Basketball player shoots, scores award

When Jose Rivera came to Citrus College from Northern California, he never expected to accomplish as much as he has. His accomplishment include helping his team make it to the California Community College Athletic Association Championships for the third consecutive year, being named the Western State Conference MVP, and being named to the men's basketball First Team All-State.

Now Rivera has another honor to add to his list: Citrus College male athlete of the year.

"It came from trying to win," said Rivera, who is referred to as "Hose" by his team. "It's not something I was really even striving for; I was just trying to get W's."

Wins are something the team had a great abundance of this year with a perfect 12-0 conference record and a season record of 29-3.

"Winning drives me," he said. "Why play if you're not going to win? Everything in life is about competition."

Rivera is honored to receive this award, but thinks many of his teammates could have been chosen for it.

"I had a pretty good year and I was proud of how I did. But this was unexpected and they could have chosen a number of people on the team for this award," Rivera said. "I think we deserve ‘male athletic team of the year.'"

According to the Citrus College athletics website, 10 players from the team have signed letters of intent with four-year schools to play basketball, the highest of any team in the state.

Head coach Rick Croy thinks Rivera definitely has something to do with this.

"Iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. Jose is a very strong example of that," Croy said. "He raised the bar in our program in many areas."

Rivera attributes much of his success to coach Croy. The two of them have a common connection as they both played for the same coach in high school. It was this coach who referred Rivera to Croy and Rivera feels very fortunate to have been able to play at Citrus.

Along with Croy, Rivera attributes his success to his past coaches as well.

"I've had good coaches going all the way back to middle school," he said. His godfather was his coach in middle school and taught him about the game. He knew there were people who were more talented than him, so he had to work that much harder to be better.

All through high school, Rivera never lost more than four or five games in a season. "I've been blessed with good coaches and good teams," he said.

Croy thinks Rivera is "very deserving of his honor" because of how he mentors the younger players, sets a great example, and carries himself like a champion.

"There's a lot of equity at Citrus College for Jose. He put in a ton of work here," Croy said.
Croy said the coaches in the athletic department collectively choose who the athletes of the year will be, and that Rivera was chosen because of "how much he's grown since he's been here."

"We've had some great leaders here and I think he's the best leader we've [ever] had," Croy said

As one of the ten players from his team who received scholarships, Rivera his signed on to play at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, closer to where he played high school ball at De La Salle in Concord.

Both he and Croy expect that he will be a great addition to the team at Pacific.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen, but in my head I'm going over there to compete for a starting spot," Rivera said.

Rivera hopes to be able to play professional ball somewhere, but knows he needs to have other options. Thankfully, a high quality education at Pacific will help him with that.

"I've got basketball paying for a nice education for me and to open doors for me, but I'm going to try and ride this thing as long as I can," he said.

He is a communications major, but is still unsure of what kind of career he will pursue with that degree.

"Hopefully Ill figure that out in the next few years," he said.

Success like Rivera has achieved could easily change a person, but not Rivera.

"I think if I let it change me, it will change for the worse," Rivera said. "I'll keep playing the same and doing the same things that got me honored."