By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Rivera started out slow in District 32-6A, but with consistency and poise down the stretch, the Lady Raiders earned a playoff berth.
Rivera used a tremendous defensive effort and a balanced offense to earn some big wins and a spot in the postseason.
That effort, led by Willie Brown, has earned the Lady Raiders’ coach the distinction as The Brownsville Herald’s 2016 All-Metro Coach of the Year.
“I’m shocked,” Brown said about receiving the honor. “I tried to get my group to perform as best I could as a coach. Obviously I was the leader, but we had to have some kids that could follow the leader and be able to execute.”
Brown’s defensive philosophy was engrained in his team’s character, as Rivera averaged 18 steals per game while allowing just 37 points per contest.
“I do stress defense and we did work a lot of defense, and it can be grinding in practice,” he said. “But if you can’t score, you can’t win either. We were pretty balanced scoring.”
The Lady Raiders used a team approach to offense as they didn’t have a player that scored in double figures. Rivera’s high scorer was Darcy Cardenas at 9 points per game, and the next three of the top-four scored eight, eight and seven points.
Most of Rivera’s points this season came in transition off turnovers or a scoring opportunity after a defensive stop.
Brown recalled a tough game during the season where he wasn’t able to play every player on the bench. But before he could apologize, his players reassured him that they’d rather win than worry about playing time.
“Everything we did was based on team,” Brown said.
It’s that mentality that helped Brown earn this year’s award, but he gave the credit to his players for always competing with the best interest of the team in mind.
“We just went out and tried to do the best as we could possibly do as a group,” he said. “I can’t be any more proud of the young ladies that I coached this year because of the sacrifices they have made to put themselves in the position that they did.”