SPORTS DIGEST | Copeland Hills open for golf play

Copeland Hills open for golf play

COLUMBIANA

Copeland Hills Golf Course opens today for the 2011 season. For tee times call 330-482-3221 or go to the website copelandhillsgolf.com.

Podolsky commits to Univ. of Mount Union

CANFIELD

Canfield High School senior Jackie Podolsky will play soccer at the University of Mount Union in the fall.

A two-year letter winner at goalie, Podolsky was all-league and was the Canfield MVP last fall.

Canfield was 34-14-12 over the past three seasons and reached the regionals finals in 2009.

She is a 3.6 student.

Three Poland players make college choices

POLAND

Three Poland High School school football players have announced their college choices.

John Medina will play at Geneva, David Bobby will play at Waynesburg and Nick Sebastian will play football at Hiram.

Kevin Liss honored

YOUNGSTOWN

The USHL has announced that Phantoms defenseman Kevin Liss has been co-named the 2010-11 Scholar-Athlete.

Liss played in 42 games and tallied three assists during his first season with the Phantoms.

Liss attended Ursuline High School while living in Youngstown and he transferred to Upper Saint Clair in Pittsburgh after the Phantoms season came to an end.

During the season, Liss maintained a 4.0 grade-point-average, he is a member of the National Honor Society and he received a Certificate of Merit by the state of Pennsylvania for his outstanding performance on both the College Board SAT (2120) and ACT (31) tests.

Gus Johnson joins Fox to call college football

NEW YORK

Popular announcer Gus Johnson is joining Fox as its top college football play-by-play voice.

Johnson had worked for CBS since 1995. He called NFL games but was best known for the way his excitable style fit the NCAA tournament.

Fox announced Tuesday that Johnson would team this season with analyst Charles Davis for Big 12, Conference USA and Pac-12 games on FX; a conference championship game; and the Cotton Bowl. Starting in 2012, they’ll call games on Fox under its new deal with the Pac-12.

Johnson will work some Fox NFL games after the college football regular season is over.

SportsMark to sell WCup hospitality seats

NEW YORK

SportsMark has been hired as the U.S. agent for hospitality tickets for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

MATCH Hospitality AG, which holds the hospitality agreement with FIFA, announced its deal with SportsMark on Tuesday. SportsMark also sold hospitality seats in the United States for last year’s World Cup in South Africa, where disappointing international hospitality sales meant more than half of the luxury suites were empty at many matches.

MATCH Hospitality said the agreement with SportsMark, which is based in San Rafael, Calif., was its first for the 2014 tournament.

Calgary college to study Whistler track

CALGARY, Alberta

A Calgary college has been asked to do a trajectory study of the track at the Whistler Sliding Center to help the operator identify any needed modifications.

Whistler Sport Legacies is acting on a B.C. coroner’s report recommendation following the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

SAIT Polytechnic said Tuesday that it will perform a three-dimensional scan of the track, complete a design and safety audit, and do a study of in-track incidents.

Kumaritashvili died just hours before the games were to open when he crashed into the track walls near the finish, catapulted off his sled and collided into a steel support beam at nearly 90 mph.

Vindicator staff/wire reports