The 1980 Archbishop Ryan Team
Rich Papirio's most celebrated championship team came in his third season as Archbishop Ryan's baseball coach. His 1980 Raiders were a group of multi-sport athletes — nine of the 20 players on the roster had played football the previous fall, including all of the baseball infield starters. Identical twins Jim and Ken Pawloski had started at forward and guard on the Ryan basketball team that swept the regular season title and then got bumped in the playoffs. Backup pitcher Dan Gillespie was also the football team's backup quarterback. Jeff Wiedecke and Steve Phares had played hockey on a team that lost in the Flyers' Cup semifinals.
The entire roster, in other words, was playing for redemption in Ryan's last postseason of the school year.
The idea all season was for everyone to get rid of their frustrations. Some of us went real far in other sports, yet didn't go all the way. Right from the beginning, we dedicated the season to this year's football and basketball teams and last year's baseball team.
And Papirio's 1980 Raiders walked through the Catholic League playoffs like they were settling scores. Every game was, in Ted Silary's Daily News description, "like barroom brawlers swaggering through the swinging doors." The Raiders swept La Salle and then knocked off Archbishop Carroll at Textile's baseball field to take the Catholic League championship. It remains the single best season of Papirio's 31 years on a Catholic League bench.
