This past Winter, one of the true legends of the Youngstown area stepped away from being simply the best at what he did.  Pete Mollica was a writer for the Youngstown Vindicator newspaper for 33 years, and well-respected by those he wrote with and about.  I had the pleasure of getting to know Mollica by sitting next to him at various YSU sporting events.  Mollica is just one of those people that I felt I knew before I actually met him though, he was just that good of a writer.

Unfortunately, the last year of Mollica’s career was spent covering the end of the Jon Heacock era and an 0-30 YSU Women’s Basketball season that set the wrong records.

To walk into a Mahoning Valley Scrappers press box Thursday evening and see Mollica there doing his thing for the Vindicator brought a smile to my face.  “I told Rob [Todor] if he needed help, that I would be able to cover some stuff.  I don’t want to do alot, a game here and there, maybe a game a week during high school football.”

When the subject of retirement came up, Mollica was candid in claiming a strong passion for golf.  “I’m working harder now doing stuff around the house than I did when I was working.  I do try to get out and play golf at least twice a week and sometimes in tournaments or scrambles on a weekend,” claimed Mollica.

Mollica is being spelled by a couple of very good writers in John Moffett and Joe Scalzo who split the Youngstown State activities and will appear at Scrappers games throughout the Summer.  “Joe is my hero.  I feel like he has done more in six months than I did in thirty years.  John is also doing a great job.  They are both great writers,” added Mollica.

The lack of Pete Mollica in the Youngstown newspapers is not a downplay to the efforts of Moffett and Scalzo, I agree with Mollica that they are both great at what they do, I just feel they do it their way, and Pete did it his way.