Ray Charles Chadwick (born November 17, 1962) is a former American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

player who played one season for the

California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB). Chadwick attended Durham High School in Durham, North Carolina and

Winston-Salem State University Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) is a historically black public university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina. History Winston-Salem State University was founded as Slater Industrial Academy on ...

where he played college football for the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)California Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

scout who signed him to a contract. On February 12, 1989, Chadwick was driving his car when he was hit head-on by a drunk driver. He was left with two broken

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

in his neck, two broken ribs, a cracked

sternum The sternum or breastbone is a long flat bone located in the central part of the chest. It connects to the ribs via cartilage and forms the front of the rib cage, thus helping to protect the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels from injury. ...

and a broken non-throwing arm or wrist. His friend who was a passenger in the car suffered a cracked skull. He spent six weeks in a hospital bed and was told by doctors that he would probably not pitch that year but was back to pitching in the minors by July 1989. After retirement from active play, Ray was the pitching coach for the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds from 1998–2000. Ray now resides in

Kamloops Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, Canada where he is coaching the

Thompson Rivers University Thompson Rivers University (commonly referred to as TRU) is a public teaching and research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees and vocational training. Its main campus is in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, and its na ...

baseball team from 2003–present. Ray has won the Canadian College Baseball Conference Championship in both 2005 and 2007. During the summer Ray also coaches the Kamloops Sun Devils baseball team for junior aged players (19–21). Ray is the father of professional soccer player

Sydney Leroux Sydney Rae Leroux (; born May 7, 1990) is a professional soccer player and Olympic gold medalist who currently plays as a forward for Angel City FC in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Born in Canada to a Canadian mother and an Ameri ...

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1962 births Living people African-American baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Canada Baseball players from North Carolina Birmingham Barons players California Angels players Edmonton Trappers players Major League Baseball pitchers Midland Angels players Omaha Royals players Pawtucket Red Sox players Peoria Chiefs players Redwood Pioneers players Salem Angels players Sarasota White Sox players Sportspeople from Durham, North Carolina Vancouver Canadians players Winston-Salem State Rams football players American expatriate baseball players in Italy Rimini Baseball Club players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople African-American baseball coaches College baseball coaches American expatriate baseball players in Mexico {{US-baseball-pitcher-1960s-stub