Maybe this is where it all starts, with mom up in the stands shielding the sun and the dead heat of a summer beading on your forehead. You are staring up at a guy you want to be just like.
“Yeah I look up to Ray Ray a lot. I like his position, I like the way he runs and like the way he do stuff,” 8-year old “Ray Ray Day” camper Tristen Raines said.
That was the narrative at least for Seminole High School alum Ray Ray Armstrong as he picked up his passion much like these kids when he was a preschooler.
“I had an older brother so he was older than be by three years, so he started before me so I had something to look up to as a younger child and that kinda started for me,” Armstrong said Saturday.
Now the San Francisco 49ers linebacker is the one building up youngster’s passion and giving back.
“You know growing up we had a couple guys come from here but I just wanted to come back and show my face, let kids know that they are able to touch me, able to know me,” Armstrong said of hosting his annual “Ray Ray Day” Camp in anford.
Armstrong is like a super hero around these parts of Central Florida. For sophomore offensive lineman Jordan Davis his name resonates with on major milestone in school history.
“2008, in the state finals him and Andre balling in that game,” Davis explained. “That’s why everybody knows him –big game, that’s the best class to ever come through Seminole that’s what I think about when I hear Ray-Ray.”
After winning the school’s first and only state championship the linebacker has always found a way to return home. This weekend no difference hosting his third “Ray Ray Day”—a free football camp and BBQ.
“I am coming from the same place they come from, same schools they went to just from the same environment just trying to get them that confidence and motivation that they can be something great in life,” Armstrong said of coming home.
The NFL player is a product of the community he continues to nurture. A testament to his will to mold the next class of Seminoles and staying involved in Sanford.
“What I want to do when I get here in high school, is do a lot of training and be a better football player,” Raines, who will be entering the third grade this fall, added.