rivera named head softball coach

Roni Rivera, a former Division I player and assistant, has been hired as head softball coach at Muhlenberg.

Rivera comes to Muhlenberg after three years at Dartmouth College, where she served as first assistant coach. The Big Green finished in second place in the Ivy League Northern Division the last two years and third overall the year before that. Rivera served as primary coach for infielders and catchers while assisting with hitting, outfield and pitching.

Rivera is a 2003 graduate of Santa Clara University, where she had a successful softball career. She was a recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was given the team’s Most Inspirational award. She was chosen as an Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar in 2002 and 2003 and was named to the West Intercollegiate Softball League All-Academic team twice.

The president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and a member of the Student-Athlete Leadership Council, Rivera was selected to represent Santa Clara at the 2002 NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference. She also won the Carol Williams Award as the senior student-athlete who best exemplifies the ideals of leadership and community service

After graduating Santa Clara with a degree in history, Rivera earned a master’s in sports administration from the University of Massachusetts while serving as a graduate assistant at Mt. Holyoke College. During the summer of 2004, she was an administrative assistant and softball instructor at Dan Duquette Sports Academy in Massachusetts.

In 2005, Rivera was a volunteer assistant coach at Cal State Northridge, where she worked extensively with the catchers who anchored the fourth-best defense Division I (.977 fielding percentage).

Rivera replaces Ruth Gibbs, who retired in May following a 12-year tenure at Muhlenberg.