If it is true that JOE JAMES passed away, then that truly saddens me !! He might be the greatest basketball player to ever come out of THE RAYEN SCHOOL ! He was also an outstanding young man....I believe he was Class President of the 1979 Rayen Senior Class ! In my senior year {1976 }...JOE would have started for us as a Freshman, but at that time the YOUNGSTOWN CITY SCHOOL system had a ridiculous and silly rule that freshmen could not play at the Varsity level ! Unbelievably , RAYEN won 10 consecutive district titles from 1977 to 1986 under Coach Frank Czegledy........4 of those years they made it to the State tournament in Columbus and won the State Championship in 1985.....In 1982 ,they lost in the finals to a DAYTON ROTH team ,that was led by KEITH BYARS,who would later star in football at OHIO STATE and then in the NFL.........Besides losing to CLEVELAND CATHEDRAL LATIN twice in the Regional Finals in 1978 and then 1979[ both games played at CANTON CIVIC AUDITORIUM -- not the FIELDHOUSE ]they also lost to AKRON SOUTH in1977 and AKRON ST.VINCENT ST.MARY in 1983 and again in 1984 in REGIONAL play ........DAVID MASON-GREG JONES-ADAM POWELL-MARK McLENDON-TERRY TAYLOR -FLOYD SHOWERS-and MIKE LYLE were standouts on those great RAYEN TIGER teams in that era.
