Rockin' Roni
By Josh Griffin
Rarely does a player with a .176 career batting average expect to impact a Division I softball team. Nor does a player who gets her first home run in the middle of her senior season and enters the home stretch on her final season with a .116 batting average on the year.
Those standards do not apply to catcher Roni Rivera, and she is the first to honestly assess her contributions.
"I am not very good," says Rivera. "I have a lot of heart, but little raw talent."
Her self-ascribed lack of talent was an obstacle in her attempt to play softball at a Division I school in California.
"I gave up looking for scholarships my senior year, and decided to try and walk on," said Rivera.
Her search for a softball program brought her to visit Santa Clara University. Upon her visit, Rivera recalls knowing immediately that she would spend her next four years on the Mission campus.
Rivera's dreams of college softball were not immediately realized, however, as she did not know if she would be able to play for the Broncos. One day during her senior year, she came home and her mom asked her if just one coach at one school had called, who would she want it to be? Roni replied by saying Santa Clara, only to find out that former head coach Vicky Rios had called early that afternoon.
Rios told Rivera that she wanted her to play at Santa Clara, but that fell into doubt when Rios left the school, only to be replaced by Marcy Crouch. All worked out in the end, and Rivera started every single game for the Broncos in her first two years.
While getting far more playing time than she had expected entering college, the losses that the team suffered through was troublesome. The team was 11-40 in Rivera's freshman campaign.
"It was a long, hellish year, especially since we were losing so much," said Rivera.
Her sophomore season brought only marginal improvement, as the team finished 17-40. By Rivera's junior year, the team had one of its best years in memory, finishing 25-38. But the season was not all fun and games for Rivera, who had been a model of durability and consistency for her first two seasons.
Rachel Sherman, currently a junior, transferred to Santa Clara last year from West Valley Junior College and began to take some of Rivera's playing time.
"When Rachel came in, it was hard for me to share my show," said Rivera. "I needed to grow a lot, and eventually I realized it was for the good of the team. I chose to grow up. But I did spend some time unhappy. Halfway through the season, I became a better role player and took a vocal approach from the bench."
As a senior, Rivera serves as the personal catcher for junior starter Jaime Forman-Lau, who transferred to Santa Clara from Stanford and has dominated thus far in the season.
"I now can focus on the one game," said Rivera. "At the end of doubleheaders, it can be exhausting."
Her contributions can be measured by the success of the team, which has won 20 games for only the fourth time in the program's history, and is within reach of attaining the best record in program history.
Beyond her presence on the field, Rivera has made her presence known on campus as the president of the Student Athlete Leadership Council. Among the organization's accomplishments in the past two years are the Athlete Ball and the Bronco Battle program, where each team picks one big home game where members of other athletic teams are requested to attend.
Her participation in the program has directed her interest toward eventually becoming a university athletic director.
"I know I can be a positive force in an athletic department," said Rivera. "I love sports, and I know I can do the work."
Besides her plan to study for a post-graduate degree in sports management, Rivera has thought little about life without softball.
"It's been great," said Rivera. "Sometimes I let my mind drift, and I start to think about [the last game of the season on] May 4. It's been up and down for four years, but well worth it. While it hasn't been a wonderful story of athletic accomplishment, it's made me who I am today."