16 Year Old HS Football Star killed after slamming into a pole

[MidnightSun327]

Please vote popular, the more people who read this, more people will learn from Jonny's mistake....Thank you


My heart has been sad this week. Although I did not know him, the reacton my brother has had to the death of his friend lets me know he was a good kid who made a bad choice on a rainy Saturday night. As I look at the pictures from Jonny Ray's funeral from my hometown paper, I am very proud, in a sad way, or my baby brother and how he has grown into a young man, how he has been there, as a rallying point, in a way, for his team mates. I could not imagine, at 16, having to carry your close fried's coffin, or having to hand his parents a football signed by the team.
Please, mommas, learn from Jonny Ray's accident. When you leave the house, take your car keys with you. You may not think your kids will drive the car, but one bad decision, one poor judgement in the teenage "I know it all, nothing will ever happen to me" it can all change.
Moore Mavericks Football will be forever changed because of the maturity shown by this group of athletes for their fallen friend.

Moore Catholic athlete killed in car crash

By Mark D. Stein

October 26, 2009, 2:19AM

A gruesome motor accident on a rain-soaked stretch of Midland Beach road killed a 16-year-old high school sports star who was driving his parents' Chevy Suburban without a license Saturday night, and injured his 16-year-old passenger.
    Johnny Ray, a varsity football and baseball player in his junior year at Moore Catholic High School in Graniteville, took the keys to his family's 2004 Chevrolet truck after his parents left to go to a concert just before 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
    "We were out at a concert at CSI [the College of Staten Island], and he was home with his friend," said Lori Morales, Ray's mother. "And after we left, he took the keys.... He took the truck and left. He's never driven it, never."
    The decision proved fatal for Ray, who had no license to drive.
    He got caught in a rainstorm that flooded roads across Staten Island. He was driving on Capodanno Boulevard just before 8 p.m., heading north near Slater Boulevard, when he veered off the road and slammed into a utility pole.
    "It was a flooded intersection, and he hydroplaned," Mrs. Morales said.
    Ray was pronounced dead at the scene, while his friend, who was identified by police as Aung Ye, ended up in Staten Island University Hospital, Ocean Breeze, in stable condition. He was to remain there again last night, according to a hospital official.
    Sobbing as she sat on the steps of her Stapleton home, Ray's mother, Lori Morales, said she didn't know where he was heading at the time of the crash.
    She described Ray as a young athlete whose future in sports was spread out before him -- just this past Monday, he received recruiting letters from Rutgers University, asking for footage of his junior year football games.
    "He made everything look effortless. He was a pleasure to watch," said Ray's father, Raul Morales. "It's very difficult accepting this loss, because I just thought that he was going to be something special."
 
'LEARN FROM THIS'
 
    And Mrs. Morales made a plea serve as a warning for teens across the Island.
    "I want the kids out there to use this as a learning experience. Don't do this to yourselves. Take my son's accident and learn from this."
    Anthony Altobelli, 47, who lives across the street from the site of the accident on Capodanno Boulevard, stepped outside into the heavy rain at about 8 p.m. to take his garbage out when he heard what he described was "this tremendous noise of impact."
    He called 911 and rushed to the vehicle to find Ray had no pulse and was unresponsive. Altobelli said the passenger was alert but in shock and had a bruise above his eye.
    "I didn't sleep last night. It could just imagine what the mother and father are going through," he said. "I wish I was able to do a hell of a lot more."
    Altobelli said the crash temporarily wiped out the intersection's traffic lights.
    Nearly 100 students, staff and parents gathered yesterday morning in the gym at Moore Catholic to grieve in the wake of the fatal accident. They stood quietly in small groups. Most of them held blank faces as others cried.
    Stunned as he sat outside his office, Moore Athletic Director Rich Postiglione said: "Johnny Ray lit up the room when he walked in and that's a God-given thing -- not many people have that. He was a young man who had a tremendous amount to look forward to."
    Postiglione continued to praise the wide receiver and shortstop that was promoted to the varsity level of the football and baseball teams as a sophomore.
    "He had everything going for him. He was smart, good-looking, intelligent," Postiglione said.
    The athletic director, along with Ray's football coach Greg Rocco, said Rutgers University had interest in recruiting Ray after high school.
    "He was the type of influence that can't be measured," Rocco said. "As a person, an athlete, a brother."
    Postiglione said school will be in session today and counselors will be available to assist to students and staff.
TRIBUTES AND A VIGIL
 
    With wreckage from the vehicle still on the sidewalk and nearby grass field, personal tributes were being left at the crash site. At least four bouquets of flowers were placed next to a tree that had a note for people to write their feelings on by late yesterday afternoon. "We will always keep you in our heads," the writer Raymond said.
    Also, last night at 8 o'clock , at least 60 of Ray's young peers visited the scene of the crash to hold vigil.
    Andie Lynn, 15, visited the site with her mother shortly after noon yesterday and placed flowers in front of the tree.
    She said she was good friends with Ray for at least three years.
    "He was the greatest kid ever," Ms. Lynn said, choking back tears. "This is just a tragedy."
    The oldest of three siblings, Ray poured every effort into excelling at athletics, his parents recalled.
    "He lived for sports. That's why he was so good at it, because he put his all into it," his mother, Mrs. Morales said.
    He had aspirations of playing in either the NFL or the MLB, his parents said.
    Ray had planned to travel with the team to Pennsylvania for next weekend's game, and Mrs. Morales said his teammates shouldn't be deterred by yesterday's tragedy.
    "They should go," she said, "and they should play, and they should do it in memory of my baby."

(Advance staffer John M. Annese contributed to this report)

[Lb128f]

Oct. 31, 2009 at 3:22 AM

So sad....saying a prayer for the family.