Claimed: Colton Rayne: The Before Years

[Spade18 1,305]

Las Vegas Aces Defensman and stand out VHL draft hopeful Colton Rayne has been surrounded by hockey his whole life.  Born and raised in the quiet suburb of Basking Ridge NJ, Rayne has been surrounded by hockey his whole life.  He is the 2nd child of a small family, son of a Mason and a Travel Agent, he grew up with an older sister.  The family traveled a bit, and though they moved a few times, they never left the same town.  Though the area is not know for it, the northern New Jersey Area is Hockey mad, and a hot bed for up and coming young talent.  This environment served Rayne well to groom him on his way to Hockey stardom. 

 

" My family was great.  I wanted for nothing growing up and I was all around sports as a kid.  My Dad has always been a big sports fan, and hockey foremost. That's what I think really got me into it.  We always used to play in the driveway, and he took me to New Jersey Devils games every year.  Our love of the Devils is what pushed me into hockey.  I remember, in our house, we had two favorite teams.  The Devils and who ever was playing the Rangers that night.  I followed that team through the 90's and 2000's cups.  I still remember watching Elias throw the blind pass to Arnott for the 2000 cup winner, then immediately passing out on the couch.  Watching those teams with Stevens, Danyeko and Neidermayer, it's no wonder I ended up playing defense.  It's funny, in my younger years I worked at a florist delivering flowers.  One day around christmas time, we got a dleivery from Lou Lamarellio going to Scott Stevens who I found out lives in my area.  I was so excited I got to deliver it.  I showed up at his house and rang the door bell.  To my dismay no one answered and I walked away dejectedly.  just as I was about to get into the car, I hear from behind me 'Hey! Wait a second!' and I turn around to see him.  The Captain.  Coming around from behind the house.  I had been waiting my whole life for this moment.  I wanted to tell him that he was my hero and I had written countless papers about him being my idol in school.  I wanted to thank him for everything he did for the Devils and Hockey in New Jersey.  I wanted to thank him for making my childhood watching hockey great.  I finally get up to him, the moment of truth was upon me and I stammer out 'hng, uh, hnng, errr, uhh, HERE ARE YOUR FLOWERS' and pretty much throw them in his face and sprint back to the van.  Again he calls me back and gives me a five dollar tip.  When I finally caught my breath got back to the van all I could think of was 'smooth'.  I still have that five dollar bill he gave me."

 

Rayne played the whole field as a youngster in house and travel leagues.

 

"I started as a right winger in my first year and I'm not going to lie, I scored one point the whole year.  We won the championship that year too.  It was a great start to my hockey life and I'll always remember The Eagles.  Then my second year I switched to played left wing. My third year I started as a center, and half way through the year I dropped back to play defense.  After that I played goalie for 2 seasons, the first season wasnt so good, but I went to goalie camp that summer and my second year we only lost two games, the last game of the season, and unfortunatley the championship. That loss hurat and I decided to be a skater again.  I moved back up to defense, then right wing again before settling on defense."

 

When Rayne hit his High school years, he joined his local school's Hockey team on their way to championship. 

 

"My freshman and sophomore year were uneventful.  The team played well but we lost some important games that kept us out of the finals. Luckily, one of the kids in my grade was the son of NHLer Chris Mullen and his family kind of took the team over.  My Junior year was our pinnacle.  We beat our rivals Watchung Hills 5-0.  I had won championships in house leagues before but this was so much better than that.  Grinding through the long season to finally hoist the cup at the end of the year was exhilarating.  That I think was the year I decided I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.  My senior year was tough.  We made it to the finals again but were on the other side of the shut out.  We lost 1-0 to Randolph.  I've had bad losses in my Hockey career.  But I've never had a CRUSHING loss like that before.  to make it all that way and not have anything to show for it made me question hockey all together.  Instead of turning away like some of my teammates did, I used it as motivation to get even better."

 

After disappointingly not being recruited to play Hockey at a D1 college, Rayne's love of the game brought him to North Dakota University, where he walked on to the team and shocked the world.

 

"I honestly thought my career was over after not getting recruited for hockey.  I went to North Dakota because I wanted to still be around big games, and I LOVE their jerseys.  Plus the talent they've put out like Toews and Parises, it just felt right to me.  I saw that they had open practices for walk ons one day before the season started and decided to give it a shot. I must have done enough to be noticed because they asked me to come back to a closed practice session and after 2 weeks of those, they formally invited me to the team.  It was a great honor, and I suddenly felt like hockey had life for me again. Coach Berry gave me a ll the tools I needed to bring my game to the next level.  We made the Frozen Four the year I was there, and though we didn't win, that was my first large scale hockey experience outside of my high school games.  It was awe inspiring.  At that point I just couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.  I spoke with scouts and they claimed that If I worked hard I may get a sniff at the NHL.  The report I got from the VHL scout was much more exciting for me.  I've always been a fan of rebuilding teams, or expansion franchises, so getting a chance to play in a league competing with the NHL was right up my alley.  I decided to jump ship after my first year at college.  I felt bad leaving behind coach Berry and the rest of the guys after such a good season and after they had done so much for me to advance my career.  But I had to do what was right for me, and as it is turning out, IT looks like it was the right choice"

[Beaviss 4,956]

Review:

 

Great Biography! Has a lot of detail and good story. Its visually attractive with relevant pictures and punctuation.

A have to say there is some things I would have liked to seen. I wish their was more color in the article and maybe some headers highlighting each section of your Biography. All in all a great ready 9/10 would bang read again