As a student at Rye Neck High School, Thomas Pipolo admitted that he would sometimes glance at the names enshrined in the Panthers’ Athletic Hall of Fame and envision what an honor it would be included among them. On Saturday, Sept. 2, he will officially join those legends of yesteryear, as the three-sport standout—a 2014 graduate—will be inducted during halftime of the Panthers’ football game against Valhalla.
For Pipolo, the honor is a true thrill, even if it’s one he wasn’t expecting when he heard the news last spring.
“It wasn’t really something that was on my radar, I got a call, the number popped up as the Rye Neck School District, and it was [Athletic Director] Joe Ceglia letting me know I was going to be inducted,” said Pipolo. “So to have grown up seeing those names in the Hall of Fame like Ralph Vasami, or watching Michael Dearwester play, I wanted to be in the shelf one day and that’s pretty cool.”
It only takes one brief look at Pipolo’s resume to understand why he’s being inducted. In his senior year, Pipolo served as the on-field leader for three historic Panther teams, quarterbacking the football team to its first-ever Section I title in the fall, handling point guard duties for a basketball team that reached the Class B semifinals at the Westchester County Center, and serving as the catcher on a Rye Neck baseball team that also won a Section I crown.
To that end, Pipolo credits the contributions of the teammates that helped him usher in a golden year of Rye Neck athletics.
“ wouldn’t be getting this honor if it wasn’t for them, we really had a special group of athletes and men in general,” said Pipolo. “We always knew—in a non-cocky way—that we were going to be special, we just had to stick together and do things as a team.”
Throughout their time as Panthers, added Pipolo, he and his teammates began to embrace the small-town feel that made Rye Neck a unique place to grow up. Recently, Pipolo was reminded of the tremendous support the athletic teams received from the community when he watched videos of the town’s denizens filling Molly Spillane’s to celebrate the football team’s berth to the state championship game at the Syracuse Carrier Dome in 2013.
“I used to think about if my experience would have been better if the school was bigger, playing under the lights and all that, but honestly I wouldn’t trade the experience I had at Rye Neck for anything,” he said. “Because of that that tight-knit community, people rally behind you and to see what we did in terms of bringing some excitement back, that’s really special.”
As he prepares to take the field for his induction on Saturday, Pipolo said he’s looking forward to sharing the moment with the friends, family and coaches that made his journey a memorable one.
“It’s definitely going to be special and I’m super-excited for it,” he said. “I’m not always the most comfortable when people give me honors or anything, so it may be a little awkward but it will definitely be fun.”
