Roosevelt soccer struggles to accept dedicating a further season to loss

The emblems arrived in a offer at the athletic workplace a 7 days after their initially activity, a reminder one more time would be stuffed with moments of silence for the kinds they’d misplaced.

It had been 18 months due to the fact Roosevelt Higher football’s beloved assistant coach Richard “Dicky” Guillen died at 70 from COVID-19. Nine months due to the fact they final wore “All Perform, No Glory” emblems on their helmets — just one of Guillen’s beloved sayings. Three and a 50 percent months considering that graduation, the working day that should’ve marked a close to an emotional 12 months.

Nonetheless tragedy found them once again. Even though on a drive to the field for a late July apply, head mentor Aldo Parral was not able to shake the past.

“I just kept on expressing, ‘Why? Why?’” Parral stated.

There ended up new helmet emblems in that offer. Not just “All Do the job, No Glory,” but a No. 44 decal. It was the range of a Tough Rider function design with a scruffy beard, a lion’s power and a sweet smile that masked a childhood he fought to escape.

“None of us believed we had been heading to have to engage in one more season for someone again,” senior Jared Andrade explained.

Many years in the past, coaches would arise from the locker area following apply had ended to listen to weights crashing future doorway. Increase. Growth.

Which is how you knew, assistant coach Ernesto Ceja claimed, that Santos Rivera was nonetheless there.

An All-Metropolis working back again in his senior period in 2018, Rivera was revered for his work ethic by Roosevelt coaches and gamers that would follow. Every night, Ceja claimed, he’d have to kick Rivera out of the fitness center so they could lock up.

Block like Santos. Operate like Santos. Perform out like Santos. Coaches preached him, and players wanted to be him. Seniors like Isiah Wright, Alexander Arroyo and Andrade in no way experienced the prospect to engage in with Rivera in a Rough Rider uniform, but he was the local community legend that was real, the child who’d found sufficient to final a life time and channeled it into a Rough Rider uniform caked in dirt.

“Hopefully, some day,” Wright reported, “some of us can fill his footwear.”

Rivera was in that body weight space to survive his previous, to bloom, stated his aunt, Andrea Rivera.

“It was supposed to be like, ‘This child beat each and every odd,’” explained Roberto Ortiz, Roosevelt’s offensive line coach.

In its place, his aunt was left in late July to gaze throughout her eating place desk, losing herself in a image of her nephew’s smile she’ll in no way see yet again, wearing his No. 44 and giving him a kiss on the cheek immediately after a Roosevelt recreation.

“My very poor toddler,” she sobbed.

Rivera’s aunt presented a safe and sound haven. He grew up with a drug-addicted mom who was a sufferer of domestic violence and violent herself, sleeping in a automobile for a time on the streets of Eagle Rock, Andrea Rivera stated. His aunt sooner or later turned his legal guardian, loving him like another son.

When his mother was shot and killed in April 2017 — a criminal offense remaining unsolved — his aunt supplied to consider Santos to counseling. He’d be Okay, he claimed, for the reason that he had her and his football family members.

“He comes from a ton of traumatizing things, and the way to let go via all of his feelings was as a result of soccer,” Wright explained. “A good deal of individuals, they glance up to that.”

Soon after shelling out time at Sacramento Condition University and in the Army, Rivera was living with his aunt, seeking to figure out his subsequent action. On June 2, he remaining her dwelling close to 11:45 p.m. He favored to run at evening. His aunt didn’t feel considerably of it.

He did not appear again the following early morning.

“Pop, where by are you?” Andrea Rivera texted. “I’m starting off to get apprehensive.”

She didn’t find out right up until days later on. According to Sarah Arbalani of the L.A. County coroner’s office environment, Rivera was walking on a dimly lit stretch of the 110 freeway in the early morning of June 3 when he was struck by a automobile. He was admitted to the healthcare facility at 2:47 a.m. and died 20 minutes later.

It’s unclear why he was on the freeway. His aunt thinks he was robbed and left there. The situation is below investigation.

The Rough Riders didn’t find out right up until a 7 days afterwards — graduation day. As Parral was feeding on a celebratory evening meal at an Applebee’s, his son arrived in and broke down, indicating Rivera was dead. Andrade remembers the team’s group chat blowing up as he sat shocked in his home.

“It’s like a single thing after another,” Ortiz stated. “Who are we likely to be mourning future calendar year?”

Rivera desired to keep away from getting a statistic, his aunt explained, yet another child from a inadequate area in East Los Angeles who succumbed to a traumatic qualifications.

The exact night time the workforce observed out, Andrade texted Parral, he stated, telling the coach he wanted to “keep Santos right here with us.” They came up with the idea to incorporate a No. 44 sticker on their helmets, together with the decal for Guillen.

“He’s not neglected,” Andrade mentioned. “And he still has a massive legacy for us at Roosevelt Substantial School.”

There is a restrict to how much the workforce can get over, Ortiz said. But they know Rivera is nevertheless seeing, Ceja stated, in the greatest seat in the household with Guillen.

“We gotta do it once more,” Wright mentioned. “Gotta do it for each of them now.”

Andrade has a eyesight for his initially landing of the 12 months, when it arrives. He’ll cross the objective line and throw up 4 fingers on both equally palms. An ode to No. 44.