Posts Tagged ‘Youngstown State University’

With the leaves starting to fall and football taking center stage, the YSU baseball team participated in a scrimmage on a sunny Summer-like Sunday.  I am sorry to report no scoring from the game, as I had to leave during the third inning.  However, I was able to snag a few decent pictures worth sharing while there.  Batter Up…

Coach Pasquale Studying His Notes

Craig Goubeaux Takes A Cut

Youngstown State seems to be struggling for answers to this point of their season.  For the second conference game in a row, YSU played a very strong second half on both sides of the ball, but came up short, falling 35-28 to South Dakota State.  The loss marks the fourth time the Jackrabbits have got by the Penguins (2-3 ,1-2) since they joined the conference four years ago.

“We settled down a little bit in the second half.  It is very difficult when you take a lead.  We just haven’t arrived yet and we are going to have to make some changes, put some different guys in spots and do something different.”, said coach Eric Wolford.  “There is plenty of blame to spread around, but there is plenty of football left.  We have had so many losses and I have coached a lot of football, and this was a difficult loss.  Give them credit, they played hard.  They recruit too, they have scholarships too.”

YSU put the first points on the scoreboard when Jamaine Cook tallied for a seven-yard strike capping off a nice eleven play, 75 yard drive which featured some new wrinkles.  Those new wrinkles included using a three-back set with TE David Rogers lined up in the backfield and Adaris Bellamy motioning out of the backfield.

The Penguins lead would be short lived as the Jackrabbits put up two touchdowns by the end of the quarter to hold a 14-7 lead. Tyrel Kool punched in the first score from a yard out.  On their next possession, Dale Moss hauled in a 27-yard pass from Austin Sumner to give the Jackrabbits the seven point advantage.

In the second quarter, Youngstown State scored when Kurt Hess found Christian Bryan for the first time in the game on a 51-yard completion.  The scoring drive took four plays and covered 75 yards.  South Dakota State managed to put up another touchdown before intermission when Sumner found Brandon Hubert with 16 ticks left on the clock.

Once play resumed, the Penguins came out looking like a different team. Jelani Berassa hauled in a 48-yard pass from Hess to tie the game at 21.  On the ensuing possession, Sumner made a bad read and found the Penguins Sam LB Davion Rogers who returned the pick 27 yards for a score and a 28-21 YSU lead.

In the final quarter, SDSU manufactured an 88 yard scoring drive in 14 plays.  The drive was capped off when Sumner threw his third TD of the day, this one a five-yarder to Aaron Rollin, to tie the game, 28-28.

The Penguins went to work in the fourth quarter of a tie game.  Hess led the offense on a nice drive in which the Penguins converted a fourth-and-two on SDSU’s 41 to keep the drive going.  The Penguins would settle for a field goal attempt by punter Nick Liste , not kicker David Brown, that was unsuccessful.  The 44-yard try sailed just to the right of the goalpost.

On the very next play, Sumner found Rollin with an out-and-up pump fake that froze Jimmy May.  Rollin caught the ball at about YSU’s 25 and trotted in giving the Jackrabbits a 35-28 lead.

YSU got the ball back with 5:55 left in the game.  The drive started on their own 45 yard line thanks to an excessive celebration penalty on South Dakota State’s touchdown, and the actual kickoff going out of bounds.  Cook rattled off 18 yards on the first play to get down to the SDSU 37.  A holding penalty against YSU’s Chris Elkins backed the Penguins up into a 2nd & 16 situation, and the Penguins would fail to convert the opportunity into points.

The Penguins got the ball back with 2:30 left in the game.  Hess, again, led a poised drive down the field, this one with no timeouts.  YSU got all the way to the Jackrabbits 17-yard line but could not convert a fourth-and-ten, losing the ball on downs.

Kurt Hess finished the game 18-34 for 243 yards, was picked off twice and had a couple of touchdowns.  Jamaine Cook finished with 107 rushing yards on 18 carries, he also caught four balls for 40 yards.  Teven Williams had 10 tackles, six solo, for the Penguin defense.

Andrew Johnson, another captain, commented on the loss.  “Words can’t explain it.  We started slow and we are a lot more talented than we were last year.  I can’t really explain it.  We go hard and try our best.”  Johnson finished the game with two sacks.

“We had them”, said Cook.  “We got in some third-and-long situations and Kurt had to try to come out and scramble around to try to make plays.  We have to keep things from falling apart.  As a captain, I am committed to doing that.”

For the Jackrabbits, Sumner was 22-35 for 345 yards.  Aaron Rollin finished with 155 yards on 8 catches.  Zach Zenner led the ground attack with 97 yards on 16 carries.

Eleven members of the 2011 Youngstown State softball team were named All-American Scholar-Athletes by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

The Youngstown State honorees include: Jordan Ingalls, Haley Thomas, Vicki Rumph, Sarah Gabel, Kristen Philen, Kim Klonowski, Sarah Ingalls, Kristina Rendle, Amanda Palmore, Samantha Snodgrass, and Courtney Ewing.

The award is given to any player submitted by a member coach who achieved a 3.50 grade point average or higher during the 2010-11 academic year.

Last week, YSU was recognized as a 2011 NFCA Top Ten All-Academic team ranking sixth with a 3.523 team grade-point average.

In other offseason news, Youngstown State Head Softball Coach Brian Campbell was enshrined into the Tiffin University Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2011.

Campbell, who was the head coach at Tiffin from 2001 is the most honored softball coach in Tiffin University history.

At Tiffin, Campbell won six coach-of-the-year honors over his eight-year career, leading the Dragons to two NAIA National Tournament appearances, two Region IX Championships, five American Mideast Conference Championships, and a peak NAIA ranking of 13^th in the nation.

He was twice named Independent Division II Coach of the Year while also landing the 2006 Region IX Coach-of-the-Year honors.

Campbell’s teams won 285 games, including an impressive 104-16 mark in conference play. He earned his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Tiffin University.

*Photo Courtesy of Ron Stevens

Youngstown State has some proving to do this week.  In their last game, the Penguins dropped a contest at Indiana State, the first time that has ever happened.  The Penguins have had two weeks to sharpen up their fundamentals and get back into the confident mindset that was to propel this team to loftier goals this year.  YSU can pull off their own first if they can beat South Dakota State this Saturday.  If the Penguins can defeat the Jackrabbits, it would mark their first win since South Dakota State joined the conference in 2008.

“We learned our lesson”, said Coach Eric Wolford on the loss to Indiana State.  “You can never forget about the fundamentals.  When you are not as mature as you would want to be, you just go through the motions and run plays.  No good disciplined routes, no blocking fundamentals… it’s not an excuse, it is just part of maturing, and hopefully we grew up quick and learned our lesson.”

South Dakota State is looking to avoid their first five game losing streak since 2000.  They have had nightmares trying to run the ball, averaging a paltry 2.3 yards peer attempt.  They are having issues with turnovers, stopping the run, and had a key member, QB Thomas O’Brien quit the team two weeks ago.  O’Brien (below) threw a couple of touchdown passes against the Penguins last season.  The three-year starter has been replaced by redshirt freshman, Austin Sumner.

The Penguins offense has been effective in every game this season. Jamaine Cook has racked up 501 in four games.  Kurt Hess has a 9:2 touchdown to interception ratio and has been poised no matter what the situation is.  The defensive line seems to be getting better and the biggest question to be answered on defense is whether or not a freshman-dominant linebacking group and a very young, repatched secondary can respond to a little adversity.

Junior OT, D. J. Main, knows Saturday is a bigger challenge than the records may indicate.  “South Dakota State is a good team and their record is deceiving.  They are well-coached and we will have our hands full.  We have watched a lot of film and when you see a few repetitive things, you get a better idea of what they might do.”

Jackrabbits linebacker Dirk Kool thinks that his team is prepared.  “We looked at films of last years game against Youngstown State and we also watched their game against Indiana State.  From a preparation standpoint, we don’t see much to prepare for that we have not already seen from them.  We have a lot of respect for Youngstown State, and our motivation is just to go 1-0 every week.”

YSU Director of Football Operations, Dan Kopp (above), talked about the obstacles the Penguins have endured leading up to the South Dakota State game.  “We did not tackle or block well against Indiana State and you can not win football games without those fundamentals in place.  South Dakota State has had our number the last few years, so we have a huge task in front of us Saturday.  We can’t afford to give up long touchdown runs on the first play of the game, or for that matter, the first couple of series.  It will be imperative that we start fast.”

Kickoff for Saturday is set for 4 p.m.

Buffalo was in an unfamiliar role last weekend.  They were favored to win against a team they should beat.  Unfortunately, the Bills were handed a 23-20 setback by the Cincinnati Bengals.  The Bills were outscored 20-3 in the second half and never got their bearings on offense. Bills receiver Donald Jones is a former Youngstown State University standout and has been generous with his time to allow me a weekly interview segment focusing on the way he sees things.

“We realize that we are not going to win every game”, remarked Jones on the loss.  “In this league, you have to win the games that you are supposed to win.  I don’t feel like they won, I feel more like we lost, it was a game we should have won.”

Things will not be easy this weekend. Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles roll into Orchard Park for a 1 p.m. contest with the Bills.

“Defensively, they [Philadelphia] do a very good job covering”, said Jones. “However, they miss a lot of tackles in the secondary and with the group of receivers we have, we feel we can exploit that this week.  They have a good pass rush and really attack the ball.  We know that we will have to step it up on offense this weekend and look to fire on all cylinders.”

Jones’ father, Donald Sr., is making his debut this weekend in Orchard Park as well.  Senior is driving the 23-foot long truck that will carry the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’, a group of Junior’s friends and relatives.  The truck (below) should hit the tailgate around 8 a.m., so look for it and say hi to Mr. Jones and crew.

Jones also commented that it has been a pretty low-key week and that the honeymoon with most major media outlets is over, for now.

“We see that we can be beat.  We will have to come out more focused and block out all of the distractions”, said Jones.

Last week, Jones was targeted eight times, most on the team.  The reason Chan Gailey likes Jones so much is because he will stretch defenses, take pressure off of Stevie Johnson and free up TE Scott Chandler.  More importantly, RB Fred Jackson has more space to work with because Johnson and Jones can both stretch a defense to create more space.

Jones had three catches for 21 yards in the loss.  For the season, he has 14 receptions for 149 yards and a touchdown.  He is going to pop a 100-yard game, real soon.

The Youngstown State women’s basketball team opened practice in preparation for the 2011-12 season on Sunday evening in its first of 30 scheduled sessions prior to the season opener at West Virginia on Nov. 11.

Individual and small group sessions had been held for several weeks, but Sunday’s practice at Beeghly Center was the first session of considerable length with the entire team.

“We’re a lot further along this year than we were last year,” head coach Bob Boldon said. “We’re trying to get as much offensive movement and development in as we can, and defense will come in a couple of weeks.”

Boldon, who is in his second year with the program, has especially noticed an increase an intensity from a year ago.

“Our effort has been fantastic. Your biggest concern [at this time of year] is that your kids are working hard and that they’re learning. We’re doing both of those, and I’m happy from that standpoint.”

Boldon is welcoming newcomers Kelsea Fickiesen,  Ashley Lawson,  Devan Matkin and Melanie Poorman to the program, and he’ll also have the use of redshirt-freshman forward Heidi Schlegel, who missed the final 22 games of 2010-11 with a foot injury. Those five join seniors Tiera Jones, Kenya Middlebrooks, and Macey Nortey (above); junior all-league candidate Brandi Brown; and sophomores Liz Hornberger, Melissa Thompson, and Monica Touvelle.

Boldon inherited a program that had gone 0-30 the year prior to his arrival, and the Penguins improved well beyond their six-win increase. Most indicative was closing the scoring margin by 15.2 points from 2009-10 to 2010-11.  That was the second-best improvement in the country.  The Penguins finished last season by winning three of their final seven contests, and they had shots in the final 20 seconds in three of those losses that would have tied the game.

“They know what it takes to win games, and there’s an expectation of what’s to be done at practice to prepare to win games,” Boldon said. “They’re taking that preparation more seriously than they were a year ago.”

Boldon said the weight room report from the preseason lifting program came back with pleasing results, thanks in large part to a large portion of the team lifting on campus during the summer.

The Youngstown State volleyball team hit .279 as a team and had three players register at least 11 kills in a 3-1 win over Loyola at the Halas Sports Center.

The Penguins recorded their first Horizon League victory as well as their first in a true road contest. YSU had a season-high 11 aces, and the attack percentage was its second-best of the year.

Freshman middle blocker Shannon Watson (Zoarville, Ohio) had a career-high 14 kills and hit .619, and Missy Hundelt (St. Charles, Mo.) had 14 kills and 12 digs.  Jackie Carlisle (Hubbard, Ohio) added 11 kills, and Bri Kern posted five aces and 17 digs. Freshman setter Brianna Bartlett registered 41 assists and 10 digs in her first career start.

Youngstown State hit .423 in the opening set and got four kills from Hundelt en route to a 25-21 win. Three straight kills – two by Carlisle sandwiching one by Hundelt – put the Penguins ahead 14-7.  Loyola climbed to within 15-14 following back-to-back errors, and the Ramblers had the deficit to just one on four more occasions. The final time was 22-21, but YSU got a side out on a service error and closed out the match with a block by Johnson and Missy Hundelt and a ball-handling error.

Loyola broke open a close set by ending the second set on a 9-2 run to knot the match at 1-1. Purcell had nine kills in the set for Loyola.

YSU led by four three times in the early going of the third set, but the Penguins had to continue to fight to take a 2-1 lead. Loyola cut the lead to one six different times, including 23-22. Hundelt answered with a kill for a side out, and Alexis Egler (Clarkston, Mich.) closed out the set with a kill.

The Penguins had six aces in the fourth set, including two from Erika West (Painesville, Ohio) to start the set as YSU scored the first four points. Loyola scored the next two points, but YSU answered with another 4-0 run, which included an ace by Kern. A Watson kill made the score 14-3, and Loyola never cut the deficit to single digits again.

Youngstown State remains on the road to play at Green Bay tomorrow at 7 p.m. Eastern.

In recent years past, Youngstown State would tote out a soccer team that was not very competitive.  The program, which has only been in operation since 1996, has never had a season with more than six wins in a single season.  Head Coach, Will Lemke (above), has things going in the right direction.  With an unusual mix of experience and youth – and not much in between, the Penguins 2011 version for soccer has been competitive and played respectably.

The past was so rough that YSU has never posted a victory against conference foes Wright State, Milwaukee, or Valparaiso.  Going into Wednesday’s game against Detroit, the Penguins hold a record of 3-6-2, but three of their losses are by a single goal and they are 1-0-2 in games that go into overtime.  The biggest difference showing positive progress would have to be the scores.  Comb through the archives and you will see plenty of annual 6-0 losses each season.  This group is far more competitive and seem to be in every game.

“We are in a situation where we are trying to teach this team to win”, commented Lemke.  “We have an issue with physicality to start a game and then we bump it up as we go.  We are looking for consistency from the upperclassmen and applying what we learn into every game.”

“We are playing a vastly more difficult schedule than we have in the past”, noted the coach.  “We are playing competitively and it is a painfully slow, step-by-step process where these players are learning to win at this level.”

Freshman Jade Flory leads the team with seven goals.  Flory is one of eight freshmen on the 2011 roster.  The program has three seniors who have contributed. Kelsey Kempton, Nicole Kline, and Geneva Strelka will play their final six games for the Penguins to close out the season.  Lemke is optimistic about all of the experience he will return next season, knowing that as Freshmen, the eight are gaining valuable experience toward turning the program around.

“We look at film, we look at the positives.  We have had large segments in games where we have outplayed teams”, said Lemke.

“One thing this team does well is a phenomenal job with rebounding from a loss.  Whenever we have had a bad game, we seem to come right back with a good game.  We are very young, but we are starting to gain experience and we have unselfish players who are showing younger players what they need to do to be successful at this level”.

Selected as the best and brightest from the college gridiron, The National Football Foundation (NFF) & College Hall of Fame announced today the 127 candidates for the 2011 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards, presented by Fidelity Investments®, a leading provider of not-for-profit workplace retirement savings plans in higher education. The 127 nominees also comprise the list of semifinalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy, endowed by HealthSouth, which recognizes an individual as the absolute best scholar-athlete in the nation.

Youngstown State senior defensive tackle Andrew Johnson (Above, right) is one of 33 Football Championship Subdivision student-athletes who were nominated for the award.

Nominated by their schools, which are limited to one nominee each, candidates for the awards must be a senior or graduate student in their final year of eligibility, have a GPA of at least 3.2 on a 4.0 scale, have outstanding football ability as a first team player or significant contributor, and have demonstrated strong leadership and citizenship. The class is selected each year by the NFF Awards Committee, which is comprised of a nationally recognized group of media, College Football Hall of Famers and athletics administrators.

The NFF Awards Committee will select up to 16 recipients, and the results will be announced via a national press release on Wednesday, October 26. Each recipient will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship, and they will vie as finalists for the 2011 William V. Campbell Trophy. Each member of the 2011 National Scholar-Athlete Class will also travel to New York City be honored Dec. 6 during the 54th NFF Annual Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports. One member of the class will also be announced live at the event as the winner of the Campbell Trophy.

The Youngstown State softball team posted the sixth-highest team grade-point average in Division I during the 2010-11 school year with a 3.523 GPA. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced its Top 10 All-Academic Teams on Thursday afternoon.

The NFCA Academic Awards program honors both collegiate and high school teams for their submitted GPAs for the 2010-2011 academic year. As a second component of the program, all submitted student-athletes who achieved a 3.50 GPA during last academic year are named as a NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete. The individual honorees will be announced on Wednesday, October 5 on The NFCA Website.

Below is a listing of the top 10 Division I schools:

NCAA Division I
1. Tennessee Technological University – 3.619, 2. Southern Illinois University – 3.611, 3. Robert Morris University – 3.553, 4. Houston Baptist University – 3.551, 5. Bowling Green State University – 3.534, 6.Youngstown State University – 3.523, 7. Troy University – 3.512, 8. University of Alabama – 3.510, 9. East Tennessee State University – 3.495, 10 (tie). Eastern Michigan University – 3.477, 10 (tie). Stetson University – 3.477.