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Add Piner Award to Rivas' list of accomplishments

BY MARCUS HENRY | marcus.henry@newsday.com

December 5, 2007

East Meadow senior linebacker Alex Rivas can add the Piner Award to his long list of accomplishments. Rivas, who received the National Football Foundation's Jay Fiedler Award as Nassau's top scholar athlete on Sunday and Tuesday night was named Newsday's Thorp Award winner as the best player in Nassau, now can also be referred to as the county's top linebacker.

East Meadow coach Vinny Mascia isn't surprised at the honor. "He meant everything to the defense," Mascia said. "Every defensive scheme we put together was built around him. And we needed him this season because we graduated 36 seniors last year."

Rivas responded to the faith the coaching staff placed in him by putting on a defensive show this season. The 5-10 senior had 93 tackles, five sacks, three forced fumbles and one recovered fumble. Rivas, who had more than 200 tackles in his career, led the team in that category the last three seasons.

In addition to his statistical accomplishments, Rivas played on winning teams and led the Jets to the 2006 Nassau Conference I title.

"What made him such a special player was that he came into games knowing teams were specifically trying to stop him," Mascia said. "He knew it, they knew it and everybody knew it."

Hofstra, Princeton, Massachusetts and Columbia are among the schools showing interest in Rivas. He has yet to decide on a college destination.

"I can't even begin to tell you how fortunate I feel that our program has had student athletes like Alex come through it the last few years," Mascia said. "Having him up for all of these awards ... You really can't describe it. It's a tremendous compliment to the kid."