Archive for October, 2009

Jerry Slocum has been coaching basketball at Youngstown State University for five seasons.  His program has made many leaps forward in that span of time.  A new state-of-the-art weight room, a clubhouse atmosphere in the locker room, and putting his recruits on the court with a little experience will all be telltale signs of YSU basketball’s forward progress.  Slocum is just a cool guy.  I cannot say enough good things about him or the way he processes information.  The guy is a genius of this sport and I think that YSU will make it to the big dance in March under his guidance very soon.  YSU fans take notice, we are lucky to have him here and the fruit of his hard work will become visible this season.

Paneech:  In your five seasons, you can finally put your stamp on this team as they are all your recruits playing with some experience.

Slocum:  I don’t think there is any shortcut to look at that.  Experience is what it is.  What comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Are you good without any experience?  I think you have to go through a process to get it.  Once you have that experience process in place, you start building towards winning.  Last year we had seven new guys, I thought it would come quicker than it did, but by February, we had a pretty good basketball team.  That kind of excitement has led into the Spring and the Summer.  Now we are into early Fall, and we are pretty excited about where we are.  You are what you experience, and I think that the experience we have gained will show this season.

Paneech:  Only losing two players from last year and having all this experience back you have to really be excited with the returning talent, the cupboard is stocked for the future too.

Slocum:  We have a tandem with three of the five with Dallas Blocker, Dan Boudler, and Eddie D’Haiti that I think will really play out and be a positive factor for this team this year.  When this class goes, everyone is going to look and say you lost all of these seniors.  We are going to have Ashen Ward return at the two-guard spot.  You are gonna have both three-men back.  You are going to have Damian Eargle back at the four, and Eddie [D’Haiti] coming back as a five.  We have alredy gotten verbal commitments from some kids, so in my mind, we have got the classes where we want them, we have got the kids coming up that are learning from the older guys and there is just a good attitude and symmetry that the group has taken.

Paneech:  Who is the team to beat in the Horizon League this season?  Did you take offense to being picked 7th in the preseason poll?

Slocum: I think there are two teams that are a cut above with Butler and Wright State.  Then there are four or five teams in the next tier, and I would put us in that group, anywhere between three and seven.  I maybe took a little bit of offense to being picked seventh.  Our league doesn’t respect us.  It’s like I say to our guys – respect is earned.  In the last two years we have finished fourth and sixth.  Did I think we would maybe be in that fourth spot?  Yeah, I thought so.  I think we finish third or fourth.  Being picked seventh shows that the league doesn’t have alot of respect for us and the pressure comes back on us to prove it.

Paneech:  Who are your go-to guys with five seconds left in a game, who takes the shot?

Slocum:  I think there are two guys that are pressure shooters and pressure players for us.  I think a bunch of guys can make the shots.  The two guys who can create a shot, follow their shot, and then maybe pitch it to a shot are DeAndre Mays and Vytas Sulskis.  Both of those guys are guys who can find a way to pick us back up with a big shot. 

Paneech:  When it happens, and it will someday, how big of a shot in the arm will it be for this program to appear in the March Madness brackets?

Slocum:  Obviously, it’s a dream that we all have.  To me, it wasn’t as much of a dream as it was a reality to achieve.  I think we are headed in the right direction.  Everybody talks about how you only have to win three games at the end of the year to get in, and I believe that to be true also, but, in the same breath, you have to be able to get to the end and have the confidence.  The way we finished last year should carry over into this year.

Paneech:  Is your group healthy?

Slocum:  Right now, we are healthy.  Every Fall, we do a little bit of a different approach to get our guys ready.  I’m not a big guy on coming in at 100%  top shape.  I think progressively, we get there.  Across the country, some guys get pushed too hard before their bodies are ready to take that kind of a pounding.  Right now we are healthy, and I am cautiously optimistic about our health.

Paneech:  Have you gotten comfortable with Youngstown as your home yet?

Slocum:  We love the valley and Youngstown.  My wife is a nurse at a local hospital.  This is home.  We enjoy the area, we enjoy Mill Creek Park, we enjoy all of the different things that are unique to Youngstown.

Paneech:  I am a fan, yet there are detractors.  Do you care about criticism or is it just accepted as part of the job?

Slocum:  It is what it is.  If you let those people govern you or disturb your thought process, then you don’t focus on your job and doing it the right way.  We knew when we got here that it would be a great challenge for us.  We knew that the recruiting hadn’t been what it should’ve been relevant to the Horizon League.  We had to learn Youngstown and how to recruit for YSU and the challenges of recruiting in a state with the MAC.  I don’t lose any sleep from all of the people that say things behind my back, or to my face about this criticism or that criticism.  I know that right now, the infrastructure of our program is higher than it has ever been and I know that our talent level is better.

Paneech:  How fun is it to play schools like Xavier, Kent, and Pitt?

Slocum:  I think it is fun for our guys.  In the time since I have been here, we have really changed our profile relevant to our schedule.  When you play schools like Ohio State, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Pitt, Xavier, and Kent, it gives our guys the chance to play the best teams in the country.  It also gives you a measuring stick to get ready for your conference play.  We will contnue to do that while I am here.  I think it is a great recruiting tool and it allows our guys to dream a little bit.

Paneech:  Talk to me about riding a motorcycle and the trips you take.

Slocum:  I ride a Honda.  My wife doesn’t have a motorcycle, she just rides with me.  It really started in my youth.  I had motorcycles until I was 23 or 24 when we had our first child.  I went away from them for about 25 years.  Now that the kids are gone, I have picked it back up in the last ten years.  It gives us a chance to go and travel and we love being on the road.  We rode to the very top of Nova Scotia.  Next year, we are planning to go to South Dakota.

Paneech:  If you were asked to coach the Olympic Basketball Team, who would be your starting five?

Slocum:  Obviously, your top two guys would be LeBron and Kobe.  Kobe is probably the hardest working guy in the game.  My big guy would have to be Howard because he is so agile.  Bosh and Garnett would be there too.  The point guard spot would probably be Chris Paul. 

One Word Answers

Best All-Time Coach At Any Level:  Dean Smith.

Favorite Flavor of Handel’s Ice Cream:  (long pause)  Black Raspberry.

Mountaineer or Cedar Point?   Cedar Point.

Restaurant In Youngstown That You Have To Get To:  MVR Club.

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas.

Best Boxer At Any Weight Class:  Kelly Pavlik.

Favorite Group Of All-Time:  The Who.

A Short Description Of This Year’s Team:  Mentally Tougher.

Least Favorite Chore To Do At Home:  Clean Up The Dog’s Poop.

Can The Cavs Win This Year?  Yes.

Favorite Fruit:  Peaches

Best Movie Ever Made:  Patton.

I would be hard-pressed to find any YSU sports fan who would not be rooting for Cindy Martin to turn the YSU Women’s Basketball Program around in the next couple of years.  This is only her second year on the job and she has basically assumed responsibility of keeping air in a tire that has been flat for awhile.  To talk with her, one can easily buy into her philosophies and hands-on approach.  After a 3-27 season, Martin thinks that this year’s team will not only be better, but has set a goal of finishing sixth or better in the Horizon League to asssure a first-round bye at the conference tournament.  I had the pleasure of meeting Coach Martin for the first time this week.  She was very open and discussed the meat and potatoes of women’s basketball with me.

Paneech:  With one year in the books, how do you feel about this teams chances of improving on a 3-27 season?

Martin:  I feel great about our chances for improvement.  I’m excited to have five returning players who know our system, know what is expected, know the drills, know what we want on the court and off the court, in the classroom – and they [five returning players] are doing a tremendous job of teaching the new players the system.  From that standpoint, I think we are going to win more games and from an improvement standpoint, I think we already have improved.

Paneech:  Can we expect to see you suit up if one of your six healthy players gets hurt?

Martin:  (laughs) I’m retired buddy.  I wish I could play my coaching staff.  We have got to go with what we have.  I am a card player and believe that you play the hands that you are dealt.  This is our hand and we have to play it to the best of our ability.  More than anything, we are trying to restructure our practice plans to make sure we are getting the most out of our healthy players, as well as, making sure that they are working on skills and cohesion, but not overdoing it. 

Paneech:  Who is hurt, who is healthy?

Martin:  We have got eight right now that would be able to play if it was a game, with two of the eight being very, very limited.  Kaitlin Rohrs and Kaitlyn March would both be very limited.  Our six healthy players are Boki Dimitrov, Rachael Manuel, Macey Norton, Makala Gasparek, Brandi Brown, and Kenya Middlebrooks.  The other three players (Shea Johnson, Maryum Jenkins, and Melissa Thompson), we are not sure about, two of them might have season-ending injuries. 

Paneech:  What are the goals for 2009-10?

Martin:  Our biggest goal will be to finish in the top six of our conference.  If we can finish in the top six, we will get a bye, which obviously in our situation would be the best thing to position ourselves.  If we don’t get that bye, it is going to be extremely difficult to win out.  We are trying to think positively, all we have to do is beat four other teams head-to-head if you look at it like that.

Paneech:  How did your first full year of recruiting go?

Martin:  Our recruiting went great!  My assistant, Bernard Scott, is our recruiting coordinator and does a fantastic job of leading our effort.  We signed seven girls that are all here on our roster.  One of the girls, Tieara Jones, has to sit out due to transfer requirements.  I’m very happy with the talent we were able to bring in.  The dilemma is that four of the six we brought in (minus Tieara Jones) are injured and we have to get them back in. 

Paneech:  I know you consider yourself a perfectionist.  How hard is it to do things perfectly at practices this early in the season?

Martin:  I think that is where I can never lower my standards, like going from three hours to two hours or from five-on-five to three-on-three.  We’re trying to change some of those parameters, but where we can still expect our girls’ skill level to be on point.  I don’t expect us to play perfect, basketball is a game of mistakes.  The team that can recover from those mistakes the fastest, and makes the fewest, is usually going to win the game.  I am a perfectionist, but I understand that it is not going to be perfect and a little sloppy at first.  What we are shooting for is that by January, we have a polished product on the floor.

Paneech:  How is this working when you can’t even have a five-on-five drill in practice because you only have six healthy players?

Martin:  We can’t unless my coaches are out there.  I have actually talked to a few girls on campus about coming and trying out for us.  If a student is in good academic standing, and can contribute to this team in a positive way and can play the game, they would be considered to make this team.  We are trying to find a few more and if the possibility of adding players to the roster exists, we would consider that.  We are also looking for a couple of guys, you are allowed three, we have one, to give us practice minutes.

Paneech: Who is the team to beat in the Horizon League this season?

Martin:  I think there are three or four.  I think Green Bay is always going to be good.  I think Cleveland State is exceptionally good this year, Butler is bringing alot back and should be very good.  Those are probably the top three in my opinion.  Night in and night out you don’t know who is going to be good.  I feel the Horizon League has teams from top to bottom that can outplay each other on any given night.  There are upsets in our league, you rarely see one team dominating. 

Paneech: Talk about your two seniors (Kaitlyn March and Rachael Manuel):

Martin:  I think they are going to have great years.  Rachael is really improved.  She spent the whole Summer here with Makala [Gasparek] and every single day that I would come into the office they were either coming or going to the gym or the weight room.  I think Rachael’s skills have gotten better in the post, we are letting her shoot the three this year which will be a new twist, to let our post step out and shoot the three.  Kaitlyn March is really having problems with her shins and her playing time will be limited.  We need points and production from her in those minutes that she does play.  She should be able to give us 15-20 minutes at the most because of what her physical limitations are.  We will play her as we need her because she is one of our best shooters.

Paneech:  With a normal sized roster, if a couple of players are shooting poorly, a coach can bench them.  With six players on the roster right now, you do not have that luxury, how will you handle that situation when it arises?

Martin:  I don’t think we will be able to do much during the games.  Our job is to practice for that situation.  If we are having an off night, here are some sets we can run, or here is how we can tweak our defense to create more stops and open the break opportunities.  If our half-court offense isn’t working, you have to do something to pick up the tempo.  The girls know they will be called upon to play 30-35 minutes.  If someone is having a bad night, someone may have to step up and play 40 minutes.

Paneech:  Walk me through a day in the life of Cindy Martin – start to finish:

Martin:  Well, I am committed to taking better care of myself this year, so I  wake up at 6 a.m. and am usually here and working out by 7.  After a workout and a shower, I try to get in the office.  We have a set staff meeting at 10 every morning.  We meet from 10-11 to talk about the team, recruiting, scheduling, and planning.  From 12-1, I try to watch film from the day before and my 12-1 is nothing more than me trying to get ready for practice or talking to a student-athlete to prepare them for something we may want from them on that particular day.  By 1 we are on the floor for practice.  This schedule helps me and my staff to have a regular schedule.  I’m normally done working by about 9 o’clock at night.  Sometimes I am here in the office until 6 and will go home to make calls.  Sometimes I will go home and watch film.  I think it is important to not always stay here and make recruiting calls and watch film.

One Word Answers

Favorite Meal Of The Day:  Dinner.

Favorite Board Game:  Chess.

Best Musician Out There Right Now:  Keith Urban.

Favorite Vegetable:  Broccoli.

More Important, Free Throws Or Threes:  Free Throws.

Best Show On TV:  Grey’s Anatomy.

Greatest Female Basketball Player Ever:  Jennifer Azzi.

Ultimate Vacation Destination:  Jacksonville, FL to see my family.

Favorite Holiday:  Christmas.

Browns or Steelers:  Neutral.  I’m a college fan, we have the Gators back home and the Jaguars, so I am very neutral here.

One Word To Describe This Years Team:  Fiesty!

Youngstown State University will remain in a must-win position for the rest of the regular season.  This week, the Penguins have a tough task in traveling to Carbondale, Ill. to face the Salukis of Southern Illinois.  The Salukis started the year with a nailbiter loss at Marshall (31-28) but have been perfect since in compiling a 5-1 record.  Last week Southern Illinois got a huge road win against then #2 ranked Northern Iowa.  After that win the Salukis have climbed to #3 in the polls.

Youngstown State Coach Jon Heacock knows that Southern Illinois is a tall order.  “They have a very good and tough team of veterans.  They play very disciplined football and don’t beat themselves.  They do a great job of protecting the ball.  Deji Karim is the best running back we will see all year, and that includes Dion Lewis of Pitt.”

Deji Karim is averaging almost 160 yards per game on the ground for a fantastic run offense powered by a mostly senior offensive line.  One of the strengths of the Saluki offense that Heacock pointed out was that if a team chooses to stuff the box and try to take away the run, that QB Chris Dieker will step up and beat you.

The Southern Illinois Defense is led by Sr. All-American LB Brandin Jordan.  Despite missing a game this season, Jordan still leads the Salukis in tackles with 39 in just five games.  Korey Lindsey (Jr., CB) and Mike McElroy (Jr., FS) have combined for 9 interceptions in six games.  The Salukis have 13 starters that are Seniors.  Youngstown State only has 12 Seniors on the team.

For YSU, the bye week yielded an extra seven days of preparation, as well as, a chance for the team to heal up those small, nagging injuries.  To look at the season so far with a 4-2 overall record is nice on paper until you look at who the next three games are against.  This week @ Southern Illinois.  Next week – Home against South Dakota State, and November 7 @ Northern Iowa.  You could go from being 4-2 to being 4-5 if you play poorly.  The Youngstown State team I saw in the first half of the Western Illinois game last week would beat any of the above three mentioned future-games.  However, the team I saw in the second half would struggle to win against anybody.  If Coach Heacock has indeed de-emphasized the things that did not work this season and enhanced the things that did work, YSU should be a dangerous team the rest of this season.

YSU CB Brandian Ross said at Monday’s weekly press conference that there is no extra pressure on YSU to win.  “We can’t afford to lose, we don’t want to lose.  If you are a true competitor it doesn’t get any better than this.  You want to play the best of the best every week and thats what we are getting ready to do.  We don’t look at it as pressure to win.  We want to play football.”

Brian Mellott, a Penguins Senior offensive lineman, wants to use last years 33-0 beating at the hands of the Salukis as motivation.  “Last year they came in here and beat us.  It was embarrassing, not only for the football team and university, but also for the whole town.  We are in a great position with our last five games against five great teams.  We will find out alot about Youngstown State Football 2009.”

For Youngstown State to be successful, they are going to have to turn in a great performance against the most complete team they have faced since Pitt.  Brandon Summers has to have a sound game and not try to force passes against a defense that knows how to keep momentum for halves, not drives.  Kevin Smith and the young offensive line need to move the ball to assist the potency of a strong passing game.  The entire defense must line up ready to carry out assignments and responsibilities.  The easy ones, at least in my eyes, are done.  These last five games are going to all be challenges starting at the top of the mountain with Southern Illinois.

Kickoff is set for Saturday at 4:00 EST at McAndrew Stadium.  The weather forecast is calling for perfect Autumn conditions of partly cloudy and 50 degrees.  The game can be heard on AM-570 with Bob Hannon, Dick Hartzell and Dave Sess starting their coverage at 3:30.

Penguin Notes

• YSU holds a 10-9-1 series advantage over Southern Illinois.
• This is YSU’s final visit to McAndrew Stadium as the new Southern Illinois facilities are set to open for the 2010 season.
• Since 1975, YSU is has a 24-3 record after a bye week.
• Saturdays game at Carbondale will be Coach Heacock’s 100th as YSU Head Coach.

When I predicted the New Orleans Saints to win the Super Bowl this season I was heckled and ridiculed.  Sunday, in a game that was termed a showdown of two NFC powerhouses, Drew Brees had has way for most of the contest in a 47-28 blowout over the New York Giants.  With the win, the Saints improved to 5-0, the first time thhey have started a season with five victories since 1993.

In the game, Brees was 23-30 for for 369 yards and four touchdowns.  More impressive than the statistics were the throws he made.  Anyone who saw the game would agree that Brees was razor sharp, especially in the first half, as he consistently abused the Giants with precision passes that could only be thrown in a small window for completions.  Brees almost broke his own franchise record of 17 consecutive completions, but came up short with 15.   

If you analyze the depth of skill position players the Saints have, the combinations of who is on the field at the same time is limitless.  At running back, Pierre Thomas will be the workhorse and Mike Bell will spell Thomas at times.  The most recognizable Saint, Reggie Bush, will be used in greater frequency at some point this season when a defense feels like shutting down everything else.  Heath Evans is a true fullback who can get the ball around the goal-line as he did against the Giants.

At wide receiver, there are so many quality choices.  Marques Colston, a no-namer that got the Saints booed for selecting him on Draft Day out of Hofstra a few years ago, is a tall guy who runs great routes and has great hands.  Robert Meachum and Lance Moore are both healthy at the same time.  Devery Henderson is an undersized gamebreaker who poses the big threat.  Throw in Jeremy Shockey at TE, and you have the most complete core of receivers in the NFL.

The Saints defense only has to play sufficiently to get victories.  This offense has the potential to go down as one of the best in NFL Football history, and I would not be surprised to see Brees re-write the record books this season.

The only team being compared to New Orleans in the NFC is Minnesota.  The Vikings are a well-rounded team on both sides of the ball.  Keep this in mind though, Brett Favre started 7-1 in New York last season before his old bones started to ache.  Will Tarverius Jackson be enough to make Minnesota better than New Orleans?  I think not.

The Youngstown Phantoms took to the road for a pair of games this past weekend.  Unfortunately the result was the same in both games, and the defense and goaltending seem to be struggling.  The positive to take from the two losses was the spirit of the team to fight back and make both games respectably close after trailing by larger deficits.

On Friday, the Phantoms were in Lincoln, Nebraska.  In a rare high-scoring affair, the Phantoms ended up on the short side of the stick in a 7-6 OT loss to the Lancers.  Ben Lynch spearheaded the victory for Lincoln when he connected on his second power-play goal in overtime for the win.  A Taylor Holstrom goal, his second of the game, put the Phantoms in front 6-4 in the third period.  Lincoln would rally on goals from Garrett Peterson and Andrew Ammon to tie the contest and force the extra period.

Saturday found the Phantoms a little closer to home in Des Moines to face the Buccaneers.  Yasin Casse scored for Des Moines just 18 seconds into the second period to give Des Moines a 3-0 lead.  Adam Berkle answered for the Phantoms just six seconds later to cut the lead to 3-1.  Brett Gensler and Nick Czinder scored a goal apiece for Youngstown over the next four minutes to tie the game at 3.  Connor Brickley converted on a power-play chance for Des Moines at the 2:52 mark of the third period with the eventual game-winning goal.  The Buccaneers Ryan Walters knocked in an empty-net goal to close the scoring at 5-3 in favor of the home team.

Youngstown (2-3-0) returns home for two games on Friday and Saturday against Tri-City.  Each game will start at 7:15 and Friday is $1 beer night. 

Covering YSU Football this season has been alot of fun.  Unfortunately, there is glass covering the press box area, which prevents sound to drift in.  I watched this entire clip of the Youngstown State University Marching Penguins and was impressed.  Maybe it is because I am a Queen fan.  Regardless, praise to the Marching Penguins!

Here are some stories from other great sites:

• Babes Love Baseball calling 2009 the year of the comeback after the Dodgers came from behind to further expose a struggling Phillies bullpen.
• PSAMP is calling out Chad Ochocinco for blocking the blog on his Twitter page.
• Not Qualified To Comment claims that Joakim Noah’s evil hair has reserved him a spot in hell.
• The Cage Doctors wrote about The Simpsons trying their hand at MMA.
• MoonDog Sports takes a look at the new mess in the NFL – Rush Limbaugh trying to be part of a group buying the Rams.
• Sharapova’s Thigh has all of the Week 6 scoop for the fantasy football owners.
• Detroit4Lyfe pays tribute to Nicklas Lidstrom for being the first European-born NHL player to reach the 1,000 point plateau.
• Major League Jerk does not let the ESPN promo team off lightly.  Take a look at the recent Dodgers-Phillies advertisement posted and see if you notice anything funny.

As YSU prepares for Southern Illinois on a bye week, I thought it would be appropriate to do a story on a local player.  As it turned out, I got one of my best interviews.  Marc Kanetsky graduated from Hubbard High School with honors of every kind.  There were the athletic honors of breaking records for his passing (5,042 yards and 47 TD’s), being nominated for Trumbull County Athlete of The Year, breaking basketball records in season and career categories for assists, and getting All-Ohio recognition for football twice.  More impressively to me was a 4.0 GPA, being named valedictorian of his class and continuing his academic excellence at YSU.  I recently interviewed Kanetsky and took a liking to his glib persona.  Hubbard deserves praise for producing a prototypical student-athlete.

Paneech:  Besides YSU, who recruited you out of Hubbard?

Kanetsky: I had alot of Ivy League and Patriot League schools like Holy Cross and Colgate because of my grades.  Being undersized hurt with the bigger schools, but I found a good spot here and received a full academic scholarship. 

Paneech:  Being the local guy, do teammates pressure you into being their tour guide?

Kanetsky: Not really.  Most of the older guys know their way around.  Some of the younger freshmen guys I take around when they first get here, but besides that, they usually find their way around and find the party spots before I can let them know where to go.

Paneech: You have carried a 4.0 grade point average for awhile, have you decided on a major yet?

Kanetsky: I am a Biology major and I am thinking about Dentistry after Biology.  One of my brothers graduated from Dental School at Ohio State, and the other one is about to.  I’m leaning towards that, but I still have a couple of years to see what happens with the economy.

Paneech:  If you were in charge of recruiting a student-athlete to play football, how would you convince him that the YSU academics are second to none?

Kanetsky:  I am part of the honors program here.  We have a 99% placement rate into your professional school after you graduate from here.  It’s kind of self-explanatory, if you want to get into school when you are done with the undergrad program here, it will happen.  Get in the honors program, keep your grades straight and work hard.  Get involved with other stuff, that always helps out on a resume.

Paneech:  How hard is it for you to be ready at all times to go into a game if called upon?

Kanetsky: It’s kind of tricky because you always have to be ready.  You sit on the sidelines the whole game and it could be any play.  All week, I sit in the film room to be just as prepared as Brandon [Summers], and I spend equal time going over stuff with the coaches.  Come Saturday, you could get in for an entire half, you could get in on the second play of the game, or you could end up just sitting.  I could just be used to hold on four PAT’s and that will be it.  It’s tough not getting to play, especially coming out of high school where you are the stud athlete, and that is what are used to.  You always have to be prepared, but as far as getting the job, you just have to wait your turn.

Paneech: Did you prosper at Hubbard more under Coach Bayuk or Coach Hoffman ?

Kanetsky:  (laughs) I would say I prospered equally under the two great coaches.  My Sophomore and Junior year (under Bayuk), we had a line that was just unreal.  When those lineman graduated, we only had a couple of experienced guys back so we weren’t able to power it down a team’s throat but rather had to rely on speed.  We definitely threw the ball around more under Hoffman.  Under Bayuk, we were just a well-oiled machine because we could run the ball whenever we wanted to and set up play-action passing which is easy when there are eight guys in the box and only three defenders in coverage.

Paneech:  You played baseball and basketball while at Hubbard.  Do you ever get the urge to go Bo Jackson here?

Kanetsky: No (laughs).  I would have liked to play basketball but I’m too small and I can’t jump.  I’ve got good vision and I play good rec ball.  No aspirations of collegiate ball.  If I wanted to do that I would have played Division-III somewhere where I could have played both.  I still miss basketball, but football is the way to go.

Paneech: How has your experience at YSU changed you as a person so far?

Kanetsky: It has opened me up to different lifestyles.  You get guys coming here from California that have never seen snow.  There are guys from Florida, a guy from Africa here.  All kinds of different guys that you wouldn’t talk to otherwise, and then you join the team and they are your friends that you hang out with on the weekends or going and eating with them after practice.  It’s a great experience, you end up friends with guys you could never see yourself hanging out with in a million years.

Paneech: Walk me through a typical Wednesday during the season.

Kanetsky: I wake up around 7:30, take a shower, and get ready for class.  I go to Spanish class at 8 o’clock for two hours.  Then I go to my American Government class at 10.  Then Organic Chemistry kills me at 11.  I run over here [Stambaugh Stadium] to lift at noon.  I get done lifting at about 12:45 and I run and get something to eat.  I get back here at 1:30 and try to watch a bit of practice film from the day before and then we have meetings at 2:12 followed by practice.  Then whatever after practice, alot of interviews (laughs). 

Paneech:  Do people besides family from Hubbard come to the games to support you?

Kanetsky: I’d like to think so.  I know alot of my friends starting coming when I got moved to number two on the depth chart against Southern Illinois.  I know there alot of people who know my parents and followed me in high school.  I think if I ever get the chance or get in one week and do something positive that more people from Hubbard would come to the games. 

Paneech:  Tell me what it is like playing for Coach Heacock.

Kanetsky: He is a no-nonsense guy.  He’s a great motivator and a great football coach.  He goes out and gives everyone a chance and he doesn’t discriminate against anyone.  He preaches team, family, and faith which is everything you need. 

One Word Answers

Favorite Board Game:   Settlers of Catan.  (I never heard of this game which prompted Marc to laugh.  After researching,  it is a game where you are trying to be the dominant force on the Island of Catan by building settlements, cities, and roads.)

Best Chicken Wings In The Area:  The Lube.

Favorite TV Show:  Sportscenter.

Browns or Steelers:  Browns.

Who Wins The 2009 World Series:  The Phillies.

Favorite Flavor of Handel’s Ice Cream:  Apple Dumpling.

Best Class Offered At YSU:  Athletic Participation Class where you just get an “A” for being on a team.

Word Friends Use To Describe You:  Quirky.

Best Album / CD Ever Made:  Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell.

Favorite Fruit:  Pineapple.

Rockband or Madden:  Madden, actually NCAA Football.

Nicest Thing Someone Has Ever Done For You:  My mother gave birth to me, that was a good deal.

The title Sports Information Director almost sounds like a gift job, one that a smart laborer might be able to handle.  I never knew how many things were involved in such a job until I sat down with Trevor Parks.  Parks has been at YSU for 9+ years and seems to get better at what he is doing instead of riding on the wave of things he has done.  Parks grew up in Nebraska and still likes to talk about the times he had attending Cornhusker Football games.  I recently talked with Parks about the job, the area, and the future in a very in-depth interview that revealed the best and worst of times he has endured during his tenure.

Paneech: How did you first become involved with Youngstown State?

Parks: In July of 2000, I had the opportunity to interview here.  I came in and met with Ron Strollo, Dan O’Connell and Rick Love.  They showed me around and I liked the campus alot.  They liked me, Coach Tressel liked me, and I knew the history of the program a little, but not fully until I walked through the doors.  I liked everyone here and coach called and offered me the job in August of 2000, and I have been here ever since. 

Paneech: Talk about the duties of a sports information director.

Parks: We handle the athletic department’s website which is a variety of information including press releases, game recaps, and select feature stories.  We handle statistics at all home sporting events, coordinate interviews with media to talk with selected student-athletes and coaches, and create media guides for various sports.  It’s sports information whether it is local, regional, or national to get the word out on what is going on here at YSU.

Paneech:  How much contact do you keep with other SID’s at other colleges?

Parks: Probably not as much as I think all of us would like to just because of our daily schedules.  Our organization is called CoSIDA, which is over 1500 people in our profession.  I have teleconferences with that group where we share our challenges and what we do.  E-Mail has changed things a ton.  I still try to call the SID that we play the week of a game just to touch base and say hi, but 90% of the contact I end up having is through e-mail, which is both good and bad.

Paneech: How often do you talk with Coach Heacock and does any of your work involve him?

Parks: Anywhere from five to ten times a day.  If I have to talk to him, it’s a good setup because he has to walk by our doors to go to practice so if I need him, I can grab him real quick.  It’s changed alot this year since he took over the Defensive Coordinator position.  Before, I could just walk in the door and tell him, hey I need this or that.  Now, I kind of have to work around things.  You don’t want to walk in on the defensive staff when they are putting a weekly gameplan together.  The good thing about him [Heacock] is that his door is always open for us which has been a real positive in working with him.

Paneech: What was the nicest place that YSU ever visited to play a football game?

Parks: Ohio State was gorgeous.  The good and bad about going to the big schools is that they have so many people there.  Sometimes it is nicer to go to a place like Western Illinois where the press box isn’t very big, but you can get anywhere in two minutes.  At Ohio State, it’s going to take you at least ten minutes to get from the press box to the field if you are lucky.  The nicest place I actually remember was McNeese State.  If we ever had to do a redesign here, I would call them up.  Cal-Poly was different, it was kind of a scaffold with a tarp over it but it was unique because the mountains were right there, it was neat.

Paneech:  What was one of the worst places YSU ever went to play a football game?

Parks: I don’t want to say anything bad about anybody.  One of the most interesting places we went for football was Richmond when we went there for the playoffs.  That was the year we were 9-2, and we have this nice place here.  They were 9-2 and we ended up going there.  Their stadium was on like an old horse track or whatever it used to be.  The press box was fogging up during the game and the weather was miserable and we lost 10-3.  It just made you wonder, why aren’t we hosting this at our place?  They won the National Championship last year, so hats off to them.  Another interesting place was Chicago State because it was in not one of the nicer parts of Chicago so you had to be careful about getting there, and you saw doors with chains on them, the toilet paper there was chained down in the men’s stalls.  Those are probably two of the more interesting places we have been.

Paneech: How big of a transition did you undergo in relocating to Youngstown from Nebraska?

Parks: I was at Chattanooga before I got here.  Going from Lincoln to Chattanooga was a culture shock and a half.  The people there were great.  It was my first time away from home and I’m glad I went there before I got here because I’m not sure what it would have been like to go from Nebraska to here.  I got to spread my wings a little at Chattanooga, but I had to adjust to the weather, and it was just a different vibe.  Coming here was like coming home in alot of ways.  The weather here is the same [as Nebraska weather], you get storms, snow and cold, I already was used to driving in Winter weather.  If I ever get bored I can hop on I-80 West and drive straight for 950 miles to get home.

Paneech: Describe a typical day at work from start to finish.

Parks:  There really isn’t a typical day.  You can write down a thousand things on paper and hope to get as many done as you can.  You never know when somebody is going to call and need something.  If we have a basketball game on a Thursday night, you get here at about nine-o’clock in the morning but your not getting out of here until ten p.m., a thirteen hour ordeal.  In the Summer, you get here at about 8:30 a.m. and you are out of here at five, so it’s not too bad.  You need that energy for the Fall and Winter when there are events scheduled.  We work alot of weekends, so you try to get as much done as you can during the week. 

Paneech:  Tell me about the worst day, a nightmare day, that you have had here.

Parks: There have been a few of those.  One was when I almost quit.  We played Valpo in basketball and it was a great thing, and then Coach Robick freaked out after the game about some stuff, I was at my wit’s end and wrote a letter of resignation up.  I had only been working here for like eight months, so it is now one of those deals that you look back and laugh about.  When Shawn [Coin] died, it was by far one of the worst days here.  I walked in that morning with him, I walked down the hallway and he said he wasn’t feeling good, and two hours later he had a heart attack and shortly after that they said he was gone.  When I was dating my wife, I got a call here from her saying that her father wasn’t doing too well.  That situation was tough because he volunteered here [YSU] for years and was really well-liked.  Everyone was hurting when Shawn died, everyone was hurting when Mr. Strollo died.  (* Shawn Coin was a video coordinator at YSU who was 31 when he suffered a fatal heart-attack.  He died on August 18, 2008.  He and his wife Jennifer were expecting their first child in April of 2009.)

Paneech:  Will Youngstown State ever consider a jump to Division 1-A for football?

Parks: You look at what a school like Boise State has done.  We beat them in 1994 and now they are in the Top-5 of the BCS Schools.  The struggles with finances create problems.  The guys from Western Illinois said our facilities were nicer than Northern Illinois, so we obviously have a nice facility.  You also look at jumping from 63 scholarships you can split up to 85 full-boar scholarships.  I think after seeing football here for 10 years, its pretty darn good, but I think we are where we need to be.  It will be interesting to see what happens next year when a new president comes on and what direction things will go.

One Word Answers

Favorite Magazine:  Hockey News.

Best Stock You Ever Owned:  I’ve never dabbled in the stock market.

Pellini or Stoops:  Pellini.

If You Could Add A Color To YSU’s Red And Black, What Would It Be?  I have always liked teal, but I don’t see how it would work.

Favorite YSU Player of All-Time:  Kyle Smith.

The Indians Should Hire ____ To Run The Team:  Mike Florak.

Golf Club I Hit The Best:  8-iron.

One Word To Describe Donald Jones:  Amazing.

Best CD/Album Ever Made:  Michael Jackson’s Thriller.    Milli Vanilli.

Favorite Non-Sports Activity:  Walking the dog with my wife.

Favorite Holiday: 4th of July.

Howard Stern or Rush Limbaugh:  Neither.

Joe Zarbo grew up a Buffalo Sabres fan.  Call it attraction by proximity as he grew up fairly close to Buffalo.  In the inaugural USHL season of the Youngstown Phantoms, Zarbo is one of the “go-to” guys, a veteran who played in the USHL last season.  A veteran in any other league would refer to a 35+ year-old player who has experience in many situations.  At 18, a veteran of the USHL means someone who played in the USHL last season.  I caught up with Zarbo at the Ice Zone and talked about Youngstown, Goodfellas, and about the pressure to lead a new team.

Paneech:  What kind of feelings do you have about scoring the first-ever USHL Phantoms goal?

Zarbo: It was a pretty special feeling getting the first USHL goal for the team.  It was also a pretty good feeling for myself.  I thought I had a pretty good game even though we lost.  We came out strong in the first [period] and I thought it was pretty cool.

Paneech:  How disappointed was the team with the loss to Indiana?

Zarbo: We were very disappointed.  We outworked them in the first period and we just got outside of our game and fell apart.

Paneech: Did Coach Mainhardt make wholesale changes after the loss or is he going to stick to a gameplan that he has laid out?

Zarbo: Coach is switching up the lines a little, but he is stressing for us to stick to the gameplan. 

Paneech: If Goodfellas is your favorite movie, you had to be thrilled about coming to Youngstown.

Zarbo: It’s a good movie.  I heard some stories about Youngstown, but its a cool place and those are all old stories.

Paneech: Tell me about Clarkson University and how you are already signed up for next season.

Zarbo: Clarkson is a small university in upstate New York that plays in the ECAC and I committed to go there three years ago and I should be on my way next year.  They are usually ranked in the Top-10 of Division-1 schools.

Paneech: How can Bobby Orr be your favorite hockey player if he retired before you were even born?

Zarbo: He set the level of play.  He was one of the greats and was just so much better than everyone else.

Paneech: Why the Buffalo Sabres?

Zarbo: I’m from Buffalo and growing up they were my favorite team.  I really liked Pat LaFontaine when he was there.  I also liked Rob Ray and Dominik Hasek.

Paneech: How do you like Youngstown so far?

Zarbo: It’s pretty nice.  I like being in the East.  Last year I was in Nebraska and I like it alot better here than there.  Days off are nice, I hang out with the team, watch some TV, play a video game.

Paneech: Predict your numbers for the season (goals and assists).

Zarbo: I would like to have 30 goals and 30 assists.

Paneech:  Why should people come and see the Phantoms instead of going to a movie on a Saturday?

Zarbo: It’s alot more intense than a chick flick.  If you like sports, it’s a fun sport to watch.  It’s high-level, high-intensity, fights, all kinds of stuff.

One Word Answers

Favorite Nickelback Song?  This Is How You Remind Me.

Favorite Flavor of Ice Cream?  Peanut Butter.

Best Show On Television?  Entourage.

Simpsons or Family Guy?  Family Guy.

Bills, Jets, or Giants?  Bills.

Best Goalie In The NHL?  Hasek.

Nicest Thing Anyone Has Done For You?  My parents putting up with me and raising me.

Topping(s) On A Pizza?  Pepperoni.

Favorite Soft Drink:  Cherry-Coke.

Ideal Number of Hours of Sleep Per Night?  12.

Don Cherry Is An Idiot, True or False?  False.

On a perfect Fall evening, a football game involving two teams in a must-win situation took place in Youngstown.  Youngstown State scored 31 first half points and Western Illinois didn’t score any.  However, Western Illinois scored 21 second half points, and YSU failed to score a point.  Combine the two very different halves and the result is a 31-21 YSU victory. 

Youngstown State wasted little time getting on the scoreboard.  Western Illinois booted the opening kickoff out-of-bounds giving YSU the ball on their own 40.  Brandon Summers and the offense efficiently marched 60 yards in 10 plays.  Kevin Smith capped the opening scoring drive with a 1-yard TD to give YSU a 7-0 lead.  This marked the first time all year that YSU scored on their opening possession. 

After stuffing the Leathernecks, the Penguins took over on their own 30 and marched 70 yards in 10 plays and Summers found Donald Jones for a 4-yard touchdown to increase the Penguin lead to 14-0 with 1:03 left in the first quarter.  Kevin Smith had a key 26-yard run on the drive.

Western Illinois went 3-and-out.  On the last play of the first quarter, Lenny Wicks returned a Leatherneck punt 25 yards to the WIU 38.  At the end of one, it was all YSU, 14-0.

YSU covered 38 yards in 5 plays to increase the lead to 21-0.  It was the Dana Brown show on this particular drive as Brown carried the ball on every  play with the last being a one yard rushing touchdown at 12:33 of the second quarter.

In a continual display of dominance, YSU’s Na’eem Outler sacked WIU quarterback Wil Lunt and Sir Demarco Bledsoe pounced on the ball.  On the very first offensive play, Summers went to the end zone for Donald Jones who made a remarkable effort but was interfered with giving YSU first-and-goal on the Leatherneck 8-yard line.  Two plays later, Summers hooked up with Dominique Barnes for the eight yard score pushing the margin to 28-0 with 10:30 left in the first half.

Stephen Blose connected on a 27-yard field goal with 1:52 left in the half.  The Penguin drive was 54 yards in 9 plays.  It almost seemed as though the Penguins were concentrating more on chewing clock and getting Jabari Scott some carries.  To this point, everything had clicked on offense, all three running backs had some yards, and Summers was 9 for 9 passing.

On the ensuing kickoff, YSU’s Brandian Ross recovered a fumble to give the Penguins the ball on WIU’s 37-yard line.  The Penguins were unable to convert the turnover into any points however, about the only bad series they ran in the first half.  Western Illinois seemed content to just run the clock out and try to get to the locker for a halftime regrouping session.  At the half, this one was all YSU as the Penguins dominated the Leathernecks in every possible statistic for a 31-0 lead at the break.

Western Illionois came out a better team in the second half.  The Leathernecks scored on a 30-yard strike from Lunt to Justin Rideau.  The scoring drive was 9 plays for 77 yards and cut the YSU lead to 31-7 with 10:23 left in the third quarter.

Brandon Summers was intercepted by Stephen Moore and a personal foul gave the ball to WIU at the YSU 38.  On a third-and-22, YSU got flagged for a roughing the passer penalty giving Western Illinois the ball on the YSU 12.  On the very next play, Dre Gibbs coughed up the ball by the YSU goal line and Lenny Wicks recovered for the Penguins to help swing the momentum back to the side it was on the entire first half.

At the end of the third quarter, YSU maintained their 31-7 lead with a strong running attack that chewed the last six minutes of the quarter up.  With the start of the fourth quarter, YSU had the ball on their own 48.  The first play of the fourth quarter, however, proved costly as Summers was chased down from behind and the ball came loose.  Brandon Kreczmer recovered the ball for the Leathernecks at YSU’s 34.

With 12:25 left in the game, Western Illinois got an 11-yard scamper from Gibbs to successfully convert the turnover into points and further cut into the dwindling YSU lead, now 31-14.

The Leathernecks continued marching back as Lito Senatus caught a bullet from Lunt for 12 yards and a touchdown with 7:54 remaining in the game.  The lead was down to 31-21 and Western Illinois was playing as good as YSU did in the first half.  Conversely, YSU was playing as poorly as Western did in the first half. 

After another three-and-out, YSU punted the ball away.  Western Illinois started their next drive on their own 29.  Andre Elliott blitzed and absolutely smashed Lunt as he was releasing a pass which wobbled about half of its intended ditance where David Rach was waiting to intercept the ball back for the Penguins. 

YSU successfully chewed up the rest of the fourth quarter on the shoulders of Senior TB Kevin Smith (pictured) and held off a fierce Leatherneck comeback to preserve what seemed like a blowout but ended up somewhat of a nailbiter.

For YSU, Kevin Smith finished with 113 yards on 28 carries and a TD.  Donald Jones caught 8 passes for 94 yards and one TD.  Brandon Summers finished 12-18 for 134 yards, an interception, and two TD’s.  Stephen Blose had a good day as he kicked four extra points and was 1/1 on field goals.

Western Illinois was headed by Dre Gibbs who finished the game with 162 all-purpose yards (155 rushing, 7 receiving).  QB Wil Lunt was 9-19 for 109 yards, one interception, and two TD’s.  Justin Rideau caught 5 Lunt passes for 79 yards and 2 TD’s.  The statistic that buried the Leathernecks was penalty yards.  WIU accumulated 11 penalties for 108 yards compared to YSU having only five penalties.

After the game, Coach Jon Heacock praised the effort of his opponent.  “I don’t care what the records are.  You better show up and play every minute of every game on Saturday.  Give them [Western Illinois] credit for fighting until the end and playing hard.  We have some time [with the bye week] to pick out the things we can’t do and the things that we can do and become more consistent.”

Senior TB Kevin Smith, who has a couple of fumbles this season commented on grinding out the last four minutes of the game.  “It felt good.  I had a couple of drops and it felt good that the coaches had the confidence in me to give me the ball and run down the clock.”

Lenny Wicks talked about whether or not he was ready for the bye week.  “Yes, we have some time to rest and get alot of practice in to get ready for Southern Illinois because that’s a big game.”

YSU travels to Southern Illinois for an October 24th game.  With the extra week of preparation, Coach Heacock will have the team ready for that big game.