Banner Year Celebrated at Varsity Awards Night

Rivers athletes, coaches, parents, and friends gathered at Wednesday’s Varsity Awards Night to celebrate a record year of accomplishments. The annual tradition celebrated both the teams and the individual student athletes whose dedication made the past year such a success.

Red Wings highlights included the girls’ soccer team being named New England Class B Co-Champions and the boys’ basketball team being named ISL Champions, both after undefeated regular seasons. The boys’ ski team was named New England Class B Champions for the second year in a row. Finally, the boys’ ice hockey team won both the ISL Eberhart Division Championship and the Sportsmanship Award. Altogether, seven varsity teams made it into post-season play this year, with a record four quarterfinal games being held on campus in one afternoon this winter.

This year the school boasted two All-American selections (Maclaine Lehan ’14 and Trevor Davock ’15), 11 All-New England selections, five All-State, eight New England All-Star selections, 37 All-League selections, and 25 All-League honorable mentions. Maclaine, Trevor, and Miles Gendron ’14 were Boston Globe All-Scholastic selections, Maclaine was the NSCCA Massachusetts Player of the Year, and Miles received the John Carlton Award as the top boys’ hockey player in Eastern Massachusetts.

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 Brendan Gates ’14, who has received multiple awards and ISL selections for both football and lacrosse during his time at Rivers. Co-captain of both teams as a junior and senior, he will play Division I lacrosse at the University of Hartford in the fall.

Winning the Priscilla Wallace Strauss Athletic Prize was Elizabeth Thayer ’14, a four year All-New England and All-ISL selection in cross-country, the first Rivers cross-country athlete to achieve that distinction. She was also a member of the track and field team, and co-captained both teams this year. She will attend Cornell University where she was recruited for their swim program.

Also honored during the evening with the Distinguished Service Award was retiring Head of School Tom Olverson, for his on-going support of Rivers athletics as both an administrator and a vocal fan. Boys’ varsity lacrosse coach Justin Walker was named ISL Coach of the Year in that sport.

The guest speaker for the evening was Rivers alumnus B. J. Dunne ’06, the youngest Head Men’s Basketball Coach in the NCAA. He chronicled the challenging path he faced before being appointed to the position at Vassar College last year at the age of 25.

After inheriting a team ranked 375th out of 418 Division 3 teams, he ended his first year as head coach within one point, in double overtime, of a conference title. The story behind that remarkable turnaround unfolded as Dunne shared both how he personally got to that position in his life and how he brought his team along with him from failure to success, a success even though it ended without a title.

He related how Rivers “welcomed me with open arms and opened so many new doors for me…Rivers provided me with a direction and purpose and I am forever grateful for that.” He went on to play basketball at Bates College until he was sidelined with an injury at the beginning of sophomore year. Even with little playing time as a junior, and a summer of hard work following that season, he was shocked when he was cut from the team as a senior. But rather than turn his back on a sport he loved, he found a different path as a student assistant coach, and used that experience to earn assistant coaching positions at Babson, Emerson, and Vassar, before being appointed Vassar’s head coach.

“I’ve been knocked down more than once but I have always managed to bounce back,” said Dunne. “Handling adversity has become second nature to me …so when people told me I couldn’t win at Vassar I knew I was in the right place at the right time.”

“For some of you your athletic careers are just beginning, for some they are ending and for others you are taking your talents to the next level,” concluded Dunne. “Take advantage of everything and everyone that Rivers has to offer. Take part of Rivers with you and leave part of you behind. And always remember that passion, energy and enthusiasm are highly contagious, so don’t be afraid to share them on your path to greatness.”

Click here to watch B.J.'s entire speech.