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After nearly 35 years of teaching and coaching swimming and water polo at Fountain Valley High School in Fountain Valley, CA, Head Coach Ray Bray is hanging up his whistle, starter pistol, and life science text books for a well-deserved retirement.

Coach Bray's children, Andy, Michael, Mitchel, and Suzie, along with their respecitve friends and families are very pleased to host a celebration of Coach Bray's illustrious career.

2005 HB Lifeguard Reunion This Summer
The Huntington Beach Surf Lifesaving Association will play host to the 2005 HB Lifeguard Reunion this August 4th through 7th. The event celebrates the department's public service, and will showcase the departments new facilities.

For more information, visit the HBSLSA Website or the HB Lifeguard Forum.

A Message from Coach Bray

Dear Teammate:

Thank you for being such an important part of the baron aquatics program. It is you and all the other members of the team that has made the past 35 years of coaching so joyous, exciting, memorable and rewarding. I appreciate the commitment that you, your teammates and parents have made to make the Fountain Valley H.S. aquatic teams renowned not only in our league, but throughout all of southern California and the nation.

I ask that you continue to strive for excellence in everything you endeavor. Set your priorities on a sound moral foundation and let them be your guide in all that you do in athletics, school and life. As your coach, my priorities have been and continue to be: God, family and team. I hope that I have modeled these values in everything I have done as your coach, mentor and friend.

I am so proud of your accomplishments, both collectively and individually, in and out of the pool. Your commitment to the team and the work ethic that is and always will be 'Baron Pride' has not gone unnoticed. From slowest to fastest, everyone is important to true success and the feeling of pride we have for one another and that I have for you.

As your coach I have always believed and taught that success is achieved through 'loyalty', 'dedication' and 'hard work'. More than anything else, this is my legacy to you for everything you do in life.

Hold true to these concepts and you will be successful in all that you endeavor, be it athletics, academics, marriage, family or career.

I believe in you!!!

We have great new coaches to look up to, i am proud to have them be the role models for the future. But remember, each and every one of you will also be a role model for someone, as an athlete, or a scholar, a future coach, or some day a parent. Someone someday will be watching you and will want to 'be what they see'. So always be the best you can be!!

Thank you for the love, respect and kindness you have given me and please know that you will have all of my love and respect forever.

     As always your coach,
     Ray Bray

Update - September 7, 2003

Thank you to everybody for helping to make Coach Bray's retirement celebration such a success. It was absolutely wonderful to see friend and family after so many years. Our celebration could not have been such a wonderful experience without your participation and kind words of appreciation and support for our father.

In the coming weeks and days we will be adding material and contents hilighting the events of the party. As always, we encourage those of you who have not already done so (or who wish to again) to sign in to our Guest Book for Coach Bray. Also, be sure to review the news articles and clippings that we've collected from Coach Bray's early swimming and lifeguarding days. And as promised at the party, those of you who wish to do so (and it may require a strong stomach) may review the travels, tribulations, and "diaries" of Mike's broken toe.

Once again, we offer our most sincere appreciation to all attendees and well-wishers from all over the country. A special thank you to our guest speakers, Dale Bowman, Tom DeLong, Dave Simcox, and Mike Ike who each regailed us all with heart-warming and halarious tales -- both true and "mostly true" -- from years gone by. And a most sincere thank you to our families and friends, without which the coordination and presentation of our celebration would not have been possible.

Sincerely,
Andy, Mike, Mitch and Suzie Bray

This site last modified 11:30PM, September 7, 2003