Brewer Takes Lemons and Makes Lemonade

Ron Bailey, Publisher

Ray Brewer, this winter on break from the Patterson School(

May 25, 2006 – When last reached (click here for i95Ballerz.com article), Ray Brewer was rehabilitating his knee, finishing up prep school, and preparing to attend Manhattan College next year. He’s still putting in rehab work and handling his academic business, but things have changed – not because of his actions – on the school front.

“I was really looking forward to going to Manhattan” revealed Brewer, but due to that school’s previous head coach, Bobby Gonzalez’s acceptance of a similar position at Seton Hall, Ray has been forced to open up his recruitment. Despite viewing Gonzalez’s choice “as a business decision”, the move “was a little disappointing, definitely after the run he made” at the Bronx, New York-based institution. All in all, Brewer shared “I was really looking forward to going to Manhattan”.

After learning about the move from sources other than Gonzalez himself, Ray received some valuable and helpful advice from his family. “My parents told me to worry about the things I can control” he said. “The grace of God put me in the situation that I’m in right now”.

That enviable position includes mulling offers from Rhode Island and Providence, both schools that are in larger conferences than Manhattan. He shared via telephone “I will visit Rhode Island in the next month or so”, and recently completed a conversation with members of Providence’s staff, who will inform him of when a visit can be arranged. After his campus trips are completed, Ray plans on making his decision.

His former coach, Glenn Farello, was understandably happy for Brewer. This long time Prince Georges County hoops coach at Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, MD, feels “Both programs are excellent situations” and believes Brewer will be successful wherever he decides to attend.

To ensure that success, Brewer is feverishly working to rebound from his injury. “It’s going wonderful” Ray said of his rehab effort. “I’ve been working out, getting strength back in my leg, and putting up a lot of shots”. Many of these sessions have occurred with Toby Stevens, a personal trainer Brewer first me during his senior year at Roosevelt.

Later on this summer, Ray plans to work out with a member of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers – Flip Murray. Through an assistant coach at Bladensburg High School, Brewer hopes to travel to Cleveland, where Murray has invited him to work out with himself and other professional players.

Ray has demonstrated an ability to turn setbacks into positives, taking challenges presented by academics, injury, and coaching changes, and utilizing them to improve. In the end he ends up in a better situation than before the hardship. That’s something all people, young and old, can learn from.