Lake County Sentinel
Scholarship named in honor of Ray Milavec
BY TIM SHIRER
SPORTS EDITOR
In the late 1960’s Ray Milavec arrived in Wickliffe as a teacher and the city of Wickliffe would never be the same as for decades Ray taught English at Wickliffe High School. In his time Milavec affected thousands of students, not only as a teacher, but as a coach and administrator.
Ray not only had an influence in Wickliffe, but throughout Lake County in many different roles from public address announcer for as many as five high schools in Lake County as well as serving as Lake Erie College’s P.A. man for close to a decade.
Ray also served as the P.A. man for professional sports teams. His first gig with a professional team was with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 1978 to 1983 at the Richfield Coliseum and then with the Lake County Captains from 2003 to 2008 and then 2010 to 2014. In his time with the Captains Ray made a lasting impact which is still being felt today as Captains Assistant General Manager Tim O’Brien explains, “Ray was the voice of the ballpark for years and was a mentor and friend.” O’Brien went on to add, “There are Captains everywhere, which was a signature quote of Ray’s. That will be carried on for years to come.”
Milavec was more than a P.A. man and teacher as he also did radio for WELW where he called basketball and football games and also co-hosted a weekly talk show with lifelong friend Charlie Malta, the show was “Monday’s with Malta” and focused on spotlighting Lake County’s high school athletes.
In addition to those accomplishments, Ray also coached in Wickliffe for decades at the High School and Middle School level. Ray led the Wickliffe Softball team to back to back state championships in 1992 and 1993 and was also an assistant coach on Wickliffe’s other state championship team when the baseball team won the title in 1974.
Ray was extremely proud of the Blue Devils and the students he taught in class and coached throughout his long-storied career.
In 2016, just weeks before his passing Ray was inducted into the Lake County Captains Crow’s Nest for excellent High School and College coaches in the area. Wickliffe’s band played that day at the induction ceremony and Ray smiled the entire performance, because Ray was Wickliffe, it ran through his blood.
Now, he is going to be honored possibly at the highest level a coach and teacher can be, with a scholarship in his honor. 1988 Wickliffe graduate Scott Tennant has established “The Ray Milavec Memorial Scholarship” The $1,000 scholarship will be awarded to one Wickliffe High School Senior who will be attending college and majoring or minoring in communication, English, Journalism or Public Relations at a two or four year accredited college or university.
Students will be eligible to apply for the scholarship from February 1st to April 1st and the winner will be announced at Wickliffe High School’s Awards night at the end of the school year.
More information about the scholarship is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MilavecScholarship, also students can pick up an application form in the WHS guidance office.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow the Sentinel on Twitter @LCSentinelcom Check out our High School Scoreboard
POSTED 01/15/2020 13:06
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