Athletes Honored at Annual Varsity Awards Celebration

 

Red Wings highlights included the field hockey and girls’ soccer teams winning NEPSAC championships, girls’ soccer and boys’ ice hockey earning ISL titles, the girls’ basketball team winning the Rivers Holiday Tournament, and the boys’ cross-country team earning the ISL sportsmanship award.

 

This year the school boasted four All-American selections—Brooke Heinsohn ’16 (soccer), Liz Webber ’16 (soccer), Kaitlin Wood ’17 (field hockey) and Tim Dick ’16 (lacrosse). There were 11 All-New England selections, three All-State, five New England All-Star selections, 35 All-League selections, and 29 All-League honorable mentions. Liz Webber and David Rogers ’19 were both named Boston Globe All-Scholastics after earning ISL Player of the Year awards. Also earning recognition were Jack Kolis ’16, who received the Coach Paul F. Costello Courageous Player Award and Kaitlin Wood ’17, who was named the MVP of the NEPSAC Class C Field Hockey Tournament.

 

The James A. Navoni Athletic Prize, given to the male athlete who has contributed most to the advancement of athletics at Rivers, was awarded to Hans Gabriel. A natural athlete who was a true team player and led by example, Hans was a member of both the football and basketball teams for all four years, and co-captained both teams as a junior AND as a senior, an indication of his teammates’ high regard of his leadership abilities. He earned a number of Rivers awards as well as many ISL honors.

 

Winning the Priscilla Wallace Strauss Athletic Prize was Liz Webber, one of the most dominant soccer defenders in the ISL for the past four years. She co-captained the Rivers soccer and lacrosse teams this year and received the 2015 Pioneer Award for soccer. In addition to her many ISL honors, she was this year’s Massachusetts State Player of the Year.

 

Tim Dick ’16 and Ellie Branka ’16 received the ISL Award of Excellence, given to one boy and one girl who “exhibit the Independent School League ideals of integrity, sportsmanship, fair play, and good citizenship while participating as a multi-sport athlete during their ISL career.”

 

The Senior Award for Exceptional Dedication to Athletics, given in memory of Matthew S. Epstein ’89 to those seniors who, while maintaining academic standards, have participated in three varsity sports their senior year and whose example provides an inspiration to younger players, was presented to Sarah Baker ’16, Ellie Branka ’16, and Kendall Trovato ’16.

 

Receiving the Distinguished Service to Athletics Award was Jim McNally, who spent the past twenty years as director of athletics making sure the words on the school’s seal—integrity and perseverance—were central to the athletic experience at Rivers. “He believed that at every level of play, if athletes strived for excellence, did the best that they could, and were well-coached, they—and their opponents—would have a positive experience.”

 

The evening’s speaker was Tayra Melendez ’12, who started 101 games in her career at the University of Rhode Island and was one of 20 players to score more than 1,000 career points. She was the second all-time leader in blocked shots and was just the second player in program history to total more than 1,000 points, 600 rebounds, and 150 blocked shots in a career – a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that she played guard. Tayra has represented Puerto Rico at the international level and will pursue her basketball career as a professional in Puerto Rico this summer.

 

In her speech, Melendez credited her success to three things: hard work, time management, and her support system.

 

“Hard work is not being the best – in fact, hard work is one of the only things that doesn’t require talent at all,” said Melendez. “I learned this from my mother at a very young age and I knew that everything I had, she had sweat for.”

 

“Time management is one of the hardest things to master as a student athlete—8:00 a.m. classes, 11:00 a.m. study halls, 1:00 lunch, 3:00-7:00 practice and film, dinner after film, homework after dinner, and 6 to 8 hours of sleep. Every single day, for two years, I lived and breathed that schedule.”

 

“Finally, my support system. I thank my mother, she has been the greatest blessing - a Puerto Rican mother who did not speak English that well and would cry a countless number of nights because she could not help her daughter with her English homework. But she made sure I went to school every day and would be the first one [in my family] to graduate from college. She was my biggest fan, the worst critic, and the one who believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.”

 

“Coach Pipe asked me not to speak about him, but to me that wouldn’t be right. I consider him a coach, a close friend, and a father. He made sure that when I left here I would be admitted to college if it was the last thing he did. He called me after tough games to make sure I was OK. He’s been through my toughest moments and my greatest accomplishments, and even when I am at my worst he sees greatness in me. When he, as promised, made it my senior night, he probably didn’t realize that despite the fact my real father was there, [Coach Pipe] was all I needed to make that night complete.”

Click here to watch Tayra's speech.