No one has looked at East Carolina athletics like Wilson Raynor has.
In his role as long snapper for the Pirates in football from 2005 to 2008, he saw things upside down before initiating punts and field goals.
In his present avocation as a baseball umpire, he has seen pitches through a mask when calling behind the plate, including the Keith LeClair Classic earlier this month.
“I always wanted to play football for East Carolina,” Raynor said. “When I was in school, my dad (Rhett Raynor, a former NCAA umpire) suggested that I get into umpiring to make a little extra money.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
While umpires have traditionally been reticent in regard to media, the younger Raynor said that policy has changed. He said he has been encouraged to speak out for the sake of public relations because numbers are dwindling in terms of younger people going into officiating.
He makes about 24 times the fee for a college game today compared to what he made calling recreation ball when he started out in Winterville.
“That was still good money when I was in school,” he said. “We didn’t have NILs back then.”
Earliest sports memory
Raynor’s athletic memories date back to T-ball at Tyler Park in Dunn.
“I can remember vaguely going to T-ball practice the first time and trying to figure that whole thing out,” he said. “I remember trying to catch the ball and trying to hit it and having fun. There was some joy and excitement in it, but just trying to figure it out.
“Old Tyler Park had the one field and then the T-ball field was the grass area behind the Little League field, … That’s where we all started.”
Road to ECU
Raynor played football on the high school level at Triton, where his dad had been the first football coach of the Hawks in 1985.
“I grew up wanting to play football in college and hopefully playing at ECU,” Raynor said. “Trying to figure out how to get there, I took up long snapping as an extra tool in the belt.
“I was able to get some looks out of high school and then decided to go to Hargrave Military Academy to put a little bit more weight on and get another year of growth and another year of playing under my belt, and recruitment took off a little more there. I had some more looks, more offers, but at the end of the day wanted to go to ECU and play in Greenville. So, fortunately enough, the coaching staff, the John Thompson coaching staff recruited me and when Coach (Skip) Holtz’s staff got there, they continued their recruitment and so I went in in that January.”
Raynor had some choices at Hargrave.
“Between scholarships and invited walk-on, Maryland was a big one at the end,” Raynor said. “I talked to Tennessee, Wake Forest, UAB, Navy, Liberty, West Virginia. Hargrave was a big deal because I think out of the 55 players on my team, I think 48 of us went Division I and 18 of us at least sniffed the NFL.
“It was a really good experience. There were a ton of good players and on Tuesday practice, you’d have Division I football coaches there scouting, so it really opened the door as far as recruitment goes.”
Pirate football memories
Raynor was asked what stood out among his memories of being an active part of ECU football.
“Just being around the players,” he said. “I just enjoyed being a part of it. Made a lot of good friends. From an athletic standpoint, winning the conference championship (Conference USA) my senior year was obviously up there. We left some stuff on the table. We started off real hot our senior year (2008) beating a few ranked teams, and we had some injuries. … I think we started 44 different people on offense and defense that year, which is an unreal number. That shows that we had to battle some adversity that year and then come out with a conference championship was a big highlight for me.
“We had a lot of last-second nailbiter wins, either through a kick or through a big defensive stop or a touchdown at the end. We had some big wins over some teams we wanted to beat.
” … I can vividly tell you the first time I played football for ECU and that was my freshman year against Duke. I found out I was going to start at long snapping about a week before, so it got sprung on me quicker than expected. But I remember specifically when Coach Holtz called the punt team to go out there, I remember running on the field going, ‘Well, here we go. You’re about to do it.’ And I remember making a good snap and being excited about it. The biggest thing I was worried about was blocking and they didn’t rush. So that was a good thing.
” I remember running down the field like, ‘All right, I did it,’ and all of a sudden, the Duke returner’s running straight at me, and I just completely whiffed. Just missed him.
“So, I had to go back to the sidelines. Even though I missed the tackle, I was very excited. I got the snap in, I made the block. I did really what my job is and was relieved. I guess it was a confidence builder that I could do it. When I got to the sideline, everybody ragged me for missing the tackle. So, it was a high and a low for college football.”
College career
Raynor was honorable mention All-C-USA three times. His career included participation in 51 games, which at that time was a program record.
Raynor had an integral role in four last-play, game-winning field goals.
As a senior, he did not have a bad snap on 71 punts, 35 field goals or 37 extra points. ECU was second nationally in field goals per game with 1.6. The Pirates were ninth nationally in net punting average (37.9 yards).
As a junior in 2007, Raynor had 152 snaps, all flawless, including game winning field goals by Ben Hartman in wins over North Carolina in Greenville and Boise State in the Hawaii Bowl.
His career included 110 successful snaps as a sophomore and 59 error-free deliveries as a freshman.
Robert Lee was the placekicker for Raynor’s first two seasons.
Repetition produces confidence
Raynor’s consistency in college was the result of confidence developed from practice.
“The biggest thing I always told myself was if I can snap the ball in my backyard, if I can snap it with Coach Holtz watching or my special teams coordinator (Vernon Hargreaves Jr.) watching,” Raynor said. “If I can snap it in a high school game, if I can snap it at practice, if I can snap it in the rain and the snow and the sun, I can snap it when the game’s on the line.
“There’s no difference. There’s just no difference in doing it a million times leading up to that one time. There’s no difference in that. If it’s on ESPN or if it’s on the radio, there’s no difference in snapping a football. So really just try to treat it the same. I always wanted to keep it low and fast, so that’s what I always told myself. ‘Don’t throw it high. If you throw it low, you give them a chance to handle it and put some zip on it,’ so you don’t throw a knuckle ball. And do it. Just let your body take over. Don’t try to change nothing. ”
Umpiring approach
Raynor has a similar mindset behind the plate….
“It’s the same with umpiring,” he said. “If you go work a game with 10 people in the stands or you go work a game on national TV, two top 10 teams, there’s no difference in that. You need to do what you do. …
“It goes so hand in hand. You can’t let a situation get bigger or smaller than it is. You have to keep an even mindset, even keel. You’ve got to be focused. You’ve got to be serious about it, but you can’t let the moments get too big. It’s just you call 180, 200 pitches in a game. Every one is important, but they’re no more or no less important than any other pitch that game or in any other game. So, you’ve just got to take it one pitch at a time, keep your wits about you, stay focused and locked in, but don’t overthink it.
“Just do what got you there and enjoy it. People don’t understand, most sports officials or umpires do it for one reason. It’s because they love the game. They enjoy being a part of it, they enjoy watching the players play just as much as the fans do, and it’s a way to keep us around sports and enjoy it. When I walk on the baseball field, I expect to have a good time that day. There’s sometimes some business to take care of, but I’m out there to work hard and to have a good time.
NFL
Raynor signed a contract with the New York Jets in 2011.
“I signed with the Jets a couple years after college,” he said. “I tore my PCL and MCL in the Liberty Bowl my senior year, and so that stalled me out for any ambitions to play professionally but was lucky enough to get an opportunity to dress and to do all that a couple of years down the road. Bounced around from mini camp here and there. The UFL was another thing back then I had some opportunities in, but the Jets was probably my biggest, I guess, feat in professional football. It was a good memory, but it didn’t last.”
Raynor might have had a longer pro experience if fate had been different.
“The week I signed with the Jets, the next day, John Weeks, who’s a good friend of mine who’s still the long snapper for the Houston Texans, sprained his foot, and so they called my agent to bring me in — not knowing I had already signed with the Jets. The next week we played them preseason, week one, and so the snapper they signed because I couldn’t, ended up playing every snap in preseason because they had nobody else and when they released him because of John coming back, he signed immediately with Tampa Bay and spent a few years there.
“It’s all about timing, finding the right spot, having the right chance, the right opportunity, and it’s a crapshoot of how you’re going to get it or not going to get it. They only can keep one on a team. The year or two after that, I was working out consistently with Carolina, with New York, just teams that, if their guy went down, they needed to know who they were going to bring in. So, there was always a chance that I was going to get brought in the next year during the season when somebody got hurt or not, but just a weird position how it works. You could be somebody’s backup and not be on the team.”
Holders vie in Vegas
Back-up quarterback Joe Sloan and punter Ryan Dougherty were holders during Raynor’s time at ECU. Eye contact was an important pre-snap phase.
“Absolutely,” Raynor said. “So you need a target. You need to make sure you’re looking at the target and the target’s looking at you.”
The targets will be across the field from one another on Sunday, Sept. 1.
“Dougherty is at Southern Cal now, special teams coach,” Raynor said. “He played briefly in the NFL with Green Bay. He was a punter. And then Joe Sloan was the holder my last two years. He’s the offensive coordinator at LSU now. They ended up two very good coaches. They actually play week one against each other in Las Vegas.”
Small world
Raynor tailgated with Hargreaves, his former special teams coach, at the Birmingham Bowl at the conclusion of the 2014 season, a 28-20 Florida win. Vernon Hargreaves III had a key interception for the Gators.
“His son actually came by after the game,” Raynor said. “His son was always at practice. We watched him grow up. He was just a stud. And I remember Rick Smith (former ECU defensive coordinator) offering him a scholarship when he was in sixth grade. He told him, ‘I don’t know where I’ll be if I’ll be coaching, but if I am, I’d like you to play for me.’ He could tell he was going to be a good player.”
Family, career
Raynor’s wife, Lindsey, is from Shelby. They met at ECU his senior year. The family includes daughter, Graylin (5), and son, Beckett (7).
“They’re both starting to play soccer and baseball and flag football and things,” Raynior said. “So they’re getting ramped up.”
Raynor is Executive Vice President of Life Incorporated.
“We provide services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Eastern North Carolina,” Raynor said.
He is applying his ECU education — degrees in special education in the general curriculum and special education in the adaptive curriculum with a minor in business.
“I knew I was always going to look to be getting into this field,” Raynor said. “I’ve always enjoyed it. Teaching, did some practical teaching and stuff, student teaching, loved it. And it’s a good way to try to make a difference in people’s lives that they can’t do it on their own. It’s been rewarding.
“I’m a part of the North Carolina Provider Council Board and we support providers throughout North Carolina that support the individuals that they serve and make sure that we’re working with the state to make sure that resources are available to these people that need help and that they can get the services that they need. So there’s a lot to it. It changes each time there’s bills on the dockets of Congress, Senate, Governor. Rules change, so we’re all having to advocate and be a part of it and make sure that we’re doing our part to ensure the wellbeing of the individuals that we serve.”
Cliff tossed
Raynor ejected Pirates coach Cliff Godwin in an 8-5 loss at UNC-Wilmington last season. Godwin apparently continued to question the strike zone after a warning.
“The specifics on situations like that, I really don’t need to share them,” Raynor said. “I don’t think it would benefit him or me. Cliff’s an excellent coach. He’s stern. He’s focused, he’s determined, and he fights for his team. And those are the qualities that you want in a guy that’s going to lead your program.”
Still teammates
Raynor keeps up with many of his former teammates.
“I get to see some of them,” he said. “I saw Steven Rogers a couple weeks ago, Dustin Lineback this weekend. When I’m in their area, sometimes they’ll try to come to a game, or we’ll meet up for dinner or something. So, we’ll try to see each other in summer or fall or sometime and get together with the old guys. But there’s some guys that you lose touch with that you want to keep up with more.
“Social media presence and things like that help with those or group chats. Group text messages is always good just to see the camaraderie or the banter that doesn’t leave. You might not see somebody for 10, 12 years, but you’re in a group text and you’re still ragging them or they’re ragging you. it’s like it’s never changed.
“That’s part of what you get from officiating too. A big thing when you stop playing, especially after a long time that you miss the locker room. That’s what you miss probably more than anything. I think when you talk to people, that’s what they say, and you get a little of that as an official. You’ve got a group of guys that you’re sharing a bond with that it’s not easy. You’re going out there and you’re the bad guy from the get-go. You have those experiences to share and to laugh about or to talk about to work on. And you get that same locker room feel.”
Dad, Rhett
Raynor’s dad was a graduate assistant in football at ECU.
“My dad umpired for 30 plus years, was a high school football coach and umpire,” Raynor said. “He started out, and umpiring was just a way he could make a little extra money on the side. It was the same things. It was the locker room, the camaraderie, being around some friends, getting to stay around sports.
“In college my freshman year, I was just looking for something part-time, something to do just to make a little extra money on the side.
“Dad just said, ‘Why don’t you go umpire? Try to start umpiring Little League or some high school baseball when you can and see if you like it.’ And so I did. I started doing that, working in Greenville and just progressed. My high school football coach also, Hal Stewart, was also a college baseball assigner, and after a few years he started giving me some Division III, Division II and so that got me started on the track, probably a little quicker than I should have been.
“But I also didn’t mess it up, so I was able to continue my growth because of him giving me an opportunity.”
Raynor called games in the Greenville area.
“Yeah,” he said. “Some Rose, Conley, South Central, North Pitt, Washington High School, whoever was around there. I worked that circuit for a few years.”
This weekend
Raynor is assigned to an American Athletic Conference series in Charlotte this weekend as the 49ers take on South Florida.
Video review
Video review is a relatively new feature in college baseball.
“It’s changed it for the better,” Raynor said. “It’s taken some of the junk out of the game that probably doesn’t really have much of a place in collegiate athletics nowadays, the argumentative pieces to it. I look at it as insurance. We’ve got really good umpires out there, but there’s times that we need to look at something again or something happens, we get blocked out, whatever, and it’s a way to try to get the call right. That’s what we want to do at the end of the day. … If we got it wrong and we can fix it, we want to fix it.
“Every game’s on TV somewhere now, and you just don’t want to be seen as just missing something egregiously. And that’s what replay does. It gives the coaches an opportunity to challenge a play, and it gives us an opportunity to get it right or to confirm we did get it right. So I think it’s been a great tool. It’ll probably only get better. There’s still some things that aren’t in the rules that can or cannot be replayed, but I think as it grows, things will be added.
At the end of the day, everybody wants to have the calls made correctly, and it’s a way to ensure that. Those guys run really fast and that ball is thrown really hard, and if you’re a foot to the left or right of where you’re supposed to be, sometimes you have the worst view of the play in the entire park. So to have that insurance that you can take a look at it and confirm or stand or overturn the call, I think has been a great addition to college baseball.”
Advocating for umpires
Raynor took an opportunity to encourage others to get into umpiring.
“We have to advocate for the officiating profession because it is dying,” Raynor said. “I cannot fathom how far it’s fallen, especially the high school, middle school level, with people not signing up to do it. A lot of reasons, and you can name disgruntled parents and you can name pay or travel and other things.
“But the fact of the matter is that we need more people that love sports, that want to stay around sports, that their calling may not be coaching. Their calling may be in accounting or teaching or whatever, running a car lot or being a sheriff or going into the Air Force or whatever. But we need more people to try it. Just try out officiating. If you love baseball, basketball, soccer, go out there and do it. Go do it. Get your feet wet. Learn from somebody that’s seasoned and see if it becomes a good hobby. I love doing it. I love the people that I work with.
It’s fun, it’s exciting. It’s a great way to potentially make some money on the side from your quote-unquote ‘real job.’ We need more people to give it a shot so we can grow the profession. We need people working middle school, high school, college games in all sports. And every year, I know that local assigners have a harder and harder time of getting people to sign up.
“The majority of the people, when you look at the demographics of this thing, are old. They’re 60s, 50s. …. For every five or six 60 year olds we’re losing in the profession to retirement, we’re gaining maybe one 20-year-old. And it’s a big problem that we need to try to advocate.
“It’s not scary. It’s fun, it’s exciting. And if you want to be on the field and watch two good teams play, start officiating.”
Special day
Raynor was born on March 29, 1986.
Happy Birthday, Wilson!
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