Readers have enjoyed an abundance of thrilling performances in big games over the past year, with the biggest of them all kicking off Sunday.

This weekend, we’ll know whether the Chiefs or Eagles are Super Bowl champions. Then we’ll turn our attention to the NBA Cavaliers’ title chase and Major League Baseball spring training.

The Ohio State Buckeyes’ national championship in January was the perfect springboard for northeastern Ohioans’ deep dive in sports fandom. The Guardians in October came within a game of another World Series appearance, and now, the Cavaliers are on top of the NBA world.

It’s a good time to be a NE Ohio sports fan. It’s also a good time to be a NE Ohio angler (you knew I was going to bring this around to fishing, right?).

Big-time baseball, basketball and football give us something to cheer about, as do the improving fishing opportunities on waters within an hour of home in Youngstown and Warren.

Interestingly, I spend a portion of my time every year with a circle of friends who have no acquaintance with the finer things of Youngstown and Warren. They have never tasted Brier Hill pizza, the MVR’s sauce, Uncle Nick’s fried chicken, Buttermaid pastries or Penguin City and Birdfish beer. They have no clue shopping malls were invented in Youngstown and Warren, and they do not know our region made the steel to build America’s infrastructure and win World War II.

They are good friends, but sadly in love with sports teams named Patriots, Celtics and Red Sox. I understand their passion, misguided though it may be, but shake my head nevertheless when they break into song whenever they hear Neil Diamond’s worn-out “Sweet Caroline” as though they’re in the stands at Fenway.

I am now and forever a son of blue-collar Youngstown, a fan of the teams my father taught me to love, and an angler who never tires of catching Mosquito Lake bass, crappies and walleyes.

Muggy summers in my boyhood years included overnight campouts at Berlin Reservoir and lantern-light fishing for crappies. We also made spur-of-the-moment trips to Municipal Stadium for evening Indians games and the annual weekend series versus the damned Yankees.

Dad loves shooting sports and was a regular on the range at New Middletown Farmers & Sportsmen Club. While he sighted in his deer rifles, I turned my attention to the bluegills in the club’s pond, always with dreams of hooking up with one of its lunker largemouths.

Autumn in my college years always included our father-son fishing trip to northern Michigan to fish for walleyes using the tactics he learned at Lake Milton and other Youngstown-Warren waters. And when the footballs were flying in the fall of 1965, Dad took me to my first Cleveland Browns game as they campaigned to defend their ’64 NFL championship.

My father also experienced the years well before the Cavaliers when the Youngstown Bears played NBA games in South High Fieldhouse.

Thinking back, with all we have to do here in our corner of Ohio, it’s no wonder I am a fisherman and a fan of baseball, football and basketball – and our region’s great pizza, beer and steelmaking legacy.

Dad’s nearly 96 now, so let’s win a Cleveland World Series title pretty soon. A Super Bowl championship might be a bit more of an ask, but that would be icing on the cake.

In the meantime, I’m going to go fishing, but always with one eye focused on the game of the day.

Trib and Vindy columnist Jack Wollitz fishes frequently as he patiently waits for a Cleveland World Series championship. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com