Ray joined the Adanacs last summer in a trade with Langley and fit in very well with the rest of a very intimidating defensive corps that brought the team to within an inch of beating Victoria in last year’s playoffs. Most of those players return this year, bolstered by stalwart additions such as Devan Wray and Rich Catton as the foundation of the drive for the Mann Cup. Ray has a certain, um, edge that appeals to his teammates and infuriates his opponents and is well known for his relentless checking.

He first played lacrosse in Delta at age 3 and played minor lacrosse in Delta and then in Surrey where he also played 2 years in Intermediate “A”. A defensive and transition specialist with good stick skills, Ray played four Junior “A” seasons in Surrey, scoring 49 goals and 51 assists for 100 points and 367 PiM in 74 games.

He was taken 8th overall by Burnaby in the WLA draft and played a year and a half for the Lakers, one season for the Okanagan Thunder, two for the North Shore and one in Langley, sitting out 1999, 2001 and 2005. His WLA stats at the start of this season included 18 goals and 43 assists for 61 points and 290 PiM in 102 games.

Ray played Junior hockey (left wing) for 4 years in Swift Current, SK and Nanaimo, BC followed by 5 years of collegiate hockey at Lethbridge where he completed a BA in Sociology and a year of pro hockey at Rockford, IL. He prefers lacrosse because of the social rewards. He said, “I’ve never met a bad guy in lacrosse.”

In four seasons in the NLL in Buffalo, Minnesota and Portland he’s scored 2 goals and 9 assists for 11 points plus 135 loose balls and 128 PiM.

Ray is working in construction with is father while taking bridging courses to qualify for the teachers’ training programme at SFU.

He likes playing cards. He plays Texas Hold ‘em here, but he learned to play Euchre, the world’s best card game, during his year of hockey in Illinois where kids and ladies play Canasta and being invited to the Euchre table is a rite of passage for teenage boys. Ray said, “I played a lot of Canasta as a kid but my grandmother cheats like crazy.”

He also enjoys camping, movies (Shawshank Redemption is his favourite), reading novels and listening to music, especially Arron Boh. He does not dance. Ray and his girlfriend Natalie have been together for three years. He enjoys cooking pasta with his own homemade sauces.

The people most influential in his lacrosse career include Junior “A” coach Doug Clarke and the best all-around player in recent memory, former Adanac Andy Ogilvie.