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Mangapora, Baugher earn Curbstone honors
Canfield, Southington basketball players receive $1,000 awards
By BRIAN DZENIS
Boardman
Mason Mangapora is proud to have carved out his own place in his family’s illustrious sporting history.
The Canfield High School basketball player reflected on the past four years after receiving The Byrd Giampetro $1,000 Scholarship Award from the Curbstone Coaches on Sunday.
Also at the banquet at The Georgetown, Southington’s Sara Baugher was named the girls basketball award winner.
The award is named for the longtime Curbstone Coaches member who for years assisted the media.
Mangapora has sports excellence in his genes. His father, Jim, is a 1985 Canfield graduate who had a hall-of-fame high school career and played college basketball at Kent State. His sister, Sabrina, excelled at basketball and volleyball, going to Ball State to play the latter sport.
“I don’t like to compare it too much, because my sister takes it home in every category, but it’s fun to go back and forth with them,” Mangapora said. “It’s fun to challenge each other and say, ‘Oh, I have more points than you in this category.’ It’s fun, we’re all very competitive.”
One category Mason owns is career points. He cleared his father’s mark by about 100 points, Mangapora said.
“He seemed kind of irritated at the time, but when we got home, he gave me a hug and he was really happy for me,” Mangapora said.
Off the court, Mangapora carries a 4.2 GPA and scored a 33 on his ACT. He’s waiting to hear from a few schools before deciding on a college. He does have offers from various Division II and Division III schools for basketball, but he’s also interested in pharmacy school.
The Byrd Giampetro Award winners were selected by a panel of judges from area media outlets, including The Vindicator.
Baugher led her team to a major turnaround after the Lady Cats went 0-23 her junior year.
“Going into the season, everyone was a little pessimistic, but we ended up being around .500,” Baugher said. “We won our first tournament game in 11 years, so it was really awesome and we had a great season.”
Baugher said the team had to work on “everything” to get going again. She was the player who acted behind-the-scenes to make sure her teammates were at open gym, summer leagues and any opportunity where they could work out together.
“I just really tried to be a leader for the team,” Baugher said. “[I tried to] get them to work hard, get them to be there all the time. We just worked hard all through the end of the season.”
Baugher carries a 4.0 GPA and scored a 29 on the ACT. She will attend Ohio State to study biology and eventually medicine. She wants to either pursue neonatology or pediatrics to help her do mission work abroad.
Youngstown State women’s basketball coach John Barnes was the keynote speaker at the banquet. He told the attendees about one of his players, Lordstown native Sarah Cash, a player he saw two years ago at a Curbstone Coaches banquet.
Cash went from a high school prospect to an unwanted player with an ACL injury to a YSU walk-on and eventually a scholarship athlete.
Barnes recently interviewed for a coaching job at Kent State, but elected to stay put. Barnes wouldn’t comment on what transpired at Kent State, but says he’s comfortable with his current situation.
“My heart and my gut told me to stay,” Barnes said. “Basically, I’m happy here. The administration is great. The team is great and that’s why I chose to stay.”