{"id":5058,"date":"2018-11-26T12:24:15","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T17:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=5058"},"modified":"2018-11-26T12:24:15","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T17:24:15","slug":"coach-bray-reflects-on-thirty-two-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/?p=5058","title":{"rendered":"Coach Bray Reflects on Thirty-Two Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kelly O’Leary ’19
\nEE<\/em> Contributor<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Clifford Bray, better known as Buddy Bray, has been at Trumbull High School for a total of 36 years between being a student and physical education teacher, but most importantly, a coach. \u00a0Coach Bray has been coaching numerous sports for 32 years, such as baseball, track, volleyball and basketball. Basketball has always been at the top of Coach Bray\u2019s list, but after the many seasons of hard work and dedication, \u00a0Coach Bray said it\u2019s definitely time to start winding down. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t remember the last time I sat down on Christmas with my family and thought to myself \u2018Oh, I\u2019m having a great time,\u2019 because I was always thinking about the next practice or big game.\u201d said Coach Bray. He would spend not only his holidays watching film or answering emails, but any additional free time he had as well. Coaching was a full time job and for 32 years, it took a lot of time and effort. Bray said it\u2019s time to start being with his family more, especially his wife whom he referred to as \u201can angel\u201d after all of the support she\u2019s given him since they began dating in high school. <\/span><\/p>\n

For many high school coaches, the goal is to always coach at the next level. Coach Bray was offered an opportunity by Joe DeSantis- a phenomenal basketball player who set records at Fairfield University- to coach alongside him at Quinnipiac University. \u00a0\u201cThe timing was tough\u201d said Bray. \u201cI had to make the smart decision to stay [in Trumbull] because I had just bought a house and had a new born child at home. That was my opportunity to really be in the middle of all the division one excitement, but I have no regrets.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Bray has lived in Trumbull most of his life, graduated here, taught, coached and built relationships here, and through it all he said Trumbull High has been more than great to him. He\u2019s had the honor of working with so many talented and wonderful people such as Mr. McCarthy and Coach Monteli, also the athletic directors, Mike Herbst and Mike King, along with many more important names. Bray gave the most credit to Coach McDougal, referring to him as a \u201clegend\u201d and a \u201cmentor.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Matthew Landin, Assistant Coach to Bray for the last 13 years, said: \u201cMy favorite part about coaching with Bray is the Bray-isms. What I mean by that is all his goofy sayings that have stuck with his players and staff for years. Also just the comradery, he\u2019s a wonderful guy and a great friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Trumbull High basketball player, JJ Pfohl (who graduated in 2017), had a strong relationship with his coach. \u201cCoach Bray has taught me a lot of things throughout my time at THS. He was one of the reasons why I chose to play basketball in college”, <\/span>said Pfohl.<\/span>\u00a0\u201cHe is a great coach and an even better person.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Bray has left his mark on the Trumbull High community and many people in it. He is one of the most kind hearted people you will ever meet and just wants to make a difference in his students and players lives, and it is pretty evident that he has. When the day comes for Coach Bray to leave, it\u2019ll definitely be a sad one. Coach Bray said, \u201cWhen my players come back and visit me, being able to see their success and know that I played a part in it, is the most rewarding part of coaching. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelly O’Leary ’19 EE Contributor Clifford Bray, better known as Buddy Bray, has been at Trumbull High School for a total of 36 years between being a student and physical education teacher,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5058"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5063,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5058\/revisions\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thseagleseye.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}