{"id":8036,"date":"2024-08-17T17:21:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-17T21:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flyers-cup-history.org\/?page_id=8036"},"modified":"2025-05-25T14:00:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:00:55","slug":"ed-ritti-the-coach-who-put-the-radnor-red-raiders-into-the-flyers-cup-history-books","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/flyers-cup-history.org\/?page_id=8036","title":{"rendered":"Ed Ritti: The coach who put the Radnor Red Raiders into the Flyers Cup history books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This chronicle is a biographical construct from various archived personal newspaper interviews, and personal accounts from Ed Ritti’s career as head coach of the Radnor Red Raiders Ice Hockey Team. <\/span><\/span><\/i><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Ross Porubski<\/a><\/i><\/strong>
Youth Hockey Info
<\/i><\/span>8\/17\/2024<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a kid growing up in the West Chester area, Ed played club hockey for the Quakers in the original Westtown rink. When that closed, he moved on to play for the Valley Forge Colonials. Ritti recalls, “Somehow I played on O’Hara\u2019s JV team as an 8th-grade student.” Ice hockey was his primary sport, however, he also played soccer and lacrosse and swam in his youth. Ed played a few years of golf in high school, but hockey was always his main focus, either on the rink, pond, or in a cul-de-sac playing street hockey and watching the Flyers. In high school, he played his freshmen year at Malvern Prep on the JV team, before transferring to Bishop Shannan. At the time, Shanhan did not have a hockey team in his sophomore year. However, he, along with others interested in playing under the school name convinced the board to permit them to start a club team. Ed’s father, Ed Ritti Jr, who founded Malvern\u2019s hockey program while a teacher at the school in the early 70s, was instrumental in starting Shanahan\u2019s program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ritti held the scoring record at Shanahan for some time. However, he’s sure that fell, there have since been much better players than he who went through the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed began coaching after returning from Florida in 1994. He saw an advertisement in the daily local, (West Chester area) newspaper which was in search of an assistant to the new head coach at Bishop Shanahan, Mike Gross. “He was also foolish enough to let me coach the JV,” said Ritti. This led to other opportunities and growth in the coaching ranks, including with the Quakers, and middle school teams for Henderson and Shanahan. He was also involved with coaching the Bike-Line “Select 85’s” team in the summers and Jr flyers 85\/86 birth year from 1996 through 2001. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ritti began coaching Radnor in 1999… Between high school hockey and club hockey, he coached from 1994-2005. When Ed’s oldest son, Owen, was born, he stepped away from behind the bench as coaching high school hockey encompassed an incredible amount of his time and dedication. “I tip my cap to all those coaches that continue to do it and their spouses for supporting them,” said Ritti.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My philosophy behind the bench was to ensure that every player gave their top effort. We always played as a team and supported one another. Ultimately, hockey is a game where you develop relationships that last a lifetime. My greatest friends are still teammates from 35 years ago and it\u2019s not because we won or lost games. It\u2019s because we had each others\u2019 backs. Whether we were playing big games or knee hockey in some random hotel. We had so many great players come through the program. John Brennan<\/a> and Chris Brennan<\/a> won Player of the Year honors. But we had an incredibly deep team. Eddie Devine<\/a>, Nick Ryder, Austin Cohen, Rob Looloian, Bart Bitterman, Greg Gallagher, Brad Dowlin, Eric Johnson, Colby Cohen, Neil Callaghan, Rico DiStefano, I could keep going on and on. The players held each other accountable and performed for one another. Without the players, it doesn\u2019t matter how good the coaching is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believed to get the most out of our team, our focus as a coaching staff was a consistent improvement in practice. Every practice we wanted to get a little better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practice was the most competitive and demanding aspect of Radnor’s playing. They kept their yearly game schedule to a minimum. They only played league games and maximized their practice time. Normally they would have 1 game and 2 or 3 practices a week. In practice, they would focus on skills for 15 minutes then everything was high speed and small games. Very little systems work was implemented outside of power play zone entry and shorthanded neutral zone traps. Ritti wanted the players to flow with their natural talent and put them in a position to do so. Ed said he was so lucky to be surrounded by genuine people who cared about the kids, the program, and the game. The coaching staff at Radnor: his father Ed Ritti Jr, Dave Wood, Doug McGinley, the Radnor hockey board especially Pat Kurz, John Brennan<\/a>, and Tom Dowlin. There were no egos or special interests. They all moved in the same direction for a single goal. Ed cannot forget Sam Miller. He started Radnor hockey and was incredibly supportive of the team. The most successful part of the era is the relationships that he developed with the coaches and players. Ed still touches base with many of them and wishes he could hear from them more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Ritti’s coaching track record for the Red Raiders<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n