Chris Lampart returns to his roots as Archbishop Ryan football coach
He replaced Frank McArdle, who was let go as Ryan’s coach after 10 seasons because the school wanted to go in a new direction.
Chris Lampart had a hard time sleeping the night of Feb. 3. Archbishop Ryan athletic director Joe Zeglinski had texted him earlier that day, saying the two needed to speak first thing the next morning.
When the two spoke on Feb. 4, Zeglinski hired Lampart as Ryan’s varsity football coach.
“I’m really happy to be home,” said Lampart, a 2000 Ryan graduate.
Lampart, 37, replaced Frank McArdle, who was let go as Ryan’s coach after 10 seasons because the school "wanted to go in a new direction,” Zeglinski said.
To win the job, Lampart did his homework. For his first interview, the former assistant coach at Archbishop Wood developed a 30-page proposal detailing practice plans, a weight-lifting program, and what he expects from players on the field and in the classroom. He expanded it to 50 pages for his second interview.
“Chris is back at Ryan with championship experience and a wealth of knowledge working under tremendous coaches," Zeglinski said in a statement. "His passion and enthusiasm will be contagious to the players, parents and alumni.”
Ryan finished 8-4, 2-3 in the Catholic League, in 2018 and Lampart is looking to build on that performance. The Raiders have not won a league title since 1993. They lost to Archbishop Wood, 24-17, in last year’s Catholic League Class 5A final.
“I want to get everybody involved,” Lampart said. “To be honest with you, that’s the only way you’re going to make an incredible program in Northeast Philly. You have to set yourself apart from everyone else. And hopefully in a couple years, that’s going to be the reason why people come to Archbishop Ryan, because of this program, what they’re going to be involved in, the family atmosphere. ... I hope we win enough games to validate it all.”
Lampart’s coaching journey started on his way to to a Penn State football game. A 2005 Penn State graduate, Lampart saw a billboard on the highway for sprint football at Mansfield University. Lampart worked for the Philadelphia Department of Recreation at the time. But he wanted to get into education. His plan was to play sprint football at Mansfield while pursuing his masters degree in special education there.
It turned out that Lampart was ineligible to play because it took him five years to finish school at Penn State. But Dan Davis, the sprint football coach for Mansfield at the time, still wanted Lampart to be a part of the program. So he gave the East Torresdale native his first shot at coaching a college program.
“Dan Davis, out of nowhere, was like, ‘Do you have any coaching experience?’ I said, ‘Yeah. I coached middle-school ball. I’ve coached a little bit,’” Lampart said. “He said, ‘Listen, I’m trying to get a coaching staff up here that’s really good. You seem like a guy that can fit that mold.’ So I really thought about it, and I made that decision [to coach].”
When Lampart returned home following his stint at Mansfield, he ran into Steve Devlin at Santucci’s Pizza in Northeast Philadelphia. Devlin had coached Lampart in baseball at Ryan.
After the two spoke and spent time studying film together, Devlin said he wanted to bring Lampart on as an assistant at Wood. Thanks to Devlin, Lampart spent the last four seasons coaching the Vikings’ offensive and defensive lines.
Lampart was part of two state championships as the Vikings won PIAA Class 5A state titles in 2016 and 2017. And once the job opened at Ryan, Lampart took Devlin’s advice.
“Steve just really put it into perspective,” Lampart said. “He said, ‘You’ve been coaching for 15 years. You’ve been coaching great teams, multiple teams that have done a lot of winning. You can make such an impact and help these kids in an impactful way.’ He said, ‘This is it. You can do it.’”