RAY EAGER TO MAKE RETURN

Film work has a little more meaning for Bearcat senior Rylen Ray this week.

That’s because Ray will be playing for the first time since week seven when the Bearcats take the field against Osceola.

Ray suffered a broken his fibula bone in his leg in the third quarter against Mansfield and has not played since.

The injury was actually friendly fire.

“I locked up on the linebacker and the tackle came in an (pan)caked somebody into my leg,” Ray described the play that sidelined him.

After the game Ray said he could put weight on it but even after a break diagnosis, a course of return was plotted.

“I had to work on it every day. Work on strength. Getting those tendons back loose and that bone back together,” said Ray.

“Rylen has been a tremendous leader for us and is a tremendous football player,” said head coach Doc Crowley. “He has battled through some tough luck with some injuries but has managed to keep a great attitude and work extremely hard to get back on the field.

“He is up here every day after practice with TP (Teresa Prewett) rehabbing his ankle and doing everything he can to be back in a Bearcat uniform.”

Typically a two-way player Ray expects to see action on only one side of the ball this week. As of Monday he was not sure whether that would be offense or defense.

“They just want me to ease back into it,” Ray said.

Either way the Bearcats will no doubt be more formidable.

On offense Ray was second in both rushing yards with 568 and rushing touchdowns with seven when he went down. He is still second in both statistics.

“I know I’m not going to break one, I’ll have a brace on one side and a cast on the other so I’ll only get 10 at a time. But that would open it up more for Dax (Goff).”

Given Goff has already rushed for 1,886 yards that could make the offense even more deadly.

On defense Ray is still tied for the most solo sacks with two.

The Bearcat defense has surrendered just over a combined 300 yards in the air the last two weeks, but both Drew Central and Lavaca were held to negative yardage on the ground.

A sideline view of a game is not totally foreign to Ray – as Crowley alluded to, he tore an ACL in the season opener last year and was out the rest of the year – but it is one he does not care to have.

But, while on the sideline Ray has helped with those replacing him and, of course, rehabilitated the injury with Prewett to gain a medical release to play again.

The release happened last week, but came with a stipulation of a future date of Monday of this week.

Ray was okay with that.

“They didn’t need me last Friday,” Ray said of the 56-14 win over Drew Central.

For now, Ray is the end of a bloodline of a great-uncle, grandfather, father, and brothers that has produced six 1,000-yard rushers and an uncle and brother with state title rings, something he says he wants as well.

It is that history – “coattails” Ray said – that was cited by at least one opponent who mistakenly thought the youngest of the group was somehow the least of the Ray family.

“I would argue that he would have finished his career in the top four or five in career rushing had he stayed healthy,” said Crowley. “He fears nothing. He’s the type of kid that if you tell him ‘I need you to get in a ring with Mike Tyson for 10 rounds,’ he would jump in there without hesitation. He plays with that mentality.”

However there were times in his playing days, which began 10 years ago, thought has been given to moving him to the offensive line. Some of those thoughts were quiet recent.

“Back when I was about 250, but I cut 30 pounds,” Ray said. “I was tired of seeing myself that big and just getting off ACL surgery I had to lose some weight or risk tearing it again.”

“He’s a great kid, one of my favorite kids I’ve ever been around but when he steps on the field, he flips a switch and plays very angry,” said Crowley.

Ray is not sure if the current injury will require surgery.

“It depends on how it looks after the season,” he said.

The last surgery removed any thought of Ray playing basketball again and wiped out most of his junior season of baseball.

As is the plan with this injury, he was eased back into baseball, initially being used as a DH before taking over third base.

He had been an all state catcher but Ray says he does not expect to catch again.

Like many seniors Ray has a lighter course load that had included Freshman Comp I but “I’m not an online type of dude,” he injects, so that meant attending senior English in person.

As for the future Ray is in his second year of trade school to be a plumber by taking night classes on Mondays and Tuesdays to be an apprentice for Mayo Plumbing.

Ray said he had been working at S&W Homecenter – one of our Bearcat app and website sponsors – when Daniel Mayo approached him and because he would much rather be outside, he jumped at the opportunity.

Ray is the son of Allen and Cherrill Ray and Carrie and Evan McNutt.