Ray Farmer walked up to Daniel Webster College men’s basketball coach Dave Faucher with an apologetic look on his face.

He was 20 minutes late for practice, and explained to the coach it was all about fatigue.

“He said, ‘Sorry, Coach, I laid down,’?” Faucher said. “I said ‘What do you mean, “laid down”?’?”

Farmer proceeded to tell Faucher he hadn’t slept all night because he was working from 11 p.m.-7 a.m., then went to his 9 a.m. class and was in the library working when he dozed off.

“I was like, ‘You’re kidding me – you work eight hours?’?” Faucher said.

Faucher got a glimpse into Farmer’s world. He is a Nashua High School North alumnus who played sparingly for the Titans and has been away from the game for a few years.

He was originally recruited to go to DWC by Faucher’s predecessor, Jeremy Currier, but stayed for only a short time, as he couldn’t handle school, basketball and being a new parent after the birth of his son, Raymond.

But that was five years ago, and now Farmer is determined to make it all work.

He’s back on the hardwood, a key member of the Eagles team that had gotten off to a historic 9-0 start. He works as a nurse’s assistant from 11 p.m.-7 a.m. at a local health/elderly care facility. He also takes his role as a father seriously, co-parenting with Raymond’s mother.

Oh, and he goes to class full time, looking to get a degree in health care administration.

How did he do last semester? Try three A’s and two B’s.

“That blew me away,” Faucher said. “I’d say to him, ‘How you doing?’ He’d say, ‘I’m doing good, Coach.’ Well, how good? ‘Nothing below a B.’ Amazing.”

“My first class is at 9 a.m.,” Farmer said. “Then it’s like nonstop.
I try to take a nap in between, then I practice at 3 o’clock.

“Then back at it again, either for a game sometimes or right back to work.”

It’s all worth it to Farmer.

“I really wanted to get back into school and get it done,” Farmer said. “It’s a fact of life, getting anywhere without a college degree is hard now.

“I just want to set an example for my son, and that I didn’t get a college degree is something I really want to change. I want to set an example for my son, that I could get a college degree despite everything that’s happened to me.”

“He takes that responsibility very, very seriously, which he should,” Faucher said. “I’m very proud of him, the way he does that, and the dynamics between the two.”

Faucher has seen this before. He once had a player at Dartmouth College, Steve Trundle, who had committed to go through a five-year engineering program in four years.

“He’d study all night, do a project all night and not sleep,” Faucher said. “Go to practice, practice his butt off. No one would know he hadn’t slept, he never said anything. … So I give Ray all the leeway he needs.”

Farmer is trying to make the most of his second chance.

“I messed up when I first came to college,” Farmer said. “Just having my son, it was so tough back then, all the juggling.

“But I learned from my mistakes, and I knew school was my number one priority,
and I wanted to get good grades.”

The second big thing for Farmer is basketball.

“I wanted to play basketball because in high school, I didn’t get to play the way I wanted to,” Farmer said. “So I figure now I at least want to play one year so I can show my son you can always do what you want to.

“It’s more or less for him – to prove to him and myself that I can do it. And for the love of the game, of course; I love basketball.”

So when does he sleep? Farmer grabs an early afternoon nap in the school’s library, and one of his teammates will wake him up in time for either practice or another class.

He may get time for another nap after practice around 6 before he does homework, and then it’s right back at it again beginning at 11.

As for his son, he has him twice a week and every other weekend. He’s at practice a lot.

“And when I have him, I usually don’t sleep that day at all,” Farmer said.

Besides the obvious degree and employment goals, Farmer says he still wanted basketball included because he missed it greatly.

“For the love of the game,” he said. “It was so hard watching a team play. I couldn’t play or participate. … I didn’t get to play the way I wanted to.”

Why didn’t he play much in high school? Well, Farmer was only about 6 feet at the time. After he graduated, he had a growth spurt and is now six-foot-5, leading the Eagles in rebounds at 8.5 a game and averaging just over 10 points a game at forward.

“I guess I’m a late bloomer,” Farmer said. “Basketball is the love of my life since I was 2 years old, since my dad instilled it in me. There’s nothing more I love than basketball, except for my son.”

Returning to the game wasn’t as hard as it could have been.

“Once you get acclimated to the (college) game, it’s definitely a different type of pace,” Farmer said. “I wasn’t used to any of that. But now that I’m getting in game shape, I’m really coming into my own.

“I’m learning more and more every day to try to get better.”

“He just never seems to have a bad day in regard to his spirit, enjoying the game, having fun, being a great teammate, practices hard, plays with a flare,” Faucher said.

Farmer played AAU basketball for current Bishop Guertin High School coach Jim Migneault and was spotted by Currier, who told him, “Hey, we can really use you.”

But he just couldn’t juggle everything back then.

“Being so young, it’s so hard, time management is something you just don’t understand,” Farmer said. “My grades were suffering from trying to take care of my son and work full time.”

But not now. Farmer would always still work out and shoot at the Vagge Gym because it was close to his house. Faucher spotted him and told Farmer whenever he was ready to come back, the Eagles would love to have him.

“He said he’d help me get here,” Farmer said. “I was going to try last year, but things didn’t work out. But this summer, I said, ‘Let’s do everything we can to get me in here.’

“Best decision I ever made, hands down, to come back to college, and to play basketball.”

Farmer wants to do something with nursing and health management.

“I want to help people,” he said. “It’s nice to know what I want to do.”

And a good example for young Raymond.

“It’s more or less for him,” Farmer said. “To prove to him and myself that I can do it.”

Who knows, maybe Farmer is headed for greatness. Trundle wound up being the president and founder of a technology company that deals in home security.

“I think everybody that’s around Ray comes out of the gym a little better than they came in because of his positive spirit,” Faucher said. “It’s all pretty special.”