YSU Recognizes Watts Donors at Ceremony
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Even a ceremony recognizing the individuals who donated more then $4 million to build the new indoor training center at Youngstown State University -- including an appearance by the coach that led the school's football program to four national titles -- couldn't halt the regularly scheduled activities inside it.
The soccer team practiced several yards beyond the podium set at the west end of the Watson and Tressel Training Site – popularly known as Watts – and the football team worked out at the other end of the building. Runners circled the indoor track and two softball players tossed a ball back and forth as speakers addressed the audience gathered Tuesday morning.
"This facility is in constant use," YSU's president, Dr. Cynthia E. Anderson remarked, as the activity behind her offered visual affirmation of her statement. YSU recognized the contributions of the 350 donors to the $11 million indoor athletic training center, which opened last fall, at the ceremony. The center was named in recognition of the initial donors, Frank and Norma Watson and Jim and Ellen Tressel, who made a combined $1 million contribution for the projectr.
Both families have longstanding direct ties to YSU, although Jim Tressel’s are obviously better known. As head football coach from 1996 to 2000, Tressel guided the YSU football team to four 1-AA national championship titles, and is married to the Watsons’ daughter, Ellen. A 1949 graduate of Youngstown College, Frank Watson is a former member of the YSU board of trustees and was among the original members of the YSU Foundation's board of trustees.
Anderson said the project, which she and Jim Tressel began discussing years ago, was a priority for three reasons, including the “wonderful weather conditions” of northeastern Ohio. “It’s gorgeous out there right now and you all know it could snow later on this evening and we wouldn’t be surprised,” she joked.
Previously, YSU student athletes encountered a “distinct disadvantage” when it came to indoor sports facilities, having to travel “in the dead of winter to other venues across the state” to practice, “not a good situation to be in,” she continued. The center also provides “a large, nice, climate-controlled area for events across this community,” Anderson added.
“Third, this is a major recruiting tool for our future, for the future of Youngstown State University,” she said. Watts features a full-length indoor football field, a 330-meter track, two long-jump pits, a high-jump pit, a putting green for golf and, a training room, and men’s and women’s locker rooms.
“This will be a focal point of this institution,” Anderson emphasized. It shows "we are committed not only to the classroom education of our students but also the out-of-classroom education which takes place in athletics, student organizations and the many other opportunities that go along with a true college education.”
Tressel, now vice president for strategic engagement at the University of Akron after stepping down last year as head football coach at Ohio State University, recalled his conversations with Anderson in Tod Hall, where the two would “dream about having an indoor field” as well as a fitness center, a dream realized with the opening of the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center.
“She would call me in and ask me if somehow, some way I could get my knuckleheads to behave a little bit better, and I said they needed a place to run around in, get rid of some of that nervous energy that they had,” he said.
Tressel praised his in-laws, the Watsons, the Cafaro family and Eddie DeBartolo Jr. and his wife, Candy, who made substantial contributions to the project. “If you’re blessed like all of us are, you have a responsibility to pay forward, bless others,” he remarked.
The former YSU coach related an incident toward the end of his first season, when the team was 1-9 after 10 games, when he went to morning Mass and sat in the back of the church. Sitting next to him, as it turned out, was Edward J. DeBartolo Sr.
As they got up to depart at the end of the service, DeBartolo “turned to me and said, ‘Hey, young man, you’ll be just fine. Keep doing what you’re doing,’” Tressel recalled. “That’s the kind of families that we have in this valley. That’s the kind of folks that we have sitting in all the seats.”
Representing the Cafaro Co., the Cafaro Foundation and the entire Cafaro family, Anthony Cafaro Sr. also praised the Watsons, who he said reminded him of the “dignity and class” exhibited by his own parents, as well as the DeBartolos and the Tressels.
“Normally you have to be 80 years old to be a legend. Jim Tressel is a legend already,” he remarked. Even though the Tressels are no longer on campus their hearts are “still with us” at YSU.
Cafaro reaffirmed his own company’s commitment to YSU, even in the event it relocates out of Mahoning County, as reported online Wednesday.
YSU's athletic director, Ron Strollo, said the day made him reflect on the word “patience,” noting that YSU had been trying to put together a ceremony commemorating the center for the past year. He also recalled early meetings with project architects and the 50-yard football field located near the tennis courts that had been envisioned.
“It didn’t take us much time to move it aside and start dreaming of something big,” Strollo said.
“This facility here is a difference-maker,” remarked Eric Wolford, head football coach. “When a recruit comes to our campus and walks in this facility, there’s a ‘wow’ factor. That’s one of the key ingredients to having success in recruiting along with the other great things that we have here at Youngstown State.”
Wolford praised Tressel for setting the bar high at YSU. “There’s a standard here. We embrace that,” he said.
Katie Peterlin of Strongsville, an accounting and finance student who has played on the soccer team for four years, said prior to Watts she and her teammates were limited to conditioning in the gym during the offseason. Now they can use the indoor field to practice and work with the ball. “It’s been great,” she said. “It’s impacted every team across the board.”
Will Shaw of Baltimore, a tight end on the football team studying business management, said the center provides a “huge advantage,” compared to having to train in the snow or in the gym during the winter, “or not being able to train at all.”
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.