Athlete Spotlight: Ben Raimer
Update: Raimer surpassed the school record of 1,132 points set by Neal Giorgi in 1984 in the opening minutes of the Feb. 15 game against Dean Tech.  Paul Guillotte/file
BEN RAIMER
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 McCann Tech, SeniorGuard, No. 15 |
Raimer, a senior guard on the McCann boys' basketball team, scored the 1,000th point of his three-year Hornets career last week. With 5:32 left in the fourth quarter, Raimer completed a 3-point play to cap off a 39-point outburst in a home win over Smith Vocational. Raimer's previous game high in points was 32 but with a road game against St. Mary's looming later in the week, he stepped up his game in order to give the home fans the treat he felt they deserved.
"The whole three years I've been at McCann I've really enjoyed playing at home because the fan base gets really loud in there," Ramier said. "The fans and the community have really been great to me, so I really wanted to do it at home as a way to give back to them."
There's no question there would have been a few people who would have made the trip down to Westfield in case Raimer came up short against Smith Voc, but it's a long drive the Hornets' senior didn't want his friends and family to make. To be sure his game was a sharp as it could be, Raimer stayed after practice for an extra 45 minutes the night before the Smith Voc game.
"He was pretty confident," McCann head coach Justin Kratz said. "The night before he stuck around practice for an extra 45 minutes shooting free throws. I was trying to tell him not to put too much pressure on himself, but he looked at me and said, 'Coach, don't worry. I got it.'
"He wasn't cocky. He was just confident. He's gotten 32 in a game before, so I knew it wasn't out of the realm of possibility. After the first quarter when he scored 14 points, I just knew it was going to happen tonight."
Raimer rifled off 14 points in the first quarter of the game and netted 12 more in the second quarter to go into halftime with a total of 26. A speedy guard with a great ability to penetrate, Raimer is known for jumping into passing lanes and sprinting back up the court for an easy two points. He scored his last three points of the game with a drive to the hoop. Raimer was fouled on the play and the ball rolled around the rim and went in to put him one point shy of a 1,000.
A few seconds later, he knocked down the foul shot to become the first 1,000-point scorer in Kratz's six years coaching the team and the latest one since Heather Malloy broke the barrier in 2008.
"That was the first time this year that the ball rolled around the rim and went in instead of popping out," Raimer said. "It took a nice hometown roll for me. It was a great feeling. It's hard to think of any other moments that can top that. It has to be my favorite sports moment in my high school sports career. My good friend Robbie Burke just scored 1,000 points for Hoosac Valley, and it really feels like a great honor."
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"That 45-minute time period that I stayed after practice I shot about 50-75 free throw attempts," Raimer said. "I think I knocked down 8 of 14 [Smith Voc]. I wanted to make sure that was an improvement. I look at myself as a role model for the team, so I wanted to set a good example and work on something I needed to improve on."
As for the way the game turned out, Raimer said he never could have imagined an ending quite like that one.
"I don't think you can ever expect to score 39 points in a game," Ramier said. "You can always hope that happens and if things go right for you, it could happen. I was just lucky that all of my shots were going down that night. The guys did a good job of finding the open man, and as soon as I got some separation, I was able to get my shot off. Everything just seemed to be going in the hole for me."
It's not often that a high school player can reach 1,000 points in just a three-year span, but as soon as Raimer stepped on the court as a sophomore, Kratz knew he was dealing with someone special.
"You could tell right away that he was definitely athletic," Kratz said. "In his first game at Lenox, you could tell he just did things the right away. He didn't start right away, and he scored just three points against Lenox. If you ask him today, he will still tell you that it was his traveling call late in the game that cost us the win."
Raimer got off to a rocky start in the game but has averaged double-digit points in every game since. He scored 320 points in his sophomore year and then came up with 387 last season. He's nearly scored 300 points this year and still has six more games to go in the regular season and possibly a few postseason games as well.
So what is it that makes him such a lethal scorer?
"It’s definitely his athleticism," Kratz said. "He's got great body control and he's strong, so he's able to finish even when he gets fouled. He's always been the type of kid to make a pass to his teammates. He's not really worried about scoring points. He's more worried about winning the game. You really can't double-team him or he'll find his teammates for easy shots. I think in many ways that helps him as a scorer because he's not one dimensional, like he's just a shooter.
"In the Smith Voc game, they were doing anything they could to stop him from scoring his 1,000 points, but once they started double- and triple-teaming him, he was able to get his teammates involved and they had to back off of him. He still needed five points for awhile, but once he started finding his teammates, they had to back off of him."
Raimer needs just 24 points to pass Al Giorgi on McCann's all-time list of leading scorers. After that, he'll set his sights on Neil Giorgi, who holds the boys' record of 1,132.
That doesn't seem to be a concern to Raimer, though, who is more focused on McCann wining a second straight Tri-County League title and doing well in the playoffs.
"This week coming up is the biggest week of the season for us," Ramier said. "We have away games against two of the toughest teams in our division. If we can win those two games, we have a chance to play Renaissance, a team that we're tied with for first in the division. If we can win that game, that will put us in a real good shape heading into the Western Mass. tournament."
