Wake Forest Athletics
Player Spotlight: Senior Tight End Ray Thomas
9/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 30, 2002
Canada: the breeding ground for some of hockey??s greatest stars Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr. But from the city of Hamilton, Ontario, comes one of Wake Forest??s senior leaders and one of two Canadian Deacons, tight end Ray Thomas.
Growing up, Thomas played street hockey with friends but admits that he, unlike most kids, never got into playing hockey. At the age of seven, Thomas had his eyes set on the gridiron. With his dad??s permission, Thomas began to play peewee football in Canada with friends.
Trying to find a football game to watch was no problem for Thomas in Hamilton. Not only was the city home to the Canadian Football League??s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but ??we get all the NFL games up in Canada,?? Thomas said, ??but also I watch a lot of CFL. You don??t get to see much of it here in North Carolina.??
Thomas played tight end and linebacker in high school for St. Thomas More.
??High school football in Canada is pretty big. Everybody plays high school football up there. The game is basically the same, except we have a bigger field. We still play with four downs and most of the American rules.??
But for Thomas, the recruiting process was different because of limited exposure.
??Not a lot of kids get a chance to get a full scholarship. We don??t get a lot of scouts to come up and see us. There??s not a lot of hype that goes on up there, and it was kind of difficult,?? Thomas said. ??I was the first person in my high school to get a scholarship to the States. They had these recruiting camps you??d go to, and college scouts would come there. There would be a bunch of these Canadian kids just beating up on each other with just their helmets on trying to get noticed.??
Former Wake Forest assistant coach Jamie Barresi, a Hamilton native, happened to be at that camp and liked what he saw in Thomas. Thomas accepted a scholarship to Wake Forest and showed up to North Carolina in January, rather than finishing up the standard 13 years of preparatory school in Canada, to get an early start.
??I was the only freshman that came in here. I was by myself,?? Thomas said. ??I was definitely nervous, coming from Canada to America where it is all football, and the ACC. I didn??t know if I was going to handle it, but once I put the pads on and started running around, it became football again. I was able to relax and settled in real fast.??
For Thomas, Wake Forest and Hamilton are night and day.
??In my town, you have to walk around with a bit of a chip on your shoulder, like you have something to prove, but here it??s just so much more laid back. I love it down here. I??m walking around on the Quad on my first day, and people are waving to me saying ??hi,?? and I??m looking up saying, ??do I know you??? It??s a nice change.??
On the football field, Thomas has been a leader.
??Everything??s awesome,?? says Wake Forest tight ends coach, Jeff Mullen. ??He??s a fifth year guy, he??s a leader, he??s experienced, and he doesn??t sweat when it gets tight. Ten of our last 11 games have been decided by a touchdown or less, so he??s used to that. He??s a great player, physical kid, one of our best players.??
The coaching change was tough on all the players, and Thomas was no exception. ??All of us that played under Coach [Jim] Caldwell, came here to play for Coach Caldwell,?? Thomas admits. ??After that season, when we got the news that Coach Caldwell was gone, we were left in limbo. We were scared, we didn??t know what was going to happen, and nobody really likes change, especially the older guys that were already in the starting positions.??
??Coach Grobe came in and he worked us. He challenged us to see how much we wanted to play football, and a few guys had to dig down deep and search themselves to see if football was the sport for them. After he pushed us, we got better.
??This coaching staff is the best coaching staff I??ve ever played for. They??re great, and they relate to you. Nobody prepares harder than those guys. They get us ready to play every game and in a position to win every game. I wouldn??t change that. I wish I had another five years with these guys.??
Thomas looks forward to playing in the NFL, but he knows that if he doesn??t make it, he will play in the CFL.
??There is no question he??ll get drafted in the Canadian Football League,?? said Mullen. ??He??s a Canadian citizen. He??s certainly good enough to play there. A lot of NFL scouts have looked at him. He??s a big target that can catch. He??s a big physical kid. He??s been injury-free and he??s durable, so no question he??ll get a look. We??ll see what happens.??
