Two Harbors Coach Rick Ray Celebrated at Community Gathering on 66th Birthday

Rick Ray spent 44 years on the sidelines for Two Harbors girls basketball, and on March 14, the community made sure his last season ended with a proper send-off. A retirement celebration in his honor was held at Moose Lodge 1463 in Two Harbors, with the party running from 3 to 7 p.m. and open to all. The gathering doubled as a birthday party: Ray turned 66 that same weekend.

The North Shore Journal captured the scenes from that evening in a March 18 lifestyle piece titled "A Night Out in a Town That Shows Up," a title that said as much about Two Harbors as it did about its longtime coach.

When the invite for the retirement celebration posted on Facebook, the first comment was a playful "He's bluffing." It made sense: Ray had talked about retirement before. After he hit 40 years with the girls program, he said, "Preseason I told my family I thought this was it, but now that we're into it, I think my plan is to maybe go one more." This time, the decision stuck.

"It's hard to believe he's closing this chapter. He's been coaching my entire life," said Molly Frank, the eldest of Ray's three daughters. "For a few years it was always just one more year, so when he said back in January that it was time, I didn't really believe him."

Scott Ross, the current Athletic Director in Two Harbors and one of Ray's closest friends, felt the shift too. "He's threatened retirement before. I always tell him, you're not getting out," Ross said. "This time felt different. It felt he was serious, and that was sad. As the season went on, you could tell he's preparing himself for this being his last year. About halfway through the season, I came to the realization that he's not coming back." Ross and Ray, along with Julie Benson, coached girls basketball together for twelve years of Ray's forty-four-year career, which began with coaching the 7th and 8th grade boys team and a season with the 5th grade boys team.

Ray's coaching career almost ended in 1998, when his wife passed away from cancer. Frank, then a sophomore, remembers the conversations and the moment she talked him out of stepping away. Ray later recalled, "In my mind, I was going to give up coaching, and she told me she thought that was a mistake. I needed to stay in coaching because my kids were coming up."

"The basketball community became a source of strength during that time, helping him and my sisters and me navigate the loss of our mom. Together, through basketball, we found a way to heal and keep moving forward," Frank said.

Ross remembered the coaching staff's uncommon consistency: "We were kind of a rarity, the staff never changed. We were able to stay together all 12 years. I thoroughly enjoyed what the three of us did in those 12 years."

Forty-four years is a long time to belong to a program. The crowd that filled Moose Lodge 1463 on March 14 was proof that Two Harbors knew it.