John Elway

Introductory Speech:

My name is Devin John Ray. I was born on July 23rd, 1983 at Parkview hospital in Pueblo, CO. My mother's name in Debby Lynn Ray. My father's name is Bobby Joe Ray Jr. Mom was born on November 17th, 1964. Dad was born on June 19th, 1959. We lived in a trailer park until I was one. My parents decided it is best to buy a house. We lived in our new house until my parents decided they wanted another child. Brittany Leigh Ray was born Halloween in 1986.

It was a big change with a new baby around. But I enjoyed my new responsibilities. Brittany would become my rag doll while I was going through boyhood curiosities. I remember one time, I put Brittany in my Radio Flyer wagon and pulled her down a small hill and let her go. Surprisingly she didn't crash. I let her do it to me. I crashed hard. Oh Karma.

We lived in our new house for about 5 years. During these times I played baseball, football, hockey, basketball, and soccer. I can't even imagine what my Mom went through. I would find that baseball is my favorite sport.

On Christmas 1992, my parents gave us a bunch of baby clothes for Christmas. It didn't click right away. Once I realized that we are having a new recruit I was very thrilled. In this case, we did not move right away. Zachary Ty Ray was born on August 8th, 1993. We moved in July of 1994.

We moved to Black Forest, CO. Just outside of the booming Colorado Springs. During my time living here Colorado Springs would go from 150,000 people to a million plus. I attended Challenger Middle School where I would later discover that my Great, Great Uncle Dick Scobee was the captain of the Challenger rocket that exploded on January 28th, 1986. He was the brother of my Great Grandfather Scobee (my Mom's Grandfather). Dick Scobee's wife would later come to Challenger Middle School for a presentation on the explosion. I introduced myself. This was the weirdest coincidence I have ever experienced.

I played in the Black Forest Baseball League for one year. I was a little more advanced than some of the players. My parents moved me into the Tri-Lakes baseball League the next year. Tri-Lakes is an accelerated baseball program. I excelled into the All-Star team. The All-Star team was allowed to travel between states and compete in tournaments. We never won any tournaments. However, it was a great experience.

I moved on to high school. Pine Creek High School was the school I attended. It was considered the most technologically advanced high school in the U.S. I was a part of the first class of freshman to attend this school. I played varsity baseball as a swinger during my freshman year. I played starting varsity the next two years. I was expelled my senior year for sticking up for my sister. There was a student that was causing an immense amount of mental stress on my sister. My sister has low self esteem as it is. I warned him to stop. It only got worse. I did not intend for it to go so far, but it did. I took the matter in my own hands and resolved the situation. There were alternatives. We were both expelled. I was expelled for serious injury. He was expelled for what he had been doing to my sister and staring the fight.

I started working for MCI Worldcom while I was a junior in high school. I loved the sales atmosphere. I was an exceptional sales representative. They closed their doors and I decided to move on.

I moved to Saint Joseph, MO. I worked for Kirby vacuums and won many awards and trips to nice places. I later moved on to telephone sales with intent to become a company trainer with APAC customer services because I got tired of all the travel involved with Kirby. At APAC I broke several records in sales. My favorite was when I decided I wanted to break the overall sales record in one week. The original record was 98 sales set in 1997 by a woman. I broke it that week with 106 sales. Two weeks later I would break it again with 114 sales. I was the first rep to break 100 sales. I obtained many awards and customer satisfaction awards which were given through random surveys from third party companies that called my customers after they had been sold my product. This led to two pay raises. APAC closed their doors six months after I started due to unknown reasons.

My supervisor from APAC referred me to this insurance company right next to APAC. As a matter of fact, the President of the