John Ray retires as longtime Monroe High athletic director, and this alum will replace him

John Ray and Chet Hesson have something in common.

Both of them have lived in a lot of different places, but never stopped calling Monroe home.

Ray is retiring after 21 years as Monroe’s athletic director. He will be replaced by Hesson, and the two are spending a few weeks together before Ray leaves in June.

Ray started as Monroe’s athletic director in the fall of 2003. Hesson graduated from the school in 2005.

“Chet was a great all-around athlete,” Ray said. “He came back after 10 years in college athletics. I was as shocked as anybody. He was sitting in a pretty good spot. The next move for him was to be a Division 1 athletic director, Division 2 anyway.

“But he always had been intrigued by this job. We had talked on and off through the years. He would always say, ‘Hey, big guy, when are you going to retire?’”

Ray’s retirement was put off several times before he decided to finally retire.

“I’ll be 73 in June,” Ray said. “That had a lot to do with it. It’s time. It’s all the scheduling. We run 300 busses a year between the high school and middle school. It’s a 24/7 job.”

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Ray graduated from Monroe in 1970, then attended Central Michigan, where he played football. He went on to earn a Masters Degree at the University of Michigan. From there, the addresses changed plenty: Toledo, San Francisco, Ida, then back to Monroe.

He was living in Monroe and teaching and Finney High School in Detroit when the Monroe athletic director job opened up and he went for it, despite never working in athletic administration.

“It was home,” he said.

Ray also was in charge during Monroe’s move from the Mega Conference to the Southeastern and helped transition from a natural grass football field to artificial turf. But when asked about his greatest accomplishments in 21 years on the job, he turned to the human side.

“It’s the personal communication with other ADs and coaches,” he said.

He plans to slow down a bit in retirement.

“My wife and I have a little place in the Irish Hills,” he said. “Will do that in the summer. Kris retired two years ago. We plan to spend 30 days in Europe.”

Ray won’t stop coming to Monroe High athletic events.

“If they let me in,” he joked.

How Chet Hesson went from athlete to athletic director

Ray sees a bright future for Trojan athletics under Hesson.

“He will do things I only thought about doing,” Ray said. “He is real tech savvy and forward thinking. He will do a fantastic job. The community is lucky to have him.

“When you look back in five years, you will see major strides. In 10 years, you might not recognize (the program).”

Hesson was on the basketball and track and field programs at Siena Heights after graduating from Monroe.

He taught a year of history at Summit Academy, then coached several sports at Monroe while attending grad school.

He graduated magna cum laude from Eastern Michigan in 2011 with a Master’s degree in sports management and worked in the athletic department there. That was followed by stints at the University of Hawaii and Stetson University in Florida.

In the fall of 2014, he landed a job at Bowling Green State University as associate athletic director and completed a doctorate in leadership studies from in August 2018. He won the Mid-American Conference Diversity and Inclusion Administrator Award in 2020.

His brother, Grant Hesson, is the former basketball coach at Jefferson, but can’t match Chet’s career winning percentage.

“I am 1-0 as a varsity basketball coach,” he said with a laugh. “I coached a game when I was an assistant and Ryan Marino got sick.”

He will celebrate his 37th birthday in July. His wife, Misha Lamphere, is a member of the staff at Bowling Green. She is a former track and field athlete at Central Michigan.

Even while living in Hawaii, he kept track of his hometown.

“When I first graduated, I though about teaching and coaching,” he said. “Administration eventually happened. For 13 years, it’s been my career. This opportunity came into my orbit and here I am.

“I am very excited to come home and contribute to the community that raised me.”

Hiring some new coaches will be among the first items on his to-do list. Monroe needs new leaders for boys basketball and wrestling, and Chris Clark is coaching the baseball team on an interim basis.

Hesson also would like to address some facility concerns. The swimming pool, tennis courts and locker rooms need upgrades.

Hesson is looking beyond the high school to build Monroe’s athletic program. He wants to improve conditions for athletes at the elementary- and middle-school levels.

“Too much is left to the varsity coaches,” he said. “There are not enough structures in place. When a coach leaves, we want to have structures in place to handle that.”

Monroe faces great competition in almost every sport as a part of the Southeastern Conference. Hesson welcomes that challenge. He equated it to colleges striving to be part of top conferences.

“Everyone wants to be in the SEC,” he said. “You want to be part of the best conference. We need to have the structure in place to compete.”

Hesson would like to expand Monroe’s athletic family.

“We’re eager to have the community come out attend some of our events,” he said. “I’d like to have alumni please reach out if they are interested to learn more. I would be happy to chat with them. We’re focusing on bring people back into the circle.”

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: John Ray, Monroe High athletic director, retiring; Chet Hesson takes over