Carlinville High School Football: Telegraph Articles

CARLINVILLE - Carlinville's Josh Rives rushed for more than 900 yards and scored 14 touchdowns this season. But when speaking about his talented running back, that's not what most excites Cavies coach Chad Easterday.

"He's only a junior. I get him back next season," Easterday said. "That's exciting."

Rives, who helped lead the Cavies to a 4-1 record and co-championship in the South Central West this season, earned The Telegraph's 2008 Small School Football Player of the Year honor.

"He's very competitive," said Easterday, whose team finished 4-6. "If it meant taking off his left arm for him to score a touchdown, he'd do it. Relentless is probably the best way to describe him."

That competitiveness is what drove Rives to football as a fourth grader.

"I love running the ball, competing, the team-sport aspect of it," said Rives, who would like to either play football or track in college.

Rives, who didn't play football as a sophomore and instead ran cross country, surprised his coach with the talent level and success he brought to the team as a junior.

"I knew that he had speed, I knew that he was quick. I knew he could handle the ball and make people miss," Easterday said. "I was just curious how he would handle the speed of the game and the preparation and I was very impressed with the way he handled those things.

"He came in and he led by example this season."

While Rives' ability to pick up the speed of the varsity game may have surprised his coach, Rives knew he could handle the task.

"I played as a freshman so I knew what to expect," said Rives, whose best game was a 212-yard, five-touchdown performance in the Cavies' 53-0 victory over Roxana Oct. 3. "I knew we had a pretty good team this year, so I thought we'd do pretty well."

And while Easterday is excited to have his leading scorer return next season - even suggesting that Rives likely will line up on defense some next season, Rives is excited to lead a team that he expects to be competitive.

"We didn't do as good as I would have liked this year, but I'm still excited about next year," he said. "We've got a lot of people coming back, a lot of talent coming back, and I think we'll have a good year next year."