Published: May 06, 2008 02:47 pm            

Rio Vista senior reaches state meet

RIO VISTA — Preston Ray hasn’t had the easiest road to the state track and field meet.

Throughout his career, Ray has battled injuries that his coach Jeff Richters said have prevented him from cruising to a berth at state.

The senior triple jumper advanced to the regional meet as a freshman, but suffered leg injuries the past two years that kept him from making the next leap to Austin.

“I think it’s awesome,” Ray said of going to state. “I had to wait until my senior year to do it, but at least I get to go.”

Ray also played football and basketball for the Eagles, but an injury on the gridiron prevented him from participating in more than one track event.

The story behind Ray taking up the triple jump was not typical of how most athletes get their start in a sport.

“It was actually by accident,” he said. “Coach was working with some guys in the triple jump and I said, ‘Hey, let me do it.’ He said no and I did it anyway. He was like, ‘OK, you’re a triple jumper.’ It was pretty funny.

“We still laugh about it too.”

Richters chimed in, “Well, he does.”

Ray and Richters don’t have the typical coach-athlete relationship.

There’s a lot of joking around and ribbing each other until it’s time to get serious.

“Me and Preston stay checked out of reality most of the time,” Richters said. “We don’t touch the ground when we walk. We just kind of float around and have a good time. I tell him all the time that I couldn’t see running track if you’re not going to have a good time.”

Richters said Ray has always found a way to get the job done, though he often waits until the last minute to do it.

Ray qualified for regionals on his final attempt at the District 11-2A meet, and pulled off the same feat at regionals despite scratching on his first two attempts to advance to state.

His final attempt garnered Ray the regional championship.

“I think that’s the epitome of his career right there,” Richters said. “He’s a finisher and you don’t always get to coach kids that are finishers. It’s so easy to start something — the hardest thing in the world is to finish.”

Ray competed at the Texas Relays last month, so he knows what it feels like to step onto the track at Mike Myers Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin.

“A bunch of 5A schools beat me,” he said. “There’s nothing I can do about that.”

Ray finished eighth out of 24 leapers at the Texas Relays against several athletes from larger schools.

“I kind of block out the crowd,” Ray said. “I’ll listen to what coach Richters says because he always has something right in my ear before I jump.

“I’ll be thinking about that and just going over the steps,” he added. “If you think too much, you’ll mess up.”

Richters said he’s seen Ray improve over the two years they’ve worked together. He said Ray enters the state meet in sixth or seventh place.

But he fully believes Ray can earn a medal, simply because Richters has seen him overcome many obstacles.

“I can’t be any prouder of Preston,” Richters said. “These last two years for him the potential has been there. He never could tap it because of injury, after injury, after injury. After three injuries, he went past what he had to do. He had a goal. Since he was a little kid he wanted to compete at the state level in some sport.

“His last sport, on his last attempt, he got it.”

        

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