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Meet the woman behind every Youngstown State flight, bus ride and road-trip pizza party
Most schools outsource their travel planning for athletics. But not the Penguins, who calculated it would be more efficient to bring travel agent extraordinaire Tracey Innocent in-house.
Kyle Rowland
November 20, 2025
Howdy,
Today’s story is the first of several profiles we’ll run over the next year, which will all provide in-depth pictures of people in college athletics who have interesting job titles. We combed through staff directories and tried to find some of the most unique positions — and there was plenty to choose from. As a travel junkie, this was a fun one. I hope you enjoy it!
— Kyle
Meet the woman behind every Youngstown State flight, bus ride and road-trip pizza party
Here’s a little secret for Joe and Jane Fan: Travel in college sports isn’t as easy as booking a few flights and hotel rooms, like your family vacation.
Even for smaller teams like golf and basketball, the checklists are long, tedious and unforgiving. Add more athletes, and the chaos multiplies. Food orders, on-site buses, meeting spaces, police escorts — every detail needs to be coordinated and confirmed. At most programs, that burden typically falls to the director of operations.
But not at Youngstown State.
For four decades, Tracey Innocent has been the Penguins’ behind-the-scenes travel architect, and since 2018, she’s been a university employee, booking all university travel, athletics and otherwise. Her official title — travel specialist — is rare in college sports, but it saves Youngstown State money, reduces pressure on coaches and frees staff to focus elsewhere.
“I interview coaches, especially those that are coming from conferences or divisions below, but [also] a lot of Division I schools, and most of them do their own travel,” Youngstown State athletic director Ron Strollo said. “They’re calling the bus companies. It takes a lot of time off our coaches and stress. It also makes for efficient and cost-effective travel.”
And if you’re running an athletic department with a $17 million budget, “efficient” and “cost-effective” are your favorite words. Every cent is important.
