Meeting in August, the Boardman Board of Education approved Stephen Flores, 45, as the new head coach of the Boardman Spartans basketball team. He replaces longtime mentor Pat Birch who resigned to become assistant principal at Center Middle School.
      Flores has served as an assistant coach for Spartan cage programs since 2020.
      He takes over a team that went 5-19 a season ago, and that returns seven lettermen from a season ago.
      Boardman opens the 2024-25 cage campaign on Tues., Dec. 3 at Uniontown Lake.
      Prior to joining the Boardman program, Flores served as a middle school cage coach with Canfield Local Schools from 2018-2020; and previously was a basketball coach in the Youngstown City Schools for 15 years.
      Flores played prep ball at East Liverpool where he was a four year letterman, a three-time All-Ohio selection and a 1,000 point scorer.
      He played collegiately for two seasons at the University of Pittsburgh, and then played two years at Youngstown State, serving as a captain of the Penguins during his senior year.
      Flores was awarded a supplemental contract ($9,597) to lead the Spartans basketball program.