Life near Gap was lonely at times for Ray Stern. There weren’t many other kids around.
For a boy who loved sports, that meant having to improvise. He invented ways to play games all by himself.
Stern took a rubber ball and threw it against the barn. Or he tossed the ball into the air, hit it and chased it down.
“If I was lucky enough to have 2-3 balls,” he said, “I wouldn’t have to go get it every time.”
These were the humble beginnings of a two-sport standout at Pequea Valley and a legendary coach at Garden Spot.
Stern was an All-American soccer player at Elizabethtown College and coached soccer and baseball in New Holland for more than three decades.
Sports grabbed the attention of a career math teacher and became part of his world. Stern will be inducted into the Lancaster-Lebanon League Hall of Fame, along with Jeff Roth, Ruth Bicking and Norbie Danz, before the girls basketball championship game at Manheim Township Friday night.
Before he was a hard-nosed coach who loved to share a laugh with his players, he was the kid who never wanted to leave the field.
“I was really upset when the coach called practice,” Stern said. “I just wanted to keep playing.”
Good timing followed Stern throughout his playing days. He was part of two district winning soccer teams at Pequea Valley and three conference championship teams at E-town.
Stern was a midfielder on the pitch and an outfielder on the diamond. Once he put away his cleats, he became a fixture at the school that was once his biggest rival.
“He was a tough coach,” said Bob Scotten, who played for Stern and worked as his assistant. “You didn’t want to mess with Ray Stern. You toed the line. He demanded a lot of respect and he got it. Because he was good at what he did.”
A teaching job brought Stern to Garden Spot. It was an ironic place for him to end up. Pequea Valley and Garden Spot didn’t care much for each other in those days.
One time they had an alumni soccer game at Paradise Park, with about 2,000 spectators. Stern, already Garden Spot’s coach, suited up for PV. No matter which team he represented, he couldn’t win.
“When they announced the players,” he said with a laugh, “I got booed from both sides.”
Garden Spot became Stern’s home. He was the head soccer coach for 17 seasons after spending 13 as an assistant. He was the baseball coach for 31 seasons and won championships in four decades.
“Ray wanted to win as badly as anybody did,” said Ted Ansel, a pitcher for Garden Spot’s 1968 league championship team. “He never asked anything of one of his players that he wasn’t willing to do himself.”
All Stern wanted during his formative years was to become a teacher and a coach. He fulfilled both dreams in one place.
The teams he coached had a family element to them. They provided memories and connections that continue to this day.
“The best thing about coaching is the kids and the lessons you can teach for life,” Stern said. “The truth of the matter is most of the friends I associate with now, chances are I coached them. It’s a lasting thing.”
Garden Spot enjoyed some of its greatest athletic success on Stern’s watch. He guided the Spartans to back-to-back appearances in the PIAA soccer semifinals in 1984 and 1985.
School dismissed early and buses full of students traveled to those games and supported those teams. It became a community event.
“That was something special,” Scotten said. “That was inspiring back then. We’re out there warming up and we see bus after bus coming in with all of our fans.”
The final tally for Stern was 114 wins in soccer and 291 in baseball before retiring after the 1997 school year. He won seven section championships in baseball.
Stern said he considered himself lucky to be surrounded by such talented athletes. They considered themselves lucky to have Stern as their coach.
“He was the bumper on the bowling alley,” Ansel said. “He taught us what we needed to be an excellent teammate.”
Although he had a chance to return to Pequea Valley late in his coaching career, Stern remained at Garden Sport and the rivalry faded as the years passed.
Stern remains a link to glory days at both schools. Championships are not the primary reason he’ll be remembered.
“If there was one legacy, it’d be how many lifelong friends and acquaintances he had,” Scotten said, “from all the coaching he did.”
Ansel summed up his feelings for his former coach and longtime friend in one sentence.
“My life is better,” he said, “with Ray Stern in it.”
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