RAYEN ON TOP || In 1985, the Tigers were basketball state champs

This is the final story John Kovach wrote for The Vindicator. Kovach, 69, died on Wednesday.

By JOHN KOVACH

sports@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Although Frank Cegledy feels honored and treasures the moment that his 1985 Rayen School basketball team won Youngstown’s first state basketball championship, the former coach has discovered over the years that it was not the greatest achievement made by the special group of 15 players.

As Cegledy and the Tigers celebrate the 25th anniversary and memory today of their 50-46 win over Columbus Linden McKinley in the Class AA state title game on March 30, 1985, before 12,260 fans in St. John Arena on the Ohio State campus, the retired coach believes that the players’ most important success has turned out to be becoming winners in life.

“When I went back for the 20th reunion [in 2005], I found that the majority of players had good jobs and families. And that’s what we were trying to do, to raise them up to be good citizens in society and to walk the straight line,” said Cegledy from his retirement home in Pawleys Island, S.C.

“The vast majority of my players developed into good and upstanding citizens, and that was my job, my biggest job, to make sure that they got a good education and developed a good lifestyle,” Cegledy said. “Basketball was secondary. They were a [great] group of kids, talented and good kids, and it was a unique situation with good family-orientation.

“The way it is in the world [now], you don’t see too much of that anymore.”

Cegledy said that the team (26-1), which won 24 games in a row after losing the second game of the season to Farrell, is not planning to hold a 25th anniversary celebration today.

“We just had a reunion five years ago for our 20th-year anniversary at the school. It was a reunion of all players. We had a good turnout. Only one of two of the players weren’t there. Floyd Showers set that up,” Cegledy said. “[The players] are all over the country. There still are few in the city.”

Showers was a 6-foot-5 senior on the 1985 team. He combined with Mike Lyle, a 6-1 senior, to score six points each in the final quarter of the state final to pull Rayen to safety and victory after Linden McKinley had rallied from a 15-point deficit and threatened to take the lead.

Lyle finished with a team-high 15 points, including 11 for 15 at the foul line to set a Class AA state title game record for most free throws made. His last six points were from the foul line. Showers added 11 points.

Lyle was named Most Valuable Player of the State AA tournament, joining Showers on the five-man all-tourney squad.

Phil House was Cegledy’s assistant coach, and went on to succeed him at the helm after the latter retired. Chester Leone served as athletic director.

Rayen, founded in 1866, closed in June 2007 to make way for a consolidated with a new East High School, and the Rayen building that opened in 1923 was razed.

Showers, who became a Rayen assistant coach under House, said the 1985 team will delay its 25th anniversary celebration until Sept. 4 when it will be part of the 1985 graduation class’ 25th reunion. The site of the affair will be announced.

“We are hoping for a 100 percent turnout [of players]. We are going to try to persuade Shawn Byers of Florida to come. He is the only one who is not sure if he will come. We are blessed that none of the players is dead,” said Showers, noting that Cegledy has confirmed that he will be attending the Sept. 3 reunion.

Other starters on the team were: Bill Bowers, 6-6 senior; Darin Taylor, a 6-3 senior; and Van Darling, a 5-11 junior.

Coming off the bench were: Tony Donaldson, 6-1 junior; Jerome Jenkins, 6-5 sophomore; Byers, 6-4 junior; Ken Donaldson; Allen Reid; Wilson Humphrey; Kevin Madison; Herman Hill; Allen Jones; and Henry Stubbs.

Taylor and Bowers also led Rayen in the title game. Taylor had 12 rebounds and eight points, Bowers seven points and 10 rebounds.

The Tigers gained the final by outlasting Lorain Catholic, 69-64, in a semifinal on March 28 before 11,916 fans, led by Darling, Tony Donaldson and Taylor.

Rayen sealed the win with two clutch free throws apiece from Donaldson and Taylor in the waning seconds.

Donaldson made two foul shots with 21 seconds left — his only points of the game — to give Rayen and 65-62 lead that provided the margin of victory.

Darling finished with a team-high 19 points, including 11 in the final quarter; while Lyle and Showers had 17 points each.

Three years later in 1988, the state changed from three classes — AAA, AA and A — to the current four-division system of I, II, III and IV.

But the 1985 Rayen team’s legacy still remains intact as the only city school ever to win a state basketball championship.