A Pint with Steve Raia: Ninja. Bull wrestler. Warrior. Lion.

Since coming to the Village Lions as a wee lad in the fall of 1999, Stevie Raia has inspired his teammates with his refuse-to-lose focus and unparalleled physical play. The Staten Island product played a critical role in the Lions’ Northeast D-2 title this past fall from the back of the scrum; perhaps no play better sums up Raia’s drive than when he carried five Middlesex defenders over the line for a try to pace the Lions to the championship.

Perhaps more than any Lion, Steve Raia has, as the saying goes, left it all on the pitch. Still feeling the bruises of the rigorous fall campaign, Stevie shares a pint and a few thoughts on life with the Lions—and life after rugby–with Malone at The Dubliner in lower Manhattan.

A PINT WITH: It’s mid-September 2011, 1 p.m. Where is Steve Raia?

STEVE RAIA: More than likely, I’ll be on the sidelines, cheering on the new Lions and a bunch of the Lions I played with. I’m looking forward to seeing the Lions compete in Division I.

APW: So not playing.

SR: Not playing. I made a decision when I was healthy, or relatively healthy, going into this past fall season that this would be it. I was a bit banged up but we had a new coach coming on, and I felt I owed it to myself to play for a coach of [Expo’s] caliber. It’s something I would’ve regretted not doing.

APW: Would anything that happens this spring affect your decision for fall, or is it a done deal?

Raia: It’s pretty much a done deal. It’s not due to anything outside of physical limitations at this point. I played this fall with a shoulder that needs surgery, and I have a history of not changing the way I play because of injury. Towards the end of the year everything was banged up. My body has been through a bunch. So it was more the necessity to hang them up.

I remember speaking with Mule [Dr. Francis Camillo] when I first started playing with him, and he had money down that I wouldn’t play past the age of 30, the way I played. So I beat him by three years! Not sure if I should’ve been playing the last three years, but I’ve proved him wrong.

APW: Give me a rundown of your injuries over the years.

Raia: Third-degree sprains of both ankles’ ligaments. Tore the MCL, third-degree sprain of the MCL in my right knee, torn labrum that required surgery in my right shoulder, blew out my ACL, MCL, meniscus in my left knee. I’ve broken my nose 7-8 times, but that’s not major. Broken fingers, bruised ribs, pulled hamstrings. Hairline fracture in my right leg that I found out about after the match in the Division III championships in Syracuse [2002], when I was stomped purposely in the beginning of the Albany game. But the major major ones are my shoulder, my knee. The ankles are bad but they heal.

APW: Are you in any degree of discomfort today?

Raia: I’m still feeling it from the end of the year. I did something to my wrist that I’m trying to get healthy for the spring, and my shoulder needed surgery before the season began, and it didn’t heal miraculously during the rigors of a championship season. So I went to Fusion on a weekly basis to get ready to play. I’m trying to get in the best shape I can so I can represent the Lions proudly in the Nationals.

APW: What was the difference between 2009’s 2 and 5 record and this past fall’s monster season?

Raia: It’s never just one thing when you have a turnaround like that. It was reminiscent of when we won Division 3–certain things just all come together at the right time. You need to get a breath of fresh air, and we had Coach Expo come in–the Philippines national coach, and he worked with the Waratahs down in Australia. He was an outside face. I helped coach the team in the spring, and we had some in-house coaching going on, and they did a really god job. But sometimes it’s good to have a fresh look at the personnel.

When he came on we adapted a different style of rugby, which is more of a southern hemisphere style. Up in the north, the ten-plus years I’ve been in the club, the majority of the teams we play, play a northern hemisphere, European, pack-heavy, bosh-it-up kind of rugby, whereas we played a more open style.

It’s imperative because the Lions over the years have never been a big club. We’ve always had skillful players but never had the biggest people in the world. So the style of rugby Expo brought to our team, I think it melded perfectly.

The sign of a good coach is to adapt to the personnel, and he also incorporated a style of rugby suited to a very fit team. We were all tough; we just weren’t bigger. But we got around the park well. It was a very precise way of playing the game–the utilization of all 15 players, everyone had a role, everyone knew their role. You hear it all the time: everyone has a role to play on the team, but it was really evident that if I did my role, my rucking on one play, my making the gain line, which may seem insignificant in terms of making two or three feet, but it sets up the fourth play of that phase, which is all choreographed, and play for the try in the corner.

You really felt like you were doing something on the field, even if it wasn’t touching the ball down between the posts.

APW: You came up in sort of the dark days of the Lions in ’99, in terms of on-field performance. Did that make it that much sweeter to win the D2 title?

Raia: I remember when I first came to the team. I’d been playing a little bit and was being recruited by some of the D1 teams. I became friends with Clay [Luraschi] and we decided we liked the guys we were playing with here. Even though our record didn’t reflect it, we had a fair amount of talent. It was just that we weren’t putting it together in the right way. Sometimes our focus was off or we weren’t playing as a team.

But we made the decision we were going to get the team back to D1. It took eleven years or so, but to get us back to that point, it was a serious goal of mine and Clay’s. Unfortunately Clay has had concussions and wasn’t able to play any longer, but he was there with us as a coach, so we both had a role in getting this club back to D1.

It’s definitely a sweet feeling. There was no way I wasn’t going to play that last game, even though I had physical limitations. It was a goal of mine and I was definitely happy that I came back to play this year to achieve it.

APW: You seem to be almost in a trance when you’re in a match. What do you do to get in that state—is it like method acting?

Raia: Off the field I’m totally not that person. I’ve always been competitive, and stepping on the field, it’s like, alright, we’re removing ourselves from the real world, so to speak, and now our world is as large as the pitch, and no one is going to be better than me on this pitch for 80 minutes—especially not someone on the other team. Or someone wants to take what I have, or wants to beat me in any way shape or form.

I think it’s the best part of the sport: for those 80 minutes, all you have is 14 other guys in the field with you, and their best 15, and no one has the security of equipment. There’s nothing else. Humans and a rugby ball–a lot of the game is, who wants it more.

I’ve played against people who are better than me skill-wise, but on that day, and I was told this by Mike Donnelly when I first started, I’ve not been outplayed by my opposite. I’ve played against players who were better rugby players than me, but for that 80 minutes, they weren’t.

It’s a matter of pride. It sounds archaic, but it’s about being a man. Like Carl Trezza says, you’re not going to push me around on my home pitch. That’s the attitude everyone needs to have. Never accept anything.

Part of the issue with the Lions in the past was that some guys accepted that someone was better than them before we even kicked the ball off. I don’t care if on paper you’re better than me, or you’re undefeated–let’s see what happens. It happened in the championship game. I ran up to the biggest guy on their team and he didn’t knock me backwards. And that kind of says to everyone, what are they gonna do now? The biggest guy can’t knock me backwards. What are the other guys gonna do?

I’m just a different person when I play, and I know people feed off me. It’s pressure I welcome, because I know if I play the way I’m capable of, other people are going to get their light switch flipped if they don’t do it naturally. Every team has players like that–he’s getting it done, so what am I doing watching?

APW: What’s kept you suiting up for the Lions all these years?

Raia: It’s a two-part answer. One is the sport in general. I love the sport. I really do love everything about rugby. It’s the greatest team sport out there. I played a bunch–ice hockey, baseball. I really do think it’s the best.

And I had a natural aptitude for it, the aggressiveness, and it’s hard to give up something you’re good at. Even though you may be banged up, you can help your team. If you know you can help them win, you’re going to do everything in your power to do it.

The second part is, the reason why I didn’t leave the Lions when opportunity presented itself to play Super League or Division 1–the guys you suit up with and play with and practice with, they’re the reason why you play the sport. We’re not professional players, we don’t get paid to do this. We do it because we love the sport, and you have to love the people you play with.

It’s still one of the most unique things about the Lions–they are a really good bunch of people, people that you don’t mind sacrificing yourself for, and I think that’s very important.

One of the hesitations during the lean years was, we won’t want to lose who we are as a people. We’re not very cliquish–players compete for starting jobs on the field but have a pint together off the field.

Some of the best friends in my life are on this team. At that point there’s no reason to play for anyone else. The satisfaction of getting a D3 victory during a .500 year with the people you really really enjoy spending time with is so much more gratifying than winning a big game on a D1 team with people you don’t even talk to afterwards.

And the past few years, there would be someone that joined the club, such as Austin [Enright], and I was like, damn, I need to play with him. That’s my biggest worry about being retired–that some guy’s gonna join the team next year and I’m gonna get the inkling to play at least one game with him. But I think I’m pretty established in my decision.

APW: I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t mention a certain 35-and-over team called the Lion Kings that’s always looking for new blood…
Raia: I think that when I do hang them up, it’s not to go play for the Lion Kings. I can still play at a high enough level to win D2 with this club, and I’m definitely confident I could play D1. It’s more about allowing the body to heal. If I’m going to have shoulder surgery, it’s not to come back and play with the Lion Kings, unfortunately. Maybe down the line, it’s a possibility.

APW: Will you pick up a new hobby, like collecting butterflies, to fill the time?
Raia: With the Lions, sometimes you forget the rest of your life a bit. I think I’ll take some time off and try to get fit. I think I’ll go to home games when I can make them. I had my hand in coaching last spring; I’m definitely willing to help out some of the younger players on a more sporadic basis. I think a veteran player should help coach the younger guys coming up.

That was a major difference this year, we had younger players join the club who were good rugby players already. This year we had someone like Dan Diaz starting on the A side right out of college; he’d played down in Australia a little bit, which was great. Paul Kenline came down from Syracuse and was the starting fullback. They both started young, and that bodes well for the future of this club. I think that we’ll attract more high level talent recruits, and we’ve proven that the Lions will remain the Lions socially, even with the success.

APW: How was the spirit of the club this season?
Raia: It was great! It was really good. At times in training the A side got separated from the B side. Clay and Red would work with the B side players and I think that was by Expo’s design to develop Red and Clay as coaches, to put them on their own. It made the players bond with each other.

Having a guy like Paull Young as a leader on the B side really brought them together too. When you look at the success of the club, the A side won the division and the Northeast D2. But equally impressive, the B side went undefeated. If guys weren’t selected for the playoff roster, they were there supporting us. We definitely had a good bond on and off the pitch.

Back in the Fiddlesticks days everyone would go to the bar afterwards. This year, everyone went to Van Diemen’s. There were some years in between when people would go home and shower first and then show up after the other team had left. Everyone’s a grown man, they can do what they want. But when everyone goes straight to the bar and has a pint together after the match, it shows this is a team on and off the field.

STEVE RAIA QUICK HITS

Post-Match Beverage: Anything cold after a win.

Most Valuable Teammates: To put it simply, anyone who put(s) on the colors of the Lions with me and placed the team before themselves.  We all have our roles, some more apparent than others, but without us all working together the team falls apart.

Tries in a Lions Jersey: Ha, who’s counting? Let’s just say I have scored more tries than years I am alive.

Favorite Wu Tang Clan Member:  Would have to say Ghostface Killah because “he’s on some now you see me, now you don’t sh*t” and I am a ninja…

Best Lions Memory: Impossible question to answer as over ten years on the pitch and off the pitch with the Lions have created countless memories that I will keep with me for a long time.  How about the best Lions feeling?  It is that feeling of utter exhaustion with joy after a victory where you know you and your mates had to put yourselves on the line.  Questions were asked of you, and everyone answered.

Most recently, that little match we played at the end of the fall for the Northeast Championship comes to mind.

Previous "A Pint with" interviews:

• Renee Ovrut - March 24, 2009
• Francis Laros - March 24, 2009