Ransom Everglades’ Juan Rivera is the Miami-Dade Boys’ Scholar Athlete of the Year
Juan Rivera, like many soccer players his age, is a big fan of Cristiano Ronaldo.
But unlike the Portuguese superstar, Rivera made his impact for four years on the high school pitch by stopping goals instead of scoring them.
One of the most critical by Rivera, a defensive midfielder at Ransom Everglades, came this past season in the regional finals against rival La Salle in a 1-0 win to send the Raiders to the state semifinals.
“I was covering La Salle’s top striker and they came in on a counter attack and I broke it up before he could score. We went down a few minutes later and scored (on a corner kick) and ended up winning the game to make it to state,” Rivera said. “I’ll never forget that.”
Rivera made it a habit of making such plays for four years at Ransom on his way to earning two first team All-Dade selections and becoming an All-State honoree his junior year.
In the meantime, Rivera maintained a 3.66 unweighted GPA at Ransom and scored a 1450 on his SAT.
It’s that combination of success on and off the field which makes Rivera this year’s Miami Herald Boys’ Scholar Athlete of the Year for Miami-Dade County.
“It’s just about working with the people around you and I always had supportive teachers and coaches and teammates that helped me along the way,” Rivera said.
Rivera, who moved to Miami from Texas when he was in the fifth grade, started playing soccer the following year. Until that point, Rivera had only played individual sports like golf.
But Rivera quickly fell in love with the camaraderie he witnessed in soccer and became the first person in his family to play soccer.
Rivera quickly became an impactful member of Ransom’s soccer team upon reaching high school. That sense of togetherness was evident as the Raiders made it through a tough Class 3A bracket all the way to the state final.
“We created such a tight-knit team,” Rivera said. “We brought it all onto the field and it was like playing with brothers out there and just having fun.”
Rivera plans to major in economics at Haverford College where he will continue to play soccer. While he is still figuring out exactly what he wants to do career wise he plans on attending the business school there and perhaps founding his own company one day.
In the meantime, the soccer field will always be his safe haven.
“It’s an escape from the real world,” Rivera said. “Whenever I have something unpleasant happen I can just go to the soccer field and connect with people there and have fun.”
