Sparking success: Frazier grad Ciferno was key cog in Commodores, W&J turnarounds
Submitted photo
Frazier graduate Ray Ciferno Jr. is shown during his playing days at Washington & Jefferson College.
Submitted photo
Ray Ciferno Jr. is shown during his football playing days at Frazier where he earned All-Conference, All-County and All-WPIAL honors while also being named to the 蘑菇视频 All-District team and the Pittsburgh Press Western Pennsylvania Finest 44 team.
Ray Ciferno Jr. was a key cog in the turn around of two football programs, first at Frazier High School and then at Washington & Jefferson College.
Ciferno came from a solid athletic background and started playing sports early.
鈥淚 was around the game of football for quite a long period,鈥� Ciferno offered. 鈥淢y dad Ray Sr. was a coach at Belle Vernon, so I got exposed very, very early. I didn鈥檛 play football until I was 11 years old. I think he did a good job of trying to keep me out the younger age groups. Obviously I played a lot of baseball when I was a young boy. I started basketball early on. The short answer is yes I started in athletics at a young age.
鈥淚 think my father was very influential in some of the things that my sister and I did. He did it with good balance. He encouraged me to get engaged. He was of the mindset, and it turned out to be correct, that team sports build character and really add a lot of value in your journey through life.鈥�
Ciferno was on Frazier Commodore football squads that posted records of 6-4 in 1981 and 11-1 in 1982 when they beat Neshannock 17-3 in the WPIAL playoffs and then fell to Clairton 44-6. During Ciferno蘑菇视频 senior campaign Frazier went 11-2 advancing in the WPIAL playoffs, beating Monaca 7-6 and Riverview 41-16. The Commodores lost in the WPIAL Class A championship game to Western Beaver 29-16.
鈥淭he early 80s for Frazier football was a great period,鈥� Ciferno stated. 鈥淲hen Tom (鈥榃oody鈥�) Salisbury came in as head coach in the late 1970s there were a group of athletes coming through and there was a momentum that he tried to build. He was trying to build a program. Early 80s when I played, I played with a lot of very talented individuals. We did very well in my three years there. We didn鈥檛 make the playoffs the first year, but my junior and senior years we went pretty deep and unfortunately lost in the championship game my senior year, but it was a great run.
鈥淥ur senior year we jelled and part of the reason was our sophomore year I think we started 10 sophomores. We all grew up together. I look at the defensive side of the ball and the offensive side of the ball, this is where coach Salisbury made some decisions. They were coming off a playoff year the year before and he lost a large group of guys and had to rebuild and he put us in there and we grew up together and it culminated in a very nice run my senior year.鈥�
Ciferno put up some great numbers playing quarterback. He threw for over 4,500 yards in his career with 27 touchdown passes and 10 rushing TDs.
鈥淏ack in the day football was a little bit different,鈥� Ciferno said. 鈥淲e were probably one of the few teams that put it in the air, most people ran the football. We threw the ball 15 or 20 times a game which was a lot for that time. I did have some good players to throw to, like Joe Lafko and Mark Kovacs and some others. I credit the coaching staff for allowing us to do something a little bit different.鈥�
Ciferno grabbed some nice awards during his high school football career. He was All-conference, All-County, All-WPIAL, 蘑菇视频 All-District Team two years in a row and was named to Pittsburgh Press Western Pennsylvania Finest 44 his senior year.
鈥淚 think that as I enjoyed it during the moment,鈥� Ciferno said, 鈥渂ut as you reflect and look back there were quite a few accomplishments individually. I focused more on what we accomplished as a team. We built a program and we built a bit of a legacy back in the 80s.鈥�
The 5-foot-11, 165-pound Ciferno also played basketball at Frazier for the legendary Henry DiVirgilio. He was on teams that posted records of 11-12 in 1981-82, 14-9 in 1982-83 and 19-8 in 1983-84 when they went to the WPIAL playoffs and beat West Mifflin South 55-53 and then were downed by Washington 85-54. Ciferno tallied 20 points in 81-82, 15 points in 82-83 and had a solid senior season in 83-84 scoring 256 points.
鈥淚 enjoyed playing basketball,鈥� Ciferno stated. 鈥淚 was a role player and was able to shoot the ball a little bit and run up and down the court and play a little bit of defense. We had some fun.
鈥淏asketball gives you a different perspective and it compliments the attributes required to play football. Today from what I see, and I watched my kids go through athletics, everybody蘑菇视频 got a single sport focus. It benefits you to play more than one sport. It trains you to put yourself in different situations.鈥�
Ciferno graduated from Frazier in 1984.
鈥淚 was actually recruited by quite a few schools,鈥� Ciferno explained. 鈥淢ostly at the Division I-AA level and Division III. I decided to go to W&J because they were another building program, they weren鈥檛 solid back then. John Luckhardt had been there a year or two and I liked the environment. I could go to school and play some ball and get myself a good education.鈥�
Ciferno was at the right place at the right time. W&J recorded seasons of 8-1 in 1984, 8-1 in 1985, 8-1 in 1986 and during Ciferno蘑菇视频 senior season the Prexies finished with a 10-1 mark, beating John Carroll 24-3 in the playoffs before dropping a tough game to Emory & Henry 23-16.
鈥淲e had a lot of fun at W&J. None of us expected it when we got there,鈥� Ciferno recalled. 鈥淚 think there were 50 or 60 freshmen that came in. Not many of us made it through the entire program, but we did a heck of a job building a program there. I think we made the national playoffs three out of those four seasons. It was a lot of fun. W&J was great experience for me personally.鈥�
Ciferno was a jack of all trades at W&J. A four-year letter-winner he played quarterback, kick returner and holder for extra points and field goals before he started at flanker his senior year. He recorded 21 catches for two touchdowns and 347 yards and 16.5 yards average per catch. He was All-conference his senior year.
鈥淲e laid the foundation for the program,鈥� Ciferno said. 鈥淚t turned out to be something special. At W&J we were a football power for a good 20 years.鈥�
Ciferno, 57, resides in Chandler, Arizona, with his wife Jill. They have been married 30 years. They have four children: AJ 29, Nicholas 27, Jeffrey 24 and Jillian 22.
Starting out as a certified public accountant, Ciferno started working in Washington, D.C. for six years. He came back to Pittsburgh in 1993 for a year before heading to Arizona for the first time in 1994. He went to Arizona to work for Intel Corp. Ciferno is now working for ASM International, a semi-conductor equipment business located in Phoenix. Ciferno蘑菇视频 job has taken him to places such as Singapore, Japan, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands and England, to name a few.
Looking back, Ciferno credits his parents for his success.
鈥淚鈥檓 where I am today because of my parents,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey provided me with the drive and the support to do the things I鈥檝e been able to do.鈥�