Raymond Raffin
(May 12, 1940 - December 14, 2016)
Funeral home Notice
Mr. Raymond Raffin, age 76, of 19 East Street, Wyalusing, PA passed away at his home on Wednesday morning, December 14, 2016 after battling lung cancer.
Ray was born on May 12, 1940 in Madera, PA, the son of the late John and Nancy Russin Raffin.
He graduated from Moshannon Valley High School in Madera, PA, in 1958, where he earned nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. A 1962 graduate of Lock Haven State College with a B.S. in Health Education, he was a member of the Bald Eagles football team for four seasons.
Ray has been married to the former Mary Ann Kokal for 52 years, and they have a daughter, Michele, and two sons, John and Karl.
Mr. Raffin was a Health and Physical Education and Driver’s Education teacher at Wyalusing Valley High School. He became the Head Coach of the WVHS football team in 1966 and served continuously in that capacity for 35 seasons until his retirement in 2001.
During his tenure as Head Coach, his football teams had a record of 205-145-7, and they won a total of 11 Northern Tier League championships and one District Four title. They have been post-season district playoff qualifiers nine times and have reached the district finals on five separate occasions. In addition, the Rams, under Coach Raffin, captured Eastern Conference Northern championships from 1993-1996.
In the early 1980s, Coach Raffin’s Wyalusing teams produced a 25-game winning streak—at the time a Northern Tier record—and they were named by the Elmira Star-Gazette as the “Twin Tiers Team of the Year” in 1983. Ray was named Northern Tier League “Coach of the Year” six times. He served as an assistant coach for the East squad at the 1983 Pennsylvania Big 33 Game, and he was the head coach of the North team at the 2000 District Four All-Star Game. Coach Raffin was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000 and, most recently, to the Lock Haven University Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 1960 Western Conference championship team. Last year, Coach Raffin was an inaugural inductee to the Wyalusing Rams Football Hall of Fame and recently was honored with the football field being named after him.
In addition to his time he spent in the classroom and on the field at Wyalusing Valley, he was a member of the Our Lady Perpetual Help Parrish, a member and acting president of the Wyalusing Lions Club. In 2015, Ray was awarded Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, highest honor a Lion can achieve. He was an Eagle Scout. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman who loved to spend time at the family tree farm on Lime Hill.
Ray is survived by his loving wife, Mary Ann Raffin of Wyalusing, PA; his daughter, Michele Raffin and companion Jeff Cragle of Laceyville, PA; his sons, John Raffin of Kutztown, PA and Karl Raffin and his wife Mary of Towanda, PA; his grandchildren Jackson Raymond Raffin and Cash Joseph Raffin. Also surviving is his sister Florence Kessling (Clarence) of Chambersburg, PA; sister-in-law Gloria Webb of Hollidaysburg, PA , and many nieces and nephews. As well as many loyal friends and students. Ray was great role model and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Besides his parents Ray was preceded in death by his brother-in-law Joe Webb, and father and mother-in-law Thomas and Linda Kokal.
The family will be having a private Memorial Mass from the St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church with Fr. Joseph Manarchuck officiating. Family and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life visitation on Saturday, December 17, 2016 from 1:30-3:30 PM at the Wyalusing Valley High School Auditorium. Interment will take place at the Wyalusing Borough Cemetery on a later date at the convenience of the family
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Ray Raffin Scholarship Fund, C/O Wyalusing Education Foundation, PO Box 204, Wyalusing, PA 18853.
Arrangements were entrusted with Sheldon Funeral Homes, 155 Church Street, Wyalusing, PA. Online condolences may be made at www.sheldonfuneralhomes.com
Loss of a legend: Area won't forget the legacy of Ray Raffin
Daily Review December 15, 2016
BY BRIAN FEES
Sports Editor
There was a time when legends walked the fields of NTL football stadiums.
There was Miller A. Moyer in Canton.
There was Jack Young Sr. in Towanda.
And, there was Ray Raffin in Wyalusing.
On Wednesday the last of those legendary coaches passed away as Ray Raffin lost his battle with cancer.
Raffin was one of the coaches who made NTL football what it is today.
Raffin helped put Wyalusing, and the entire NTL, on the map.
During his career Raffin won 205 games for the Rams.
Throughout his time with the Rams he won 11 NTL titles and he also brought home a District 4 crown.
However, his biggest impact was on those he coached, and those in the community.
Raffin was known to say ‘Remember who you are . . . What you are . . . and who you represent.’
Throughout not just the region, but the state, Raffin represented Wyalusing, and he was a person that represented the town, the school, and the football team the right way.
Karl Raffin has seen how much his dad meant to not only the football team, but all of Wyalusing.
“I think that’s the thing, he’s most known in circles as a football coach,” Karl Raffin said. “But, he was ingrained in the community. He was an active member of a lot of civic organizations. He was just really respected. He was a straight shooter, a fair guy. He was just highly respected. I think a lot of small communities have that kind of guy, and he was that kind of guy here.”
In high school Karl Raffin played for his dad.
As he got older Karl went into coaching himself, and that’s when it really hit him about how good of a coach his father was.
“I’m not sure I understood it at the time,” Karl Raffin said of playing for his dad. “Once I got myself into coaching and saw what it was all about, he was a tremendous coach. He put in the time. He was passionate about it. He was always trying to better himself as a coach, always trying to learn. He was a fair coach. He was firm, disciplined and he was knowledgeable and he knew what he was doing and he let his other coaches coach. He was a very good coach.”
Earlier this fall Wyalusing honored Raffin by naming the Wyalusing football field after him.
It was a great honor; however, to hear his former players and assistant coaches talk about him, you would quickly realize that no honor could do justice for what Raffin meant to the school.
Longtime Wyalusing assistant coach Dave Behrend was fighting back tears as he talked about coaching with his friend.
Former players talked about how much Raffin changed their entire lives.
Karl Raffin was happy that his father got to be a part of that moment.
“It was really great,” Karl said. “I’m really happy the school did that. My mother was Doctor (Karl) Peterson’s personal nurse for 30 years. I am named after Karl Peterson. It’s Peterson Stadium. It’s Ray Raffin field. It all kind of fits together. To get that kind of recognition was really nice and I think my dad really appreciated it. He wasn’t one for accolades, but I think it was special for him.”
Even today, Raffin is a coach that everyone in the NTL respects, and they all know what he meant to the league.
“I speak all the time to our district coaches association and I know the things they set up years ago between my father, and coach Moyer and coach Raffin,” Athens coach Jack Young said. “They were the foundation of what NTL football kind of became. Coach Raffin was one of those three guys and he was nothing but a class act. Everything he did was a class act. Stories I heard of his relationship with his own players. I know for a fact he’s reached out to check out on players from other teams.
“When I came back and became the head football coach at Athens, he was one of the first people to reach out to me. He’s just a class act, probably the biggest thing I could say about Ray Raffin.”
Karl Raffin knows that it was a special time for NTL football when his dad was coaching.
“Canton was a perennial district contender,” Karl said. “In that time frame we had undefeated seasons in there and a district championship. Towanda was always tough. The guy from Troy was highly respected, (Mark) Strzelecki was highly respected. It was the Golden era of NTL football.”
As the son of one of those three legendary coaches, Jack Young knows how much the three of them meant to the region.
“I just know those three guys, and coach Raffin and my father especially, were so active in the state association,” Young said. My father and coach Raffin are both past presidents of the state association. They worked hard to recognize all areas of the state. Worked so hard on doing things, whether it be for a young man’s play on the field or his academics.
“I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard from people that didn’t play football and what he meant to them as a teacher and a mentor. The same type of things I heard about coach Moyer and my father. It brings me back to a lot of old times. The kind of things I think about when football season ends, I as a coach think about how I need to improve. It automatically brings me back to think about guys like my dad and coach Raffin. They were competitive as hell on that Friday night in October or first Friday in November, but other than that they were tremendous friends. Wyalusing was always tough as hell, they were always well coached. He touched so many people that weren’t even football players. When you talk to the people in my generation they were our coaches. Whether I’m in the Canton/Troy area, Wyalusing. The ball is kind of in our court, for us to keep things thriving we have to rely on what they built.”
What the NTL is today started with guys like Raffin.
“ They were the foundation of what the NTL is all about right now,” Young said. “Those are the guys that put NTL football on the map. They did everything in their power to prove the NTL could compete. Everything those guys did was just legendary. What is unique there legendary status as NTL coaches, but if you look at those guys and what they did previously growing up, being athletes in high school, going to the military, no matter what they did. Those guys just did legendary stuff. Losing someone like coach Raffin is really hard. I guess now it really is kind of a time to reflect.
“They took what NTL football was to another level. The way those guys prepared for games. They didn’t have the technology they have today. The way Ray Raffin, Miller Moyer and my father prepared it was tremendous. I learned it from my father, but I also learned it from those guys. You have to outwork the next guys. They all had tremendous, unbelievable, historic runs, where they won three NTL titles, umpteen NTL titles in a row. It doesn’t happen. I may spend my entire coaching career driving for that undefeated season, but those are the guys that set the tone with how hard they work. I know for a fact those three guys are responsible for how we get together as NTL coaches now and discuss how we approach the offseason stuff. They built traditions, they built a camaraderie between our NTL coaches. It’s because of them that we have a great camaraderie, great friendship among our coaches.”
Karl Raffin always saw what kind of work ethic his dad put in as coach.
“Honest to God, some of my fondest memories were the coaches being around here all weekend long,” Raffin said. “Watching game films, or driving around the area watching games, driving to Canton on Saturday’s. He put in the time. He made sure he was prepared. Him and Jack Young were incredibly close. They went to clinics together. I have a lot of fond memories of Jack and my dad.”
Like Young, Karl Raffin always saw how hard the coaches competed on Friday’s, and then how well they got along off the field.
“To put it in perspective, when Jack Young died, my dad was one of his pallbearers,” Karl Raffin said. “They were rivals on the field, but they were good friends. My father and Jack Young were ambassadors for high school football. They were involved in things like the Big 33. That was my family vacation when I was a kid, we went to Hershey for the Big 33.”
For all he accomplished in his coaching career, Raffin was never one to brag or make a big deal out of it.
When the field was named after him, Raffin put in simple terms what he had accomplished.
“We had a good time with what we did,” Raffin said on that day. “It was a career.”
It was a career at Wyalusing for Raffin.
It was a career that no one will ever forget.
Like Moyer at Canton and Young at Towanda, there will never be anyone who forgets the legacy of Raffin in Wyalusing.
It’s a legacy that helped put Wyalusing on the map.
“It’s similar to a Bill Sexton (at Towanda), you got just about any place and you say you are from Wyalusing and they know my father, or they know the wrestling program,” Karl Raffin said. “He did get a lot of recognition for the area, for sure.”
Generations from now people will see the words Ray Raffin Field, and they will remember all he accomplished during that career.
And, today, many miss Raffin and what he meant to so many.
“Coach Raffin is going to be missed,” Young said. “We are going to have those times to reflect and enjoy all the memories. There are definitely three legendary coaches up there right now and I definitely think they are together right now catching up.”
2016-12-22 / Letters to the Editor Wyalusing Rocket
Remembering a Great Man and Coach
Dear Editor:
This is a letter my son, Tyler Thompson, sent to his father, Frank Thompson, on the day Ray Raffin passed away. I am sharing it because it was a beautiful gesture, but more importantly, it’s a great perspective from a younger generation. Timeless. Shows how much Ray touched everyone. Think it’s worthy of being shared with all who knew Ray and the legacy he leaves to everyone.
“While many people knew him through football as Coach Raffin, I always referred to him as Mr. Raffin, like my father always did. From a young age, when I first started to venture out with friends, one saying always echoed before the door shut behind me, ‘remember who you are, where you are from, and who you represent.’
“Growing up, I heard countless stories of a fishing mastermind who would sample the emerging insects of a pond before catching a fish on every cast. I remember tale after tale of a football genius who would stubbornly call the same 32 dive four times in a row and call the legendary
Wyalusing fake at just the right time. Even after I graduated high school, I heard he would occasionally sit in the press box at home games and call the opponents next play like he had their playbook.
“These types of stories will go down into Wyalusing lore with many remembering him by his name on the football field, and as much as that is true, I will remember him as a man who shaped my life more than he will ever know. My father admired the man Ray Raffin was, and passed who he was on through his quotes and stories, as I think he, himself, tried to follow his life lessons.
“Although I am sure Ray would crack a joke, and humbly shrug off that remark, I feel it is important to recognize that who he was will live on. Who he was will endure past the players he coached, the students he taught, the children he fathered, and will be intergenerational with me being an example. So not only should we mourn the loss of a predominant community member, but also the loss of a role model that will influence generations of men he never knew.”
Stacy Thompson
Camptown
(May 12, 1940 - December 14, 2016)
Funeral home Notice
Mr. Raymond Raffin, age 76, of 19 East Street, Wyalusing, PA passed away at his home on Wednesday morning, December 14, 2016 after battling lung cancer.
Ray was born on May 12, 1940 in Madera, PA, the son of the late John and Nancy Russin Raffin.
He graduated from Moshannon Valley High School in Madera, PA, in 1958, where he earned nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. A 1962 graduate of Lock Haven State College with a B.S. in Health Education, he was a member of the Bald Eagles football team for four seasons.
Ray has been married to the former Mary Ann Kokal for 52 years, and they have a daughter, Michele, and two sons, John and Karl.
Mr. Raffin was a Health and Physical Education and Driver’s Education teacher at Wyalusing Valley High School. He became the Head Coach of the WVHS football team in 1966 and served continuously in that capacity for 35 seasons until his retirement in 2001.
During his tenure as Head Coach, his football teams had a record of 205-145-7, and they won a total of 11 Northern Tier League championships and one District Four title. They have been post-season district playoff qualifiers nine times and have reached the district finals on five separate occasions. In addition, the Rams, under Coach Raffin, captured Eastern Conference Northern championships from 1993-1996.
In the early 1980s, Coach Raffin’s Wyalusing teams produced a 25-game winning streak—at the time a Northern Tier record—and they were named by the Elmira Star-Gazette as the “Twin Tiers Team of the Year” in 1983. Ray was named Northern Tier League “Coach of the Year” six times. He served as an assistant coach for the East squad at the 1983 Pennsylvania Big 33 Game, and he was the head coach of the North team at the 2000 District Four All-Star Game. Coach Raffin was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000 and, most recently, to the Lock Haven University Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 1960 Western Conference championship team. Last year, Coach Raffin was an inaugural inductee to the Wyalusing Rams Football Hall of Fame and recently was honored with the football field being named after him.
In addition to his time he spent in the classroom and on the field at Wyalusing Valley, he was a member of the Our Lady Perpetual Help Parrish, a member and acting president of the Wyalusing Lions Club. In 2015, Ray was awarded Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, highest honor a Lion can achieve. He was an Eagle Scout. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman who loved to spend time at the family tree farm on Lime Hill.
Ray is survived by his loving wife, Mary Ann Raffin of Wyalusing, PA; his daughter, Michele Raffin and companion Jeff Cragle of Laceyville, PA; his sons, John Raffin of Kutztown, PA and Karl Raffin and his wife Mary of Towanda, PA; his grandchildren Jackson Raymond Raffin and Cash Joseph Raffin. Also surviving is his sister Florence Kessling (Clarence) of Chambersburg, PA; sister-in-law Gloria Webb of Hollidaysburg, PA , and many nieces and nephews. As well as many loyal friends and students. Ray was great role model and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Besides his parents Ray was preceded in death by his brother-in-law Joe Webb, and father and mother-in-law Thomas and Linda Kokal.
The family will be having a private Memorial Mass from the St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church with Fr. Joseph Manarchuck officiating. Family and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life visitation on Saturday, December 17, 2016 from 1:30-3:30 PM at the Wyalusing Valley High School Auditorium. Interment will take place at the Wyalusing Borough Cemetery on a later date at the convenience of the family
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Ray Raffin Scholarship Fund, C/O Wyalusing Education Foundation, PO Box 204, Wyalusing, PA 18853.
Arrangements were entrusted with Sheldon Funeral Homes, 155 Church Street, Wyalusing, PA. Online condolences may be made at www.sheldonfuneralhomes.com
Loss of a legend: Area won't forget the legacy of Ray Raffin
Daily Review December 15, 2016
BY BRIAN FEES
Sports Editor
There was a time when legends walked the fields of NTL football stadiums.
There was Miller A. Moyer in Canton.
There was Jack Young Sr. in Towanda.
And, there was Ray Raffin in Wyalusing.
On Wednesday the last of those legendary coaches passed away as Ray Raffin lost his battle with cancer.
Raffin was one of the coaches who made NTL football what it is today.
Raffin helped put Wyalusing, and the entire NTL, on the map.
During his career Raffin won 205 games for the Rams.
Throughout his time with the Rams he won 11 NTL titles and he also brought home a District 4 crown.
However, his biggest impact was on those he coached, and those in the community.
Raffin was known to say ‘Remember who you are . . . What you are . . . and who you represent.’
Throughout not just the region, but the state, Raffin represented Wyalusing, and he was a person that represented the town, the school, and the football team the right way.
Karl Raffin has seen how much his dad meant to not only the football team, but all of Wyalusing.
“I think that’s the thing, he’s most known in circles as a football coach,” Karl Raffin said. “But, he was ingrained in the community. He was an active member of a lot of civic organizations. He was just really respected. He was a straight shooter, a fair guy. He was just highly respected. I think a lot of small communities have that kind of guy, and he was that kind of guy here.”
In high school Karl Raffin played for his dad.
As he got older Karl went into coaching himself, and that’s when it really hit him about how good of a coach his father was.
“I’m not sure I understood it at the time,” Karl Raffin said of playing for his dad. “Once I got myself into coaching and saw what it was all about, he was a tremendous coach. He put in the time. He was passionate about it. He was always trying to better himself as a coach, always trying to learn. He was a fair coach. He was firm, disciplined and he was knowledgeable and he knew what he was doing and he let his other coaches coach. He was a very good coach.”
Earlier this fall Wyalusing honored Raffin by naming the Wyalusing football field after him.
It was a great honor; however, to hear his former players and assistant coaches talk about him, you would quickly realize that no honor could do justice for what Raffin meant to the school.
Longtime Wyalusing assistant coach Dave Behrend was fighting back tears as he talked about coaching with his friend.
Former players talked about how much Raffin changed their entire lives.
Karl Raffin was happy that his father got to be a part of that moment.
“It was really great,” Karl said. “I’m really happy the school did that. My mother was Doctor (Karl) Peterson’s personal nurse for 30 years. I am named after Karl Peterson. It’s Peterson Stadium. It’s Ray Raffin field. It all kind of fits together. To get that kind of recognition was really nice and I think my dad really appreciated it. He wasn’t one for accolades, but I think it was special for him.”
Even today, Raffin is a coach that everyone in the NTL respects, and they all know what he meant to the league.
“I speak all the time to our district coaches association and I know the things they set up years ago between my father, and coach Moyer and coach Raffin,” Athens coach Jack Young said. “They were the foundation of what NTL football kind of became. Coach Raffin was one of those three guys and he was nothing but a class act. Everything he did was a class act. Stories I heard of his relationship with his own players. I know for a fact he’s reached out to check out on players from other teams.
“When I came back and became the head football coach at Athens, he was one of the first people to reach out to me. He’s just a class act, probably the biggest thing I could say about Ray Raffin.”
Karl Raffin knows that it was a special time for NTL football when his dad was coaching.
“Canton was a perennial district contender,” Karl said. “In that time frame we had undefeated seasons in there and a district championship. Towanda was always tough. The guy from Troy was highly respected, (Mark) Strzelecki was highly respected. It was the Golden era of NTL football.”
As the son of one of those three legendary coaches, Jack Young knows how much the three of them meant to the region.
“I just know those three guys, and coach Raffin and my father especially, were so active in the state association,” Young said. My father and coach Raffin are both past presidents of the state association. They worked hard to recognize all areas of the state. Worked so hard on doing things, whether it be for a young man’s play on the field or his academics.
“I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard from people that didn’t play football and what he meant to them as a teacher and a mentor. The same type of things I heard about coach Moyer and my father. It brings me back to a lot of old times. The kind of things I think about when football season ends, I as a coach think about how I need to improve. It automatically brings me back to think about guys like my dad and coach Raffin. They were competitive as hell on that Friday night in October or first Friday in November, but other than that they were tremendous friends. Wyalusing was always tough as hell, they were always well coached. He touched so many people that weren’t even football players. When you talk to the people in my generation they were our coaches. Whether I’m in the Canton/Troy area, Wyalusing. The ball is kind of in our court, for us to keep things thriving we have to rely on what they built.”
What the NTL is today started with guys like Raffin.
“ They were the foundation of what the NTL is all about right now,” Young said. “Those are the guys that put NTL football on the map. They did everything in their power to prove the NTL could compete. Everything those guys did was just legendary. What is unique there legendary status as NTL coaches, but if you look at those guys and what they did previously growing up, being athletes in high school, going to the military, no matter what they did. Those guys just did legendary stuff. Losing someone like coach Raffin is really hard. I guess now it really is kind of a time to reflect.
“They took what NTL football was to another level. The way those guys prepared for games. They didn’t have the technology they have today. The way Ray Raffin, Miller Moyer and my father prepared it was tremendous. I learned it from my father, but I also learned it from those guys. You have to outwork the next guys. They all had tremendous, unbelievable, historic runs, where they won three NTL titles, umpteen NTL titles in a row. It doesn’t happen. I may spend my entire coaching career driving for that undefeated season, but those are the guys that set the tone with how hard they work. I know for a fact those three guys are responsible for how we get together as NTL coaches now and discuss how we approach the offseason stuff. They built traditions, they built a camaraderie between our NTL coaches. It’s because of them that we have a great camaraderie, great friendship among our coaches.”
Karl Raffin always saw what kind of work ethic his dad put in as coach.
“Honest to God, some of my fondest memories were the coaches being around here all weekend long,” Raffin said. “Watching game films, or driving around the area watching games, driving to Canton on Saturday’s. He put in the time. He made sure he was prepared. Him and Jack Young were incredibly close. They went to clinics together. I have a lot of fond memories of Jack and my dad.”
Like Young, Karl Raffin always saw how hard the coaches competed on Friday’s, and then how well they got along off the field.
“To put it in perspective, when Jack Young died, my dad was one of his pallbearers,” Karl Raffin said. “They were rivals on the field, but they were good friends. My father and Jack Young were ambassadors for high school football. They were involved in things like the Big 33. That was my family vacation when I was a kid, we went to Hershey for the Big 33.”
For all he accomplished in his coaching career, Raffin was never one to brag or make a big deal out of it.
When the field was named after him, Raffin put in simple terms what he had accomplished.
“We had a good time with what we did,” Raffin said on that day. “It was a career.”
It was a career at Wyalusing for Raffin.
It was a career that no one will ever forget.
Like Moyer at Canton and Young at Towanda, there will never be anyone who forgets the legacy of Raffin in Wyalusing.
It’s a legacy that helped put Wyalusing on the map.
“It’s similar to a Bill Sexton (at Towanda), you got just about any place and you say you are from Wyalusing and they know my father, or they know the wrestling program,” Karl Raffin said. “He did get a lot of recognition for the area, for sure.”
Generations from now people will see the words Ray Raffin Field, and they will remember all he accomplished during that career.
And, today, many miss Raffin and what he meant to so many.
“Coach Raffin is going to be missed,” Young said. “We are going to have those times to reflect and enjoy all the memories. There are definitely three legendary coaches up there right now and I definitely think they are together right now catching up.”
2016-12-22 / Letters to the Editor Wyalusing Rocket
Remembering a Great Man and Coach
Dear Editor:
This is a letter my son, Tyler Thompson, sent to his father, Frank Thompson, on the day Ray Raffin passed away. I am sharing it because it was a beautiful gesture, but more importantly, it’s a great perspective from a younger generation. Timeless. Shows how much Ray touched everyone. Think it’s worthy of being shared with all who knew Ray and the legacy he leaves to everyone.
“While many people knew him through football as Coach Raffin, I always referred to him as Mr. Raffin, like my father always did. From a young age, when I first started to venture out with friends, one saying always echoed before the door shut behind me, ‘remember who you are, where you are from, and who you represent.’
“Growing up, I heard countless stories of a fishing mastermind who would sample the emerging insects of a pond before catching a fish on every cast. I remember tale after tale of a football genius who would stubbornly call the same 32 dive four times in a row and call the legendary
Wyalusing fake at just the right time. Even after I graduated high school, I heard he would occasionally sit in the press box at home games and call the opponents next play like he had their playbook.
“These types of stories will go down into Wyalusing lore with many remembering him by his name on the football field, and as much as that is true, I will remember him as a man who shaped my life more than he will ever know. My father admired the man Ray Raffin was, and passed who he was on through his quotes and stories, as I think he, himself, tried to follow his life lessons.
“Although I am sure Ray would crack a joke, and humbly shrug off that remark, I feel it is important to recognize that who he was will live on. Who he was will endure past the players he coached, the students he taught, the children he fathered, and will be intergenerational with me being an example. So not only should we mourn the loss of a predominant community member, but also the loss of a role model that will influence generations of men he never knew.”
Stacy Thompson
Camptown
Raymond Raffin
(May 12, 1940 - December 14, 2016)
Funeral home Notice
Mr. Raymond Raffin, age 76, of 19 East Street, Wyalusing, PA passed away at his home on Wednesday morning, December 14, 2016 after battling lung cancer.
Ray was born on May 12, 1940 in Madera, PA, the son of the late John and Nancy Russin Raffin.
He graduated from Moshannon Valley High School in Madera, PA, in 1958, where he earned nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. A 1962 graduate of Lock Haven State College with a B.S. in Health Education, he was a member of the Bald Eagles football team for four seasons.
Ray has been married to the former Mary Ann Kokal for 52 years, and they have a daughter, Michele, and two sons, John and Karl.
Mr. Raffin was a Health and Physical Education and Driver’s Education teacher at Wyalusing Valley High School. He became the Head Coach of the WVHS football team in 1966 and served continuously in that capacity for 35 seasons until his retirement in 2001.
During his tenure as Head Coach, his football teams had a record of 205-145-7, and they won a total of 11 Northern Tier League championships and one District Four title. They have been post-season district playoff qualifiers nine times and have reached the district finals on five separate occasions. In addition, the Rams, under Coach Raffin, captured Eastern Conference Northern championships from 1993-1996.
In the early 1980s, Coach Raffin’s Wyalusing teams produced a 25-game winning streak—at the time a Northern Tier record—and they were named by the Elmira Star-Gazette as the “Twin Tiers Team of the Year” in 1983. Ray was named Northern Tier League “Coach of the Year” six times. He served as an assistant coach for the East squad at the 1983 Pennsylvania Big 33 Game, and he was the head coach of the North team at the 2000 District Four All-Star Game. Coach Raffin was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000 and, most recently, to the Lock Haven University Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 1960 Western Conference championship team. Last year, Coach Raffin was an inaugural inductee to the Wyalusing Rams Football Hall of Fame and recently was honored with the football field being named after him.
In addition to his time he spent in the classroom and on the field at Wyalusing Valley, he was a member of the Our Lady Perpetual Help Parrish, a member and acting president of the Wyalusing Lions Club. In 2015, Ray was awarded Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, highest honor a Lion can achieve. He was an Eagle Scout. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman who loved to spend time at the family tree farm on Lime Hill.
Ray is survived by his loving wife, Mary Ann Raffin of Wyalusing, PA; his daughter, Michele Raffin and companion Jeff Cragle of Laceyville, PA; his sons, John Raffin of Kutztown, PA and Karl Raffin and his wife Mary of Towanda, PA; his grandchildren Jackson Raymond Raffin and Cash Joseph Raffin. Also surviving is his sister Florence Kessling (Clarence) of Chambersburg, PA; sister-in-law Gloria Webb of Hollidaysburg, PA , and many nieces and nephews. As well as many loyal friends and students. Ray was great role model and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Besides his parents Ray was preceded in death by his brother-in-law Joe Webb, and father and mother-in-law Thomas and Linda Kokal.
The family will be having a private Memorial Mass from the St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church with Fr. Joseph Manarchuck officiating. Family and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life visitation on Saturday, December 17, 2016 from 1:30-3:30 PM at the Wyalusing Valley High School Auditorium. Interment will take place at the Wyalusing Borough Cemetery on a later date at the convenience of the family
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Ray Raffin Scholarship Fund, C/O Wyalusing Education Foundation, PO Box 204, Wyalusing, PA 18853.
Arrangements were entrusted with Sheldon Funeral Homes, 155 Church Street, Wyalusing, PA. Online condolences may be made at www.sheldonfuneralhomes.com
Loss of a legend: Area won't forget the legacy of Ray Raffin
Daily Review December 15, 2016
BY BRIAN FEES
Sports Editor
There was a time when legends walked the fields of NTL football stadiums.
There was Miller A. Moyer in Canton.
There was Jack Young Sr. in Towanda.
And, there was Ray Raffin in Wyalusing.
On Wednesday the last of those legendary coaches passed away as Ray Raffin lost his battle with cancer.
Raffin was one of the coaches who made NTL football what it is today.
Raffin helped put Wyalusing, and the entire NTL, on the map.
During his career Raffin won 205 games for the Rams.
Throughout his time with the Rams he won 11 NTL titles and he also brought home a District 4 crown.
However, his biggest impact was on those he coached, and those in the community.
Raffin was known to say ‘Remember who you are . . . What you are . . . and who you represent.’
Throughout not just the region, but the state, Raffin represented Wyalusing, and he was a person that represented the town, the school, and the football team the right way.
Karl Raffin has seen how much his dad meant to not only the football team, but all of Wyalusing.
“I think that’s the thing, he’s most known in circles as a football coach,” Karl Raffin said. “But, he was ingrained in the community. He was an active member of a lot of civic organizations. He was just really respected. He was a straight shooter, a fair guy. He was just highly respected. I think a lot of small communities have that kind of guy, and he was that kind of guy here.”
In high school Karl Raffin played for his dad.
As he got older Karl went into coaching himself, and that’s when it really hit him about how good of a coach his father was.
“I’m not sure I understood it at the time,” Karl Raffin said of playing for his dad. “Once I got myself into coaching and saw what it was all about, he was a tremendous coach. He put in the time. He was passionate about it. He was always trying to better himself as a coach, always trying to learn. He was a fair coach. He was firm, disciplined and he was knowledgeable and he knew what he was doing and he let his other coaches coach. He was a very good coach.”
Earlier this fall Wyalusing honored Raffin by naming the Wyalusing football field after him.
It was a great honor; however, to hear his former players and assistant coaches talk about him, you would quickly realize that no honor could do justice for what Raffin meant to the school.
Longtime Wyalusing assistant coach Dave Behrend was fighting back tears as he talked about coaching with his friend.
Former players talked about how much Raffin changed their entire lives.
Karl Raffin was happy that his father got to be a part of that moment.
“It was really great,” Karl said. “I’m really happy the school did that. My mother was Doctor (Karl) Peterson’s personal nurse for 30 years. I am named after Karl Peterson. It’s Peterson Stadium. It’s Ray Raffin field. It all kind of fits together. To get that kind of recognition was really nice and I think my dad really appreciated it. He wasn’t one for accolades, but I think it was special for him.”
Even today, Raffin is a coach that everyone in the NTL respects, and they all know what he meant to the league.
“I speak all the time to our district coaches association and I know the things they set up years ago between my father, and coach Moyer and coach Raffin,” Athens coach Jack Young said. “They were the foundation of what NTL football kind of became. Coach Raffin was one of those three guys and he was nothing but a class act. Everything he did was a class act. Stories I heard of his relationship with his own players. I know for a fact he’s reached out to check out on players from other teams.
“When I came back and became the head football coach at Athens, he was one of the first people to reach out to me. He’s just a class act, probably the biggest thing I could say about Ray Raffin.”
Karl Raffin knows that it was a special time for NTL football when his dad was coaching.
“Canton was a perennial district contender,” Karl said. “In that time frame we had undefeated seasons in there and a district championship. Towanda was always tough. The guy from Troy was highly respected, (Mark) Strzelecki was highly respected. It was the Golden era of NTL football.”
As the son of one of those three legendary coaches, Jack Young knows how much the three of them meant to the region.
“I just know those three guys, and coach Raffin and my father especially, were so active in the state association,” Young said. My father and coach Raffin are both past presidents of the state association. They worked hard to recognize all areas of the state. Worked so hard on doing things, whether it be for a young man’s play on the field or his academics.
“I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard from people that didn’t play football and what he meant to them as a teacher and a mentor. The same type of things I heard about coach Moyer and my father. It brings me back to a lot of old times. The kind of things I think about when football season ends, I as a coach think about how I need to improve. It automatically brings me back to think about guys like my dad and coach Raffin. They were competitive as hell on that Friday night in October or first Friday in November, but other than that they were tremendous friends. Wyalusing was always tough as hell, they were always well coached. He touched so many people that weren’t even football players. When you talk to the people in my generation they were our coaches. Whether I’m in the Canton/Troy area, Wyalusing. The ball is kind of in our court, for us to keep things thriving we have to rely on what they built.”
What the NTL is today started with guys like Raffin.
“ They were the foundation of what the NTL is all about right now,” Young said. “Those are the guys that put NTL football on the map. They did everything in their power to prove the NTL could compete. Everything those guys did was just legendary. What is unique there legendary status as NTL coaches, but if you look at those guys and what they did previously growing up, being athletes in high school, going to the military, no matter what they did. Those guys just did legendary stuff. Losing someone like coach Raffin is really hard. I guess now it really is kind of a time to reflect.
“They took what NTL football was to another level. The way those guys prepared for games. They didn’t have the technology they have today. The way Ray Raffin, Miller Moyer and my father prepared it was tremendous. I learned it from my father, but I also learned it from those guys. You have to outwork the next guys. They all had tremendous, unbelievable, historic runs, where they won three NTL titles, umpteen NTL titles in a row. It doesn’t happen. I may spend my entire coaching career driving for that undefeated season, but those are the guys that set the tone with how hard they work. I know for a fact those three guys are responsible for how we get together as NTL coaches now and discuss how we approach the offseason stuff. They built traditions, they built a camaraderie between our NTL coaches. It’s because of them that we have a great camaraderie, great friendship among our coaches.”
Karl Raffin always saw what kind of work ethic his dad put in as coach.
“Honest to God, some of my fondest memories were the coaches being around here all weekend long,” Raffin said. “Watching game films, or driving around the area watching games, driving to Canton on Saturday’s. He put in the time. He made sure he was prepared. Him and Jack Young were incredibly close. They went to clinics together. I have a lot of fond memories of Jack and my dad.”
Like Young, Karl Raffin always saw how hard the coaches competed on Friday’s, and then how well they got along off the field.
“To put it in perspective, when Jack Young died, my dad was one of his pallbearers,” Karl Raffin said. “They were rivals on the field, but they were good friends. My father and Jack Young were ambassadors for high school football. They were involved in things like the Big 33. That was my family vacation when I was a kid, we went to Hershey for the Big 33.”
For all he accomplished in his coaching career, Raffin was never one to brag or make a big deal out of it.
When the field was named after him, Raffin put in simple terms what he had accomplished.
“We had a good time with what we did,” Raffin said on that day. “It was a career.”
It was a career at Wyalusing for Raffin.
It was a career that no one will ever forget.
Like Moyer at Canton and Young at Towanda, there will never be anyone who forgets the legacy of Raffin in Wyalusing.
It’s a legacy that helped put Wyalusing on the map.
“It’s similar to a Bill Sexton (at Towanda), you got just about any place and you say you are from Wyalusing and they know my father, or they know the wrestling program,” Karl Raffin said. “He did get a lot of recognition for the area, for sure.”
Generations from now people will see the words Ray Raffin Field, and they will remember all he accomplished during that career.
And, today, many miss Raffin and what he meant to so many.
“Coach Raffin is going to be missed,” Young said. “We are going to have those times to reflect and enjoy all the memories. There are definitely three legendary coaches up there right now and I definitely think they are together right now catching up.”
2016-12-22 / Letters to the Editor Wyalusing Rocket
Remembering a Great Man and Coach
Dear Editor:
This is a letter my son, Tyler Thompson, sent to his father, Frank Thompson, on the day Ray Raffin passed away. I am sharing it because it was a beautiful gesture, but more importantly, it’s a great perspective from a younger generation. Timeless. Shows how much Ray touched everyone. Think it’s worthy of being shared with all who knew Ray and the legacy he leaves to everyone.
“While many people knew him through football as Coach Raffin, I always referred to him as Mr. Raffin, like my father always did. From a young age, when I first started to venture out with friends, one saying always echoed before the door shut behind me, ‘remember who you are, where you are from, and who you represent.’
“Growing up, I heard countless stories of a fishing mastermind who would sample the emerging insects of a pond before catching a fish on every cast. I remember tale after tale of a football genius who would stubbornly call the same 32 dive four times in a row and call the legendary
Wyalusing fake at just the right time. Even after I graduated high school, I heard he would occasionally sit in the press box at home games and call the opponents next play like he had their playbook.
“These types of stories will go down into Wyalusing lore with many remembering him by his name on the football field, and as much as that is true, I will remember him as a man who shaped my life more than he will ever know. My father admired the man Ray Raffin was, and passed who he was on through his quotes and stories, as I think he, himself, tried to follow his life lessons.
“Although I am sure Ray would crack a joke, and humbly shrug off that remark, I feel it is important to recognize that who he was will live on. Who he was will endure past the players he coached, the students he taught, the children he fathered, and will be intergenerational with me being an example. So not only should we mourn the loss of a predominant community member, but also the loss of a role model that will influence generations of men he never knew.”
Stacy Thompson
Camptown
(May 12, 1940 - December 14, 2016)
Funeral home Notice
Mr. Raymond Raffin, age 76, of 19 East Street, Wyalusing, PA passed away at his home on Wednesday morning, December 14, 2016 after battling lung cancer.
Ray was born on May 12, 1940 in Madera, PA, the son of the late John and Nancy Russin Raffin.
He graduated from Moshannon Valley High School in Madera, PA, in 1958, where he earned nine varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. A 1962 graduate of Lock Haven State College with a B.S. in Health Education, he was a member of the Bald Eagles football team for four seasons.
Ray has been married to the former Mary Ann Kokal for 52 years, and they have a daughter, Michele, and two sons, John and Karl.
Mr. Raffin was a Health and Physical Education and Driver’s Education teacher at Wyalusing Valley High School. He became the Head Coach of the WVHS football team in 1966 and served continuously in that capacity for 35 seasons until his retirement in 2001.
During his tenure as Head Coach, his football teams had a record of 205-145-7, and they won a total of 11 Northern Tier League championships and one District Four title. They have been post-season district playoff qualifiers nine times and have reached the district finals on five separate occasions. In addition, the Rams, under Coach Raffin, captured Eastern Conference Northern championships from 1993-1996.
In the early 1980s, Coach Raffin’s Wyalusing teams produced a 25-game winning streak—at the time a Northern Tier record—and they were named by the Elmira Star-Gazette as the “Twin Tiers Team of the Year” in 1983. Ray was named Northern Tier League “Coach of the Year” six times. He served as an assistant coach for the East squad at the 1983 Pennsylvania Big 33 Game, and he was the head coach of the North team at the 2000 District Four All-Star Game. Coach Raffin was inducted into the Northeastern Region Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1997, the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2000 and, most recently, to the Lock Haven University Football Hall of Fame as a member of the 1960 Western Conference championship team. Last year, Coach Raffin was an inaugural inductee to the Wyalusing Rams Football Hall of Fame and recently was honored with the football field being named after him.
In addition to his time he spent in the classroom and on the field at Wyalusing Valley, he was a member of the Our Lady Perpetual Help Parrish, a member and acting president of the Wyalusing Lions Club. In 2015, Ray was awarded Melvin Jones Fellowship Award, highest honor a Lion can achieve. He was an Eagle Scout. He was an avid hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman who loved to spend time at the family tree farm on Lime Hill.
Ray is survived by his loving wife, Mary Ann Raffin of Wyalusing, PA; his daughter, Michele Raffin and companion Jeff Cragle of Laceyville, PA; his sons, John Raffin of Kutztown, PA and Karl Raffin and his wife Mary of Towanda, PA; his grandchildren Jackson Raymond Raffin and Cash Joseph Raffin. Also surviving is his sister Florence Kessling (Clarence) of Chambersburg, PA; sister-in-law Gloria Webb of Hollidaysburg, PA , and many nieces and nephews. As well as many loyal friends and students. Ray was great role model and will be greatly missed by his family and friends. Besides his parents Ray was preceded in death by his brother-in-law Joe Webb, and father and mother-in-law Thomas and Linda Kokal.
The family will be having a private Memorial Mass from the St. Mary’s of the Assumption Church with Fr. Joseph Manarchuck officiating. Family and friends are invited to attend the Celebration of Life visitation on Saturday, December 17, 2016 from 1:30-3:30 PM at the Wyalusing Valley High School Auditorium. Interment will take place at the Wyalusing Borough Cemetery on a later date at the convenience of the family
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions can be made to the Ray Raffin Scholarship Fund, C/O Wyalusing Education Foundation, PO Box 204, Wyalusing, PA 18853.
Arrangements were entrusted with Sheldon Funeral Homes, 155 Church Street, Wyalusing, PA. Online condolences may be made at www.sheldonfuneralhomes.com
Loss of a legend: Area won't forget the legacy of Ray Raffin
Daily Review December 15, 2016
BY BRIAN FEES
Sports Editor
There was a time when legends walked the fields of NTL football stadiums.
There was Miller A. Moyer in Canton.
There was Jack Young Sr. in Towanda.
And, there was Ray Raffin in Wyalusing.
On Wednesday the last of those legendary coaches passed away as Ray Raffin lost his battle with cancer.
Raffin was one of the coaches who made NTL football what it is today.
Raffin helped put Wyalusing, and the entire NTL, on the map.
During his career Raffin won 205 games for the Rams.
Throughout his time with the Rams he won 11 NTL titles and he also brought home a District 4 crown.
However, his biggest impact was on those he coached, and those in the community.
Raffin was known to say ‘Remember who you are . . . What you are . . . and who you represent.’
Throughout not just the region, but the state, Raffin represented Wyalusing, and he was a person that represented the town, the school, and the football team the right way.
Karl Raffin has seen how much his dad meant to not only the football team, but all of Wyalusing.
“I think that’s the thing, he’s most known in circles as a football coach,” Karl Raffin said. “But, he was ingrained in the community. He was an active member of a lot of civic organizations. He was just really respected. He was a straight shooter, a fair guy. He was just highly respected. I think a lot of small communities have that kind of guy, and he was that kind of guy here.”
In high school Karl Raffin played for his dad.
As he got older Karl went into coaching himself, and that’s when it really hit him about how good of a coach his father was.
“I’m not sure I understood it at the time,” Karl Raffin said of playing for his dad. “Once I got myself into coaching and saw what it was all about, he was a tremendous coach. He put in the time. He was passionate about it. He was always trying to better himself as a coach, always trying to learn. He was a fair coach. He was firm, disciplined and he was knowledgeable and he knew what he was doing and he let his other coaches coach. He was a very good coach.”
Earlier this fall Wyalusing honored Raffin by naming the Wyalusing football field after him.
It was a great honor; however, to hear his former players and assistant coaches talk about him, you would quickly realize that no honor could do justice for what Raffin meant to the school.
Longtime Wyalusing assistant coach Dave Behrend was fighting back tears as he talked about coaching with his friend.
Former players talked about how much Raffin changed their entire lives.
Karl Raffin was happy that his father got to be a part of that moment.
“It was really great,” Karl said. “I’m really happy the school did that. My mother was Doctor (Karl) Peterson’s personal nurse for 30 years. I am named after Karl Peterson. It’s Peterson Stadium. It’s Ray Raffin field. It all kind of fits together. To get that kind of recognition was really nice and I think my dad really appreciated it. He wasn’t one for accolades, but I think it was special for him.”
Even today, Raffin is a coach that everyone in the NTL respects, and they all know what he meant to the league.
“I speak all the time to our district coaches association and I know the things they set up years ago between my father, and coach Moyer and coach Raffin,” Athens coach Jack Young said. “They were the foundation of what NTL football kind of became. Coach Raffin was one of those three guys and he was nothing but a class act. Everything he did was a class act. Stories I heard of his relationship with his own players. I know for a fact he’s reached out to check out on players from other teams.
“When I came back and became the head football coach at Athens, he was one of the first people to reach out to me. He’s just a class act, probably the biggest thing I could say about Ray Raffin.”
Karl Raffin knows that it was a special time for NTL football when his dad was coaching.
“Canton was a perennial district contender,” Karl said. “In that time frame we had undefeated seasons in there and a district championship. Towanda was always tough. The guy from Troy was highly respected, (Mark) Strzelecki was highly respected. It was the Golden era of NTL football.”
As the son of one of those three legendary coaches, Jack Young knows how much the three of them meant to the region.
“I just know those three guys, and coach Raffin and my father especially, were so active in the state association,” Young said. My father and coach Raffin are both past presidents of the state association. They worked hard to recognize all areas of the state. Worked so hard on doing things, whether it be for a young man’s play on the field or his academics.
“I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard from people that didn’t play football and what he meant to them as a teacher and a mentor. The same type of things I heard about coach Moyer and my father. It brings me back to a lot of old times. The kind of things I think about when football season ends, I as a coach think about how I need to improve. It automatically brings me back to think about guys like my dad and coach Raffin. They were competitive as hell on that Friday night in October or first Friday in November, but other than that they were tremendous friends. Wyalusing was always tough as hell, they were always well coached. He touched so many people that weren’t even football players. When you talk to the people in my generation they were our coaches. Whether I’m in the Canton/Troy area, Wyalusing. The ball is kind of in our court, for us to keep things thriving we have to rely on what they built.”
What the NTL is today started with guys like Raffin.
“ They were the foundation of what the NTL is all about right now,” Young said. “Those are the guys that put NTL football on the map. They did everything in their power to prove the NTL could compete. Everything those guys did was just legendary. What is unique there legendary status as NTL coaches, but if you look at those guys and what they did previously growing up, being athletes in high school, going to the military, no matter what they did. Those guys just did legendary stuff. Losing someone like coach Raffin is really hard. I guess now it really is kind of a time to reflect.
“They took what NTL football was to another level. The way those guys prepared for games. They didn’t have the technology they have today. The way Ray Raffin, Miller Moyer and my father prepared it was tremendous. I learned it from my father, but I also learned it from those guys. You have to outwork the next guys. They all had tremendous, unbelievable, historic runs, where they won three NTL titles, umpteen NTL titles in a row. It doesn’t happen. I may spend my entire coaching career driving for that undefeated season, but those are the guys that set the tone with how hard they work. I know for a fact those three guys are responsible for how we get together as NTL coaches now and discuss how we approach the offseason stuff. They built traditions, they built a camaraderie between our NTL coaches. It’s because of them that we have a great camaraderie, great friendship among our coaches.”
Karl Raffin always saw what kind of work ethic his dad put in as coach.
“Honest to God, some of my fondest memories were the coaches being around here all weekend long,” Raffin said. “Watching game films, or driving around the area watching games, driving to Canton on Saturday’s. He put in the time. He made sure he was prepared. Him and Jack Young were incredibly close. They went to clinics together. I have a lot of fond memories of Jack and my dad.”
Like Young, Karl Raffin always saw how hard the coaches competed on Friday’s, and then how well they got along off the field.
“To put it in perspective, when Jack Young died, my dad was one of his pallbearers,” Karl Raffin said. “They were rivals on the field, but they were good friends. My father and Jack Young were ambassadors for high school football. They were involved in things like the Big 33. That was my family vacation when I was a kid, we went to Hershey for the Big 33.”
For all he accomplished in his coaching career, Raffin was never one to brag or make a big deal out of it.
When the field was named after him, Raffin put in simple terms what he had accomplished.
“We had a good time with what we did,” Raffin said on that day. “It was a career.”
It was a career at Wyalusing for Raffin.
It was a career that no one will ever forget.
Like Moyer at Canton and Young at Towanda, there will never be anyone who forgets the legacy of Raffin in Wyalusing.
It’s a legacy that helped put Wyalusing on the map.
“It’s similar to a Bill Sexton (at Towanda), you got just about any place and you say you are from Wyalusing and they know my father, or they know the wrestling program,” Karl Raffin said. “He did get a lot of recognition for the area, for sure.”
Generations from now people will see the words Ray Raffin Field, and they will remember all he accomplished during that career.
And, today, many miss Raffin and what he meant to so many.
“Coach Raffin is going to be missed,” Young said. “We are going to have those times to reflect and enjoy all the memories. There are definitely three legendary coaches up there right now and I definitely think they are together right now catching up.”
2016-12-22 / Letters to the Editor Wyalusing Rocket
Remembering a Great Man and Coach
Dear Editor:
This is a letter my son, Tyler Thompson, sent to his father, Frank Thompson, on the day Ray Raffin passed away. I am sharing it because it was a beautiful gesture, but more importantly, it’s a great perspective from a younger generation. Timeless. Shows how much Ray touched everyone. Think it’s worthy of being shared with all who knew Ray and the legacy he leaves to everyone.
“While many people knew him through football as Coach Raffin, I always referred to him as Mr. Raffin, like my father always did. From a young age, when I first started to venture out with friends, one saying always echoed before the door shut behind me, ‘remember who you are, where you are from, and who you represent.’
“Growing up, I heard countless stories of a fishing mastermind who would sample the emerging insects of a pond before catching a fish on every cast. I remember tale after tale of a football genius who would stubbornly call the same 32 dive four times in a row and call the legendary
Wyalusing fake at just the right time. Even after I graduated high school, I heard he would occasionally sit in the press box at home games and call the opponents next play like he had their playbook.
“These types of stories will go down into Wyalusing lore with many remembering him by his name on the football field, and as much as that is true, I will remember him as a man who shaped my life more than he will ever know. My father admired the man Ray Raffin was, and passed who he was on through his quotes and stories, as I think he, himself, tried to follow his life lessons.
“Although I am sure Ray would crack a joke, and humbly shrug off that remark, I feel it is important to recognize that who he was will live on. Who he was will endure past the players he coached, the students he taught, the children he fathered, and will be intergenerational with me being an example. So not only should we mourn the loss of a predominant community member, but also the loss of a role model that will influence generations of men he never knew.”
Stacy Thompson
Camptown
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