Ray Perez, Brentwood Varsity Soccer Coach

                                                                November 1, 2025

30 YEARS AGO TODAY: Brentwood High School
Varsity Soccer Coach
Ray Perez passes away at age 48

The ball, when one could be found in those days, was made of leather.

by Michael LewisNovember 1, 2025

Overview:

The ball, when one could be found in those days, was made of leather.

Brentwood High School head coach Ray Perez talks to a player in 1989. (Michael Lewis/FrontRowSoccer.com)

This story originally was published in the November 1995 edition of Soccer New York. Ray Perez passed away, 30 years ago on Nov. 1, 1995.

By: Michael Lewis

Soccer New York Editor

The ball, when one could be found in those days, was made of leather.

“It wasn’t a soccer ball, but a leather ball,” Carlos Vidal said. “If it got wet, you’d be assured of going home with a sore ankle.”

So Vidal and his friend Ray Perez went home with many a sore ankle in the early sixths. They had been recruited to play for the Brentwood High School junior varsity soccer team to play this strange sport that wasn’t played in many Suffolk County Schools in the early 1960’s and where everyone but the goalkeeper could not use his hands.

“We had to learn the game,” Vidal said. “It was a new concept of kicking a ball. We hadn’t known anything prior to that.”

So, Vidal, Perez and their friends grew to love the game, playing the then unfashionable sport on a sandlot like many of their contemporaries played baseball.

“We were interested in playing soccer than hanging out on a street corner,” said Vidal, now Dr. Vidal, the assistant dean for the office of field instruction and student admissions at SUNY-Stony Brook.

When they played for coach Wade Cummings and then Bill Lown on Brentwood, Vidal would usually play at center forward and Perez at right wing.

“Whenever we were on attack, all I needed to do was to look to my right side and Ray was there,” Vidal said. “When we played basketball Ray was always there on my right side, too.”

That seemed to be the best way to describe Ray Perez’s lift. He seemed to be there for everyone, whether it was for his family, friends, students or soccer team.

On Nov. 1, Perez died from a heart-related ailment during a pickup basketball game at South Middle School (at first it was thought to be a brain aneurysm. He was 48.

Two days later, 2,000 people attacked his wake at Maloney’s Funeral Home in Hauppauge in the afternoon. At night, another 3,000 friends and family showed up.

And on Saturday, several hundred people filled the Smithtown Tabernacle to honor a man who led by example and was called the ultimate role model.

It was difficult new to take – from friends to students and to the players on his team who wept for Ray Perez.

“I know this sounds terrible, because people say, ‘Well, he’s in a better place.’ And of course, I hope that’s true,” Brentwood assistant coach Ron Eden said. “But I can believe that God could believe that he needed Ray more than we needed him down here.”

Ray Perez touched many people and accomplished quite a lot in his short time on earth.

He attended Suffolk Community College and then Buffalo State before returning to his high school as a bilingual consultant in 1969.

“It’s really unusual when that happens,” Vidal said. “With his talent, with his capabilities … That was the measure of the man.

“He came back to carry that inspirational torch. He chose to give his community and his school.”

Perez became a guidance counselor five years later.

After eight year as assistant soccer coach, Perez took over the head job in 1981. He guided the team to the Suffolk County title and s ahre of the state crown with upstate Guilderland in 1989. He was Suffolk coach of the year three times and a staff coach with the Long Island Junior Soccer League. He was a husband (wife Chris), father children, Amy, Ray, Jr, Mark and Melissa) and a deacon at the Smithtown Tabernacle.

To Eden, Ray Perez was the best friend you could ever have.

“His strengths were my weaknesses and my strengths were his weaknesses,” he said. “It was a perfect match. I turned down loads of jobs, college jobs. We were best friends. There was no reason to go anywhere else.”

Best friends, indeed.

When Eden was paralyzed with a spin injury earlier this year, Perez and Lown, who became the Brentwood athletic director, would drive into the city and massage Eden’s legs.

“The lessons he taught weren’t just soccer lessons,” Eden said. “They were lessons in life.”

Brentwood sweeper Sal Curto knew about the lessons.

“He taught everybody,” he said. “He was a great teacher, not only about soccer, but how to be gentlemen.”

Needless to say, Perez’s death shocked the team.

“The team was devastated,” Curto said. “It was a real blow. Everyone was in tears.”

The team is scheduling a memorial tournament for Perez at Brentwood High School for the district’s middle school teams on Dec. 15.

Sachem coach Frank Schmidt can tell you about playing against Perez in tournament. In their 15 years battling Suffolk League I and in the playoffs, their teams probably met 30 times.

“Until the last two years, it was probably like the game,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt remembered one such “the game.”

“It was probably one of Ray’s best memories and one of my worst memories,” he said. “We went to his place and scored two real quick goals in the fifth and seventh minutes. We knew it was going to be a great battle. We had the lead and we didn’t know what to do with it.

“They came back in the second half and tied it and won it in overtime, 3-2. After the game they were chanting – not in our faces – “Refuse to Lose” and “Not on our field!”

“I never remember his teams playing without a lot of intensity,” Schmidt added. “Teams will come out and have a flat half once in a while. I don’t know how much of that Ray and how much of that was Brentwood.”

As intense Perez was on the sidelines with his team, he would be a pussycat when he attended his son’s youth matches. He would take a beach chair and sit down by one of the flags, far away from the action, fans and comments of the other parents.

“He never, never put his two cents in,” Schmidt said. “He never went up to the coach and suggest anything. He wouldn’t say anything. It was almost like he was saying, ‘I’m here to enjoy it and watch my son. I’m not here to espouse my views on soccer.”

No, he did that on field by leading by example. He was a leader as a center halfback at Buffalo State, where he was co-captain of the team (1967 and 1968) with Paul Meyer, now the Great Neck South soccer coach.

“He was a strong leader through example and the other guy who was co-captain would make noise,” Meyer said. “Unofficially, we called him the ‘Loose Good.’ He ran with ease and his touch on the ball was well ahead of his time. He dominated the field of play.

“Whenever we played, I could always remember him looking over his shoulder giving that grin of satisfaction. The pleasant smile in the roughest times in the game.”

Now the next generation of the Perez family is attending college.

His daughter, Amy Perez, who goes to the University of Miami, hurried home when she heard the news.

Perhaps she summed it up best in an emotional but endearing speech to those assembled at the Smithtown Tabernacle.

“He was always there,” she said. “He was always behind me. He was like a rock. He meant the world to me. No one can replace him.”

Vidal understood that.

“His journey here has been cut short, but his contributions will have an impact,” he said. “When I join him someday, I know he will be on my right side.”

by: Michael Lewis