NEW CASTLE —
We’re ready for some football.
Are you?
The New Castle News sports staff is hard at work on Kickoff 2010, our annual football tabloid featuring the New Castle, Ellwood City Lincoln, Laurel, Mohawk, Neshannock, Shenango, Union and Wilmington football teams.
This year’s cover will feature “A Perfect 10,” where we will attempt to create the perfect player in Lawrence County by joining puzzle pieces of local stars.
The tabloid will appear in the Sept. 2 edition of The News.
The sports staff also is gearing up for the return of its popular Crunch website, which will debut on opening night, Sept. 3.
WELCOME, JOE
The News welcomes new sportswriter, Joe Simon.
Joe comes to us by the way of the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, Ohio, and, like fellow sportswriter Ron Poniewasz Jr., is a graduate of Kent State University.
By the way, Joe thanks those who voted on Facebook for his nickname to join Ron, the “Doctor of Style,” on the Crunch Podcast. The winner is ... Bazooka Joe.
If you see Joe out at a game, feel free to introduce yourself and make him feel welcome.
THANKS, CRUNCH SPONSORS
Thanks to the law firm of Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George for sponsoring our Crunch website once again.
We have some great things planned this year and we’re happy to have the legal team, all avid sports fans themselves, on board once again.
A SECOND THANKS
A shout-out of thanks to Washington Centre Physical Therapy for sponsoring our Lawrence County Athlete of the Week award again this school year.
The award will debut on Sept. 8.
RALPH’S SUMMER VACATION
The summer of 2010 will be one that local golfer Ralph Litrenta will not soon forget.
Litrenta had two holes-in-one six days apart on the same hole last month, the first of which earned him a car.
It all started on July 2, when Litrenta was playing in the annual Sons of Socket tournament at the New Castle Country Club. The Sons of Socket is a gathering of friends of local businessman Tom George and his sons, Joe, Jason, T.J. and Alex.
Litrenta aced the 148-yard No. 13 hole with an 8-iron.
“I saw that it was right on line with the hole, but didn’t see it go in,” said Litrenta, who was playing in a group with Joe DiMuccio, Jim Pagley and Jon Smarrelli. “I saw the ball land about 3 feet above the pin, so I started walking back toward the cart. Joe said ‘it’s coming back down’ and all of a sudden he yelled, ‘it went in!’ ”
Litrenta, a sixth-grade science and math teacher in the New Castle Area School District and principal at The Academy, the district’s alternative education program, won a 39-month lease on a 2010 Nissan Altima.
“The first thing I did was call the USGA to make sure I wouldn’t lose my amateur status if I accepted the car,” Litrenta said. “The woman I talked to there asked if it was in a stipulated round of golf (tournament play) and I said yes and she said I was fine to take the car.”
The car should be delivered soon, after the insurance company completes the process of verifying the ace with witnesses.
Six days later, Litrenta got a hole-in-one on the same hole. Unlike the first ace, which Litrenta said was “the highlight of a bad round,” this hole-in-one was part of a red-hot round of 64, which tied the course record set by Bob McCall in the 1950s.
“I had an 8-foot putt for birdie on No. 18 for a 62, it was a downhill putt and I hit it three feet past the hole. Then I missed that putt or I would have had the record on my own,” he said.
As for the holes-in-one? They were the second and third of Litrenta’s career. And the first? On the same hole, believe it or not, in 2004.
STILL THE ACE
Speaking of holes-in-one, local golfing legend Harry Toscano Jr. had the 10th of his illustrious career on the 190-yard No. 12 hole at the Youngstown Country Club.
Toscano, 68, who was playing with Dick Morelli and Mike Nikora, used a 4-iron. He has golfed his age — 68 — three times in recent weeks.
(Kayleen Cubbal is the sports editor at The News.)
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