By Chris Goldberg
Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 1/29/11
Steve Pape was recently named as head boys’ lacrosse coach at Archbishop Ryan, his alma mater.
Pape a 2001 Ryan grad, served as captain his senior year and later played at Cabrini College.
Pape has no formal coaching experience, but is anxious to help bring stability to Ryan, which has had three coaches in three years and won only four games last year.
Pape was a key midfielder on a Raiders team that went 15-3 and reached the Catholic League finals in 2001, falling to La Salle in a tight, 8-5 contest. Ryan advanced to the Catholic League playoffs every year after that until 2010.
“I always thought Ryan could have a strong program because we have the athletes,” said Pape. “They reached out to me, and I always wanted to coach.
“The biggest thing I want to see is more disciplined play. We don’t want to play out of control and make stupid penalties.”
Pape said many of the current players have limited experience.
“We’ll work on fundamentals and doing things the right way,” he said. “Then we’ll build form there. Many of the guys don’t really know how to play the game. We have a couple kids that have played club ball, but many need to learn the basics like picking up a groundball.”
Pape has modest goals for 2011.
“I want us to be better each game,” he said. “At the end of the year, we want it to be hopefully a different team with a lot more confidence. They don’t have much of that when we go up against better teams.
“We want to get some pride back in the program.”
Pape said the growth of the Calvary A.A. youth lacrosse program (member of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Youth Lacrosse Association) should be a big boost to Archbishop Ryan’s future success.
“When I first picked up a stick, I was a freshman and I didn’t know how to catch and throw,” he said. “The Calvary program is getting them started young and that will help us a lot.
‘I’d like to see us start to get kids into college where they can play at the next level.”
