(Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: To All of our followers and fans, especially the Roosevelt Rough Riders Nation, we now bring you our special story about the late, Santos Rivera. Although some time has passed since that mournful summer day, we’ve decided to present this during our culture’s and our community’s annual “Dia De Los Muertos” occasion. This story comes from our perspective here at East L.A. Sports  Scene Productions.  

In commemorating the death of this young and kind person, we can very easily recall Santos Rivera, the 5-9, 230 pound, FullBack/Middle LineBacker, and Gentle Giant of the Roosevelt High “Rough Riders” football team during his amazing career. He was also a dynamic student and member of its very caring, loving, and supportive student body, during his varsity career from 2017-2019. Although some time has now passed since his tragic death, Rivera’s memory lives on with this 2022 team’s wearing of his name and jersey number on their helmets. We felt that this would be our most appropriate time to publish our story in his honor.

What we would like to do with, and for, Santos’ mourning family members, his friends, his teammates, his former classmates, is to encourage all to pause for a moment and bow their heads in a reverent manner for the much deserved “Moment of Silence”…the universal act of remembering and memorializing the loss of a dearly beloved person, be they a father/mother, son/daughter, sister/brother, close relative, a friend, work colleague, teammate, or in this case, just a decent and loving young man who was only 19 years of age.

We’ve also included a photo gallery that captures much of the essence of what truly motivated him as a student-athlete who loved competing and representing, not only his football team, the Roosevelt Rough Riders, but also his community of Boyle Heights.

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Sadly, Santos met his death in an unfortunate accident that occurred in June, After the news spread in its rippling effect and it officially reached his former teammates, Coaches, classmates, teachers, and his neighbors from the community, the unbearable reality eventually was sadly faced by all who knew him. To many, it was not believable that their dear friend had passed away at such a young age. He is survived by his Guardian and Aunt, along with additional family members.

On Tuesday, June 28th, his Memorial was held at his beloved Alma Mater, Theodore Roosevelt High School’s campus gymnasium. And right before the Lincoln game on 8/26/22, Head Coach Aldo Parral, his Coaching Staff, and the entire team commemorated Santos by placing his name and his number in decals on their helmets.

Santos has left us way too soon, but he will always be well-remembered by his coaches, teammates, classmates, his community of Boyle Heights, and of course, his loving Familia.

In closing our piece, I’d like to add that it was great to watch him play while leading his devoted “Band of Rough Rider Brothers” onto the field and into those weekly, seasonal battles, and of course, the “East L.A. Classic” during his Roosevelt career. He was a determined and disciplined player who played each down with 100% effort and followed his school motto of “Hit the Line Hard, Don’t Flinch” in every game he played. Fortunately, his memory will also live on by watching some of the games that we called on our “play-by-play.”

For those of you who would like to see Santos compete in several of our game “play-by-plays”, please go to the High School Sports tab on our website and search for a Roosevelt game during 2018 and 2019.

May Santos Rest In Eternal Peace Along with All of his other Fallen Rough Riders!