The College Basketball season will be tipping off in about three months. But prior to high school graduation, an elite group of recent graduating seniors continued to add more accolades to their already accomplished careers. On June 15th, the inaugural Chris Rivers Rapp Senior Leadership Awards were distributed to fifteen graduating athletes across four western states. Recipients who were all standout basketball players were selected for displaying characteristics of grit, teamwork, and brotherhood throughout their basketball season. Winners were chosen from a pool of over 150 student athletes that participated in leadership seminars presented by Christopher Rivers and received nominations from high school coaches, event directors, local media and other regional influencers.
Throughout the season Rivers traveled the country hosting “Team Huddles” to more than 30 teams where he shared themes such as: Leading by example, staying in the present, and overcoming adversity. Rivers has seen firsthand how important these traits can be in developing winning cultures during his thirty years in the basketball industry as a teacher, high school coach, AAU program director, sports marketing executive and NIL management consultant.
Long before forming CRR, Rivers a native of Oakland, California was four sport varsity athlete in high school highlighted by a short career as a reserve point guard at Northern California powerhouse Bishop O’Dowd. During that experience he would learn to embrace the principles of teamwork and hard work while learning valuable life lessons through triumphs and obstacles.
Upon entering college, he found himself growing through setbacks after being cut from the UC Davis Aggies freshman basketball team. This initial disappointment led him to develop an interest in coaching, receiving tutelage from UC Davis Aggies coaching legend Bob Williams. Eventually, he would begin sharpening skills learned from the hours spent in the Aggies coaching office and create one of the first AAU programs (Davis Runners) in Davis, California.
A year later he would parlay that experience into being selected Head Coach of a Northern California 14U all-star team led by future NBA Champion Eddie House and current Sacramento Yellow Jackets Director Mickey Hope, that had an amazing season winning over eighty-five percent of their games.
These early coaching opportunities would change the way Rivers views the importance of mentoring young people and begin to fully value how recognizing characteristics in young men off the court would lead to the development of well-rounded men way after the ball stops bouncing.
Photo Courtesy: Christopher Rivers
The 2024 Chris Rivers RAPP Senior Leadership Award winners are a distinguished collection of student athletes. Some of the winners were Parker T. Ackerman (Canby HS, Canby, Oregon), Pearson “Peanut” Carmichael (Summit HS, Bend, Oregon), Samuel Chavarin (Bishop O’Dowd HS (Oakland, California), DeMaree “4klefty” Collins (Skyview HS, Vancouver, Washington), Kallen Gutridge, (Wilsonville HS, Wilsonville, Oregon), Trevor Henning (Mount Si HS, Mount Si, Washington) Tanner Overby ( Lincoln HS, Portland, Oregon) and Marley Zeller (Central Catholic HS, Portland, Oregon).
Nominations for the 2025 Leadership award winners will begin this November. For more information, follow Christopher Rivers on Instagram @TheRealCrivers and Twitter @ChrisRiversTSM, or visit www.ChrisRiversRAPP.com.
Published by: Khy Talara
