in Super Bowl 45.
“I was so happy for our players,” said Trgovac of what he was feeling on Jan. 23 after the Packers defeated the Bears, 21-14, at Soldier Field in the NFC Championship Game. “But I was really happy for my family — they sacrificed a lot. When you move from coordinator to defensive line coach, there’s a financial loss there,” Trgovac said.
Trgovac, 51, and his wife, Angela, have a daughter (Jordan) and son (Michael).
Another Super Bowl ring is a possibility as the Packers have the number-one seed for the NFC Playoffs.
10.) ANTHONY CONN IS VALLEY’S GREATEST
Trailing by a stroke to start the final round, Youngstown State’s Anthony Conn forced a one-hole playoff with former YSU golfer Josh Zarlenga to take the title in The Vindicator’s second annual Greatest Golfer of the Valley tournament co-sponsored by Farmer’s National Bank, Superior Beverage, Mark Thomas Ford and Cole Valley Cadillac. Conn, a Van Wert native shot 72-73-77 for a three-day total of 222. Qualifying rounds were held at Mill Creek Golf Course and Reserve Run Golf Course. Second round action shifted to the Youngstown and Tippecanoe Country Clubs with the finals held at The Lake Club.
Other winners were: Katie Rogner, women; Michael Watson, men’s division 2, Bill Stanton, men’s division 3; Phillip Roudebush, men’s division 4; Tom Walker, seniors; and Ed Antonelli, super seniors.