Michael Ray into his 15th season of coaching the Engineers'
rifle program.
The program has been on the rise since he began coaching in late
1994. The team's average scores during his reign have steadily
increased and are now the highest in school history. Ray was the
main driving force in getting the new
10-point range built on-campus for the 1998-99 season.
The hard work by Ray and the team have paid off, resulting in all
school records being broken and Top 20 finishes in the NCAA Rifle
Final Poll in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004. Ray was named Coach of
the Year by the Western Intercollegiate Rifle Conference in 1996 and
1999.
The school also earned its first NRA All-American in 2004.
In 2005, the scholl earned its first Academic All-Americans in
rifle, when both Dan Cloutier and Jennifer Lowe took first-team
honors. He is serving on the NCAA Rifle Committee through September,
2006. For the 2005-06 season, he turned over the head coach
position to Jason LaBella, the school's first NRA All-American, so
he could spend more time with his family.
Ray's shooting career began at Rose-Hulman, where he won the
Outstanding Freshman Shooter award his first year and the Most
Valuable Shooter in his remaining years.
Ray is a 1993 graduate of Rose-Hulman in electrical engineering.
Michael and his wife, Merrie, have a fifteen-year-old son, Stephan,
and a eight-year-old son, Sydney.
