'Go after it!’ Mancini tells Chaney grads of their dreams

By Jeanne Starmack | June 6, 2015 at 12:01a.m.

By JEANNE STARMACK

starmack@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

“Things were different” when Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini grew up and graduated from high school in the 1970s.

“We were taught [to] get a job in the mill and raise a family,” he told the Chaney High School graduating Class of 2015 at commencement Friday evening.

It was a great life, he acknowledged.

“But I wanted something different,” he said.

Ever since he was a little boy growing up in Youngstown, he told the 67 graduates seated before him, he wanted to be a world championship boxer like his father, the original Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.

When he told people, they’d smile and say, “Isn’t that cute!”

But he ignored how they made light of his aspiration.

“I had a dream, a goal,” he said.

He accepted that was his path, and he never doubted it.

But that wasn’t enough.

“Taking steps to get there — that’s how you make it come true,” he said.

It wasn’t always easy — starting with homesickness.

“When I went to New York in 1979,” he said, “I cried my eyes out on the plane. But I knew I had to go. I had to leave my family. and I said, ‘I’m not coming back unless I’m successful.’”

Mancini became the World Boxing Association lightweight champion in 1982.

It’s never an easy path to success, he said.

“You’re gonna fall down,” he said. “You fail much more than you succeed in life. I don’t fear failure. Don’t fear it, embrace it, and use it as fuel for success.”

He also reminded them that “your parents are not your backup plan.”

“Time to cut the cord,” he said. “They’re here. They love you. But they did their job. Become your own person.”

“I encourage you, do not have a ‘fall-back plan,’” he continued. “I look at you, bright and beautiful! You’re gonna figure things out!”

“Be true to yourself,” he added. “It’s a big world, and a rough one. But you have a wonderful school here; you’re gonna be prepared. You get knocked down, but you get up and you move forward.”

“You’ve got to challenge greatness,” he added, loosely quoting Norman Vincent Peale: “Shoot for the moon, ’cause even if you miss, you still reach the stars!”

Greatness is achieved, however, through hard work and education, he pointed out.

“Remember: Challenge greatness. Go after it! It ain’t coming to you!”

So off they go, and some graduates were happy to share where and what they will do once they get there.

Tatiaunna Jones is going to Youngstown State University for theater studies, where she’ll concentrate on behind-the-scenes stage crafts.

“I took that class here, too,” she said.

Bryan Moncrief is going to the Pittsburgh Technical Institute to study welding.

Buker Abu-Hashim will go to YSU for biology pre-med.

“I want to be an ER doctor,” he said. “I like the environment of the hospital,” he said, adding that he believes he’ll thrive on the pressure. “I’m already crazy as it is,” he said and smiled.

Tonneiqua Shade will go to Ohio State, where she’ll major in computer science and engineering.

She has a full, four-year scholarship through the university’s Young Scholar’s Program. Tonneiqua also is a member of the National Technology Honor Society.