Academics came first for Timber goalie

Family’s expectations kept Ray Burse on a path to success

By steve brandon

The Portland Tribune, Apr 15, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

BURSE

It would make sense if the Portland Timbers’ new goalkeeper proves to be a student of the game. Ray Burse had the importance of studies drilled into him at a young age.

“I used to go to summer camps,” Burse says. “But they were math and reading camps. I didn’t do summer soccer camps. It was strictly academics.”

His parents in Kentucky continue to stress the importance of education. Burse, 23, left Ohio State after three years when FC Dallas of Major League Soccer drafted him, but he flew back and forth between Dallas and Columbus to earn a degree in American history last summer.

“As a family, we’ve always had a basic expectation that everyone would reach their fullest potential,” says Kim Burse, his mother. “A bachelor’s degree is the first step. But you need a master’s or something beyond that.”

Raymond Burse, the goalie’s father, reinforces those thoughts to “Ray J,” the name they’ve always used for the oldest of their three sons.

“Education was always the No. 1 thing in my family, particularly growing up in the South,” the elder Burse says. “They viewed it as an equalizer, and once you got a good education, nobody could take that away from you.”

Raymond and Kim Burse are shining examples of what education can do, too. Kim earned her MBA from the University of Kentucky, became the first black woman to serve in the state Cabinet and is vice president for corporate services at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky. Raymond was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford who went on to be president at Kentucky State and is vice president and general counsel for General Electric Consumer and Industrial in Louisville.

The Timbers’ Burse remembers his dad taking an active role in his schooling.

“I had to write book reports in third grade,” Burse says. “My dad – he’s so obsessed with perfection – went through 10 drafts with me on one of them. I finally got to bed at 1 a.m. And when I woke up, my paper was completely changed; he’d stayed up and kept working on it.”

No wonder, then, that his father speaks of Burse’s college education in the plural: “We allowed him to go into the MLS draft and leave school early, with the stipulation that he finish – we didn’t go to Ohio State to play soccer, we went there to get a degree.”

Family and the Catholic faith are important to the Burses, too.

“You must find out what God wants you to do, and pursue it,” Kim Burse says, adding that the children “went to church every Sunday for a reason.”

Ray J’s parents say they are fine with him focusing on pro soccer, for now.

“God doesn’t want everybody to be the same,” Kim Burse says. “I tell him, I don’t care what you choose, just do your best.”

Raymond Burse was an excellent athlete himself. He was the first African-American to earn “Blues” (letters given for competition against Cambridge) at Oxford, where he took part in crew, basketball, rugby and track and field (hurdles and sprints).

“There’s nothing like seeing someone achieve their dream, and playing professional soccer is something Ray J’s talked about all his life,” his father says. “We’re proud of him and happy for him.”

When Burse’s soccer playing days are over, he might coach the sport, or follow his father into law, or get into sports administration. “Maybe be an athletic director, hopefully at Ohio State,” he says.

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