Youngstown Metropolitan Area - Sports

Sports

Youngstown has enjoyed a long tradition of professional and semi-professional sports. In earlier decades, the city produced scores of minor league baseball teams, including the Youngstown Ohio Works, Youngstown Champs, Youngstown Indians, Youngstown Steelmen, Youngstown Browns, Youngstown Gremlins, and Youngstown Athletics. Local enthusiasm for baseball was such that the community hosted championship games of the National Amateur Baseball Federation throughout the 1930s and 1940s. The area's minor league baseball teams were supplemented by semi-professional football teams, including the Youngstown Patricians, who won the 1915 championship of the informal "Ohio League" (a direct predecessor to the National Football League), and the Youngstown Hardhats, who competed in the Middle Atlantic Football League in the 1970s and early 1980s. For three seasons, Youngstown was home to the Mahoning Valley Thunder of the now-defunct af2, the minor league for the Arena Football League until 2009 when the franchise ceased operations. Local minor league basketball teams included the Youngstown Pride of the WBA from 1987 to 1992), the Youngstown Hawks of the IBA in 1999, and the Mahoning Valley Wildcats of the IBL in 2005. Covelli Centre (known then as the Chevrolet Centre) was the home of the Youngstown SteelHounds hockey team that played in the Central Hockey League until May 2008.

The community has a lengthy tradition of collegiate sports. The Youngstown State University Penguins, a major regional draw, compete in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. The Penguins, noted participants in FCS (I-AA) football, play their games at Stambaugh Stadium and enjoy one of the more supportive fan bases. All other YSU athletic teams compete in the Horizon League. The Youngstown State men and women's basketball teams hold their games at Youngstown State's Beeghly Center. The teams average about 2,500 fans per game, a number that has been on the rise the past two seasons with a new style of play under Head Coach Jerry Slocum. In addition, the YSU baseball and softball teams have enjoyed local support and success. The baseball team reached the NCAA super-regionals in 2005, and the softball team did so in 2006.

Youngstown has produced a significant number of boxing champions, including bantamweight Greg Richardson, lightweights Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Harry Arroyo, and middleweight Kelly Pavlik.