I met Larry Ray on a personal level many years ago when fate and the love of softball brought his daughter Bree and my daughter Brittney together as part of the Desert Thunder organization when the well-known club was in it’s infancy stages. The two would go on to win state championships playing softball for Canyon del Oro as slap hitters.
News started to slowly spread Wednesday that Larry had passed away the night before but the rumors became a sad reality when his son Taylor confirmed what we all had hoped was some sort of mistake. Taylor is in the process of contacting former softball players as he is putting together a memorial for his father.
A great athlete as a young man in high school and in college, Larry coached high school in Boulder City where he led his program to multiple state championships before becoming an assistant under Mike Candrea from 1986-1995. Ray is considered the “father’ of slap hitting and it was his expertise with the speed of left handed hitters that helped the Wildcats win championships in 1991, 1993 and 1994…