At the age of 10, having failed in his lifelong ambition to become a vigilante vampire werewolf – otherwise known as a vamp-wolf – Ray Hamill finally admitted defeat and turned his attention full-time to daydreaming instead.
A mere few decades later, the world of crime fighting’s loss is now the literary world’s gain.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Ray moved to the United States after graduating college, spending time in Boston and San Francisco before settling among the redwoods in Northern California, where he has worked as a journalist for the past 20 years.
In that time he has published three books, including his most recent, Help, My Horse is Drowning!, a humorous look at the world of sports and the life of the enthusiastically delusional athlete in us all.
He previously published the outrageously satirical Free the Leprechauns! as well as the semi-autobiographical Help Me, Im Irish! - a book about the non-meaning of life.
Ray is also the host of a weekly sports talk radio show broadcast locally in Northern California on Blue Ox Community Radio, and a sports blog at barstoolfanatics.com.
By Ray Hamill — The Ferndale Wildcats and the Ferndale community continues to set the standard when it comes to sportsmanship in the H-DNL. The smallest high school in the league was […]
By Ray Hamill — An exciting finish to the H-DNL basketball season went right down to the wire, with one of the most thrilling endings of the year last Friday night. St. […]
The Cal Poly Humboldt men’s basketball team suffered their second straight loss on Thursday night, falling 70-65 at Cal State Dominguez Hills, the No. 14 team in the nation. The loss dropped […]
By Ray Hamill — As champions of the Big 5, the Arcata Tigers should have gotten the opportunity to host a first-round North Coast Section playoff game in boys basketball. Unfortunately for […]
By Ray Hamill — With the opening rounds of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs over, eight of the 13 local schools to qualify remain in contention, including six girls programs. And […]
By Ray Hamill — Playing against a school five times their size, the McKinleyville Panthers rose to the challenge with a gutsy and composed performance in their North Coast Section playoff opener […]
By Ray Hamill — The McKinleyville boys bowed out of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs on Wednesday night, falling 61-58 to Marin Catholic in a hard-fought game at McKinleyville High. Somehow […]
By Ray Hamill — It was a disappointing ending to what was a memorable season. On Tuesday night, the Arcata girls lost their North Coast Section basketball playoff opener to Montgomery, falling […]
The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team closed out the regular season with a fifth straight win on Tuesday night, defeating Lassen 71-63 at CR. The Corsairs, who are guaranteed a […]
By Ray Hamill — The H-DNL girls teams fared better than the league’s boys teams in the opening night of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs on Tuesday. While three of the […]
After a 12-day layoff between games, the Del Norte Warriors won their North Coast Section playoff opener on Tuesday night, but other than that it was a disappointing night for the H-DNL […]
By Ray Hamill — The Del Norte boys and Arcata girls were crowned league champions at Saturday’s H-DNL Wrestling Championship at Arcata High School. The Warriors claimed five of the 14 individual […]
The 46th annual Foggy Bottom Milk Run will take place on Sunday, March 9 in Ferndale. Registration is now under way for the event, which is presented by the Six Rivers Running […]
By Ray Hamill — Some of this week’s North Coast Section basketball playoff games will be broadcast live on local radio. The Beat 95.1 FM will broadcast three games, starting on Tuesday […]
By Ray Hamill — The North Coast Section basketball playoff brackets were announced on Sunday, with 13 of the 18 H-DNL varsity programs qualifying, including seven girls teams. Three local teams have […]
By Ray Hamill — There truly is no other sporting event on the North Coast that captures the imagination of the local community quite like the Dick Niclai tournament. And that was […]
The dynasty is alive and well. College of the Redwoods basketball has rarely looked this good, and on Saturday afternoon the Corsairs defeated Feather River 94-78 to clinch the program’s fourth Golden […]
The Cal Poly Humboldt women extended their winning streak to four games in basketball for the first time since February 2020 with a dramatic 59-58 road victory over San Francisco State on […]
By Ray Hamill — We see a shift at the top in our final boys Power Rankings of the season. After winning Friday night’s Dick Niclai championship game over rival Arcata, the […]
