John Vargo is the Manager of Corporate Hospitality and Group Sales in the Youngstown State Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, a role he has held since June 2023. He has been at YSU since March 2022.
In his current capacity, Vargo’s primary charge is to create strategies that increase Penguin Club memberships and events and grow YSU’s season, group and individual ticket sales. He is also the supervisor for YSU’s cheerleading squad and oversees the Pete and Penny mascots, and he develops relationships across other departments on campus for collaborative programming opportunities.
Vargo joined the department as the Coordinator of Sales and Promotions in 2022 after a long and successful career as a reporter in the Mahoning Valley.
He spent more than 22 years as a sports writer for the Tribune Chronicle in Warren, and one of his primary beats was covering Youngstown State’s men’s and women’s basketball programs. He was awarded First Place for Best Sports Columnist in 2017 by the Ohio Associated Press Media Editors, and he earned another first-place award by the organization in 2019 for Best Sports Enterprise.
In 2021, Vargo’s career took him to The Business Journal, where he served as a senior reporter at the publication created in Downtown Youngstown. In his time with The Business Journal, Vargo started The Sports Enterprise to highlight the business of sports and focus on social issues in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Vargo also served as a correspondent for The Catholic Exponent during his writing career.
Vargo graduated from Kent State University with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1996. He and his wife Michele have two children: Erik, a YSU graduate who was a videographer for YSU’s Athletics Communications office, and Alexa.
