At first, the transfer of Ruben Rivera to Marist High School looked like a major find for the Royal Knights’ baseball program.
Rivera was a proven commodity, a pitcher who while playing for Warren Hills High School in Warren County, knocked off nationally ranked Hunterdon Central two years ago. Rivera spent his first two years of high school at Warren Hills and had the win over previously undefeated Hunterdon Central as the prime line item of his resume.
Rivera was a strapping young man, with great size and strength, an impact player on the mound and with the bat. He was definitely going to help head coach Ron Hayward and the Royal Knights right away.
However, things didn’t go exactly as planned. The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body of high school athletics in the state, determined that Rivera transferred to Marist for athletic purposes rather than academic reasons, and forced the teenager to sit out the entire 2010 baseball season for the transfer.
“I moved in with my Dad and we moved to Brick, then Roselle Park,” Rivera said. “I was looking for a place to go and I really liked Marist because of the school. I knew that Marist would help with my grades. I also liked Coach Hayward. I wanted to come to Marist. I thought it was a good move. I really didn’t think they wouldn’t let me play.”
The NJSIAA’s ruling devastated Rivera.
“It broke my heart,” Rivera said. “I have been playing baseball all my life since I was 4 years old. When they told me I couldn’t play, I was so upset. I didn’t know what I could do.”
“Personally, I thought it was unfair,” Hayward said. “There are a lot of rules that don’t make sense. This was a separate case. They said that he transferred because of me. That wasn’t it. It was really tough on him.”
A lot of other young men might have instantly packed up their belongings and headed to a school where he could play right away, like the public schools in either of the two districts where he resided that year.
“But that’s not me,” Rivera said. “I made my decision to come to Marist and I was going to stick with it. I was 100 percent sure I made the right choice. I was going to work through it. Sure, it was very tough on me, but I was going to stick with it and work harder to get better and better. I knew that eventually I was going to get back on the field.”
“Honestly, I was a little surprised he stayed,” Hayward said. “But he believed in me and felt like I was going to be the one to help him become the best player he could be. I admire that faith.”
Rivera has been with the Royal Knights since the season started earlier this month and he’s been playing like a young man on a mission.
“He’s angry and he’s playing like he’s angry,” Hayward said. “He worked hard in the off-season and came back ready to finally take it out on the field.”
Maybe the year away has done wonders for Rivera, because he’s returned this season better than ever.
“He’s a much better pitcher now,” Hayward said. “He’s big and strong [6-foot-3, 235 pounds], but he’s not just a power pitcher. He mixes up his pitches well. He has four credible and usable pitches, his fastball, changeup, curveball and slider. He’s been clocked at 88 [miles per hour] but he’s consistently in the 85-to-86 range. He definitely has all the tools to be a big-time pitcher.”
But Rivera is also a threat at the plate as well.
“He could be a designated hitter on the next level, but his future is on the mound,” Hayward said. “That’s where he gets his success.”
Rivera has done a lot of both so far for the Royal Knights, who struggled at the beginning of the season, getting tattooed in some early losses, but have come on like gangbusters in recent weeks, earning big wins against Hoboken and Memorial, inflicting the 10-run rule on both teams, which had never happened before in Hudson County history.
Last week, Rivera fired a three-hitter against Memorial, striking out 12 in the process and delivered two RBI in the 13-3 win. Rivera also had two hits and three RBI in a 10-1 win over Ferris.
For his efforts, Rivera has been selected as The Hudson Reporter Athlete of the Week and the first such honoree in the spring scholastic sports campaign.
Hayward said that he’s not surprised at all by Rivera’s contributions.
“I knew he was a big-time player,” Hayward said. “All he needed was a chance. He’s a bulldog and he’s a competitor. I like the relationship I have with him and I know the other kids on the team look up to him. He loves the environment here and he knows he’s going to get a chance to do well here.”
“It felt really good to be back on the field,” Rivera said. “I was excited to be able to pitch. I wanted to show my teammates that I could get the job done. I feel like I’ve been doing pretty good, but I have to keep working and get better every day. I guess I had a pretty solid week. As a team, we’ve bounced back and playing much better now. We’re on a streak now. We have to keep it going.”
Rivera is working on his grades to get into college, but more than likely, he’ll have to take the junior college route to get to the next level. Several JUCOs in Texas, Rhode Island and Florida have expressed interest in Rivera.
It’s a route that former Marist ace pitcher Fabian Roman took and he’s done well at Odessa Junior College in Texas. Rivera and Roman were teammates on the Jersey City RBI summer team that played at Yankee Stadium and went to the RBI World Series, so Rivera knows Roman well and understood the path he had to take.
In the meantime, Rivera is going to do his best to lead the Royal Knights for the remainder of this season.
“It was tough,” Rivera said. “I had a dream and they took my dream, one year of my dream, away from me. I know now I have to play every game like it’s my last. I think the struggles I went through, leaving one school, then going to another and then another, then sitting the whole year has definitely made me a stronger person. I have more determination now and more focus. I’m going to go and get it.” – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.