Raley initially came out for cross-country just to help him get in shape for basketball. It turned out to be his best sport. He finished last in his first ever cross-country meet as a sophomore.
By his Junior year he was fifth in the region. His senior year he improved to fourth in the region and went on to finish 29th in the state meet.
Lenny also excelled in track. His senior year, he set school records with times of 2:01 in the half mile and 4:34 in the mile. Sam Love eventually broke those records. Raley’s 2:01 half mile was run at the state meet his senior year. That effort scored one point for Trigg County.
It turned out that Trigg won the state meet by exactly one point.
Raley was an outstanding student and person of exceptional moral character. He was named the first ever Wildcat of the Year at graduation ceremonies along with the female honoree Rhonda Hunter.
After graduating from Trigg County, Lenny enrolled at Western Kentucky University. There, he walked on Western’s nationally ranked Cross-Country team. He also ran track for Western.
Raley lettered in those running sports for Western, which was quite an accomplishment. He went on to graduate from Western with a BS degree in Marketing. Raley then entered the retail world with Footlocker.
He spent much of the next 23 years with their firm, serving as store manager and eventually district manager. Working for Footlocker took Raley to eight different places that he called home. He worked in Columbia and St. Louis, Missouri. He then made moves to Somerset, Louisville and Lexington, Ky. Raley also worked in Fayettville, North Carolina and Salt Lake City, Utah. His last stop was at Mount Washington, Ky.
Lenny left Footlocker a couple of years ago to work for Shoe Carnival.
Currently you can find Lenny residing in the Shepherdsville, Kentucky area and working at a new job. He just recently went to work for the Bullitt County school system in a mentoring program, and is serving as cross-country and track coach as well as helping in basketball.
He has been married to the former Beth Ann Williams from Mayfield for 22 years. They have two children. Sarah is a 16-year old sophomore and Jeremy is a freshman. Both attend Bullitt East High School. Jeremy is following in his dad’s footsteps as he runs cross-country and track.
Lenny’s current hobbies are being a sports enthusiast, running and reading.
To read the conclusion to this story, pick up the latest edition of The Cadiz Record.
