John Raffel
Sports Scene
Senior Justin Raymond was a scoring machine for Gladwin this season and set a new single season scoring record with 58 goals in 25 games. The previous record was 48.
His coach, Jerome Smalley, said Raymond’s single game high was five. He did not score in only four games.
Raymond had 31 goals during the 2017 season.
“I thought he had a good shot a breaking the record,” Smalley said. “Last year’s team had a bunch of scorers. He was the second leading scorer last year and I had four kids score 25 goals. Three of them graduated. He was center-midfielder last year and I moved him to forward. I knew he had a chance. I was hopeful he would break it.
“I told him last year I was going to move him up.”
Raymond is naturally right-footed but was actually was as good of a kicker from his left foot, Smalley said.
“His placement (of the ball) was really strong,” Smalley said. “He’s very talented he took all of our penalty kicks. I think he was 8-for-8.”
Raymond played one year on JV and three of varsity and ironically didn’t score much as a freshman and sophomores.
“He got better every year,” Smalley said. “As a sophomore, he contributed and only had six goals.”