Winner...

The Vaqueros De Bayamon(Bayamon Cowboys) are are the 2009 champions of Puerto Rico's Baloncesto Superior Nacional(BSN) men's professional basketball league. This is the first championship for the franchise since 1996. Coincidentally, this is the first year my friend, and Allentown's own Raymond Barbosa was a member of the team.

Ray is just a flat out winner. In college, he led his UMBC team to the 2008 America East championship(the first in school history), as well as a birth in the NCAA Tournament. In high school, he led his underdog Allen Canaries to the District 11 4A title. The championship game was a 3 overtime classic, in which Allen beat heavily favored Emaus High School, who was led by current NBA player Aaron Gray.

At the high school, collegiate, and professional levels, Ray has achieved nothing but success. Like most instances of success, none of this happened by accident. He has average height and athleticism by professional basketball players standards, but his work ethic and knowledge of the game is off the charts. Nobody and I mean NOBODY works as hard as Ray. On top of that, he is very humble and very soft spoken, characteristics not many athletes of his stature can say they possess.

I am 4 years older than Ray(we have the same birthday... October 26th). I remember Ray when he was still Ray-Ray, a little kid with goggles, shooting rainbow 3 pointers at the Boy's Club. As he got older, me and the people I played basketball with (Shannon, Tramell, Shahad, Keith,Toomey) took him under our wing, and put him on our summer league teams. We all would also take part in some very competitive 2 on 2 games. We were tough on him. He also got the opportunity to hear about the mistakes we made while in college, which would prepare him when it was his turn to go. It feels good to know that those experiences kind of had a hand in Ray's development.

I remember a conversation I had with Ray before he left to go play in Puerto Rico. We were in the Allen gym, and we just got done playing 2 on 2 with some of the kids. While looking at a basketball he was holding he said, "it's amazing where this thing can take you." A few months later while I was in PR, sitting in his beachfront condo over-looking the Atlantic Ocean, I thought back to that comment and laughed. Boy was he right.

I am very happy for him. He is the perfect example of where hard work, dedication, and humility can take a person. All of these great things couldn't have happened to a more deserving person. I just wanted to make sure I personally gave him some recognition.

Keep doing your thing Ray... keep winning.

Ok that's all for now... thank you for visiting and stay tuned...