CHESTERFIELD, S.C. – It was right around three years ago when Raeleigh Rivers’ mother, Janet, posed a simple question.
“She wanted to know what my goals were,” said Rivers, who had picked up playing basketball in middle school and is now on Chesterfield High’s varsity squad. “I told her I wanted to make history at Chesterfield High School.
“I told her that I wanted people to remember my name.”
That conversation was one of the first things Rivers thought of Friday night as an emotional week for the Golden Rams senior likely reached its peak on one final breakaway layup.
Her last bucket of the night in a big win over Central gave her 30 points for the contest. More significantly, it also put her at over 1,000 for career – the first CHS girls’ basketball player to accomplish that feat in Rams history.
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Her teammates mobbed her, signs lauding her accomplishment were waved. At one point, the crowd even chanted Rivers’ name.
But through it all, Rivers’ mother was foremost on her mind. One of the driving forces that talked her into playing basketball in the first place, Friday’s historic accomplishment came just a little over a year after her mother died in late January 2022.
“It was just emotional because I felt like I had accomplished that goal that I had told her I wanted to complete,” Rivers said of her feelings in the moment. “She was the only thing I could think about because once I got those last points to get to 1,000, I felt like she was right there with me.
“…I just felt like she had her arms wrapped around me. I felt at peace and comforted.”
The week leading up to the game was much more difficult, Rivers admitted. But her coaches and teammates were right there helping her every time she stepped on the court − and she never missed a practice or game.
Neither did her mother, who was her biggest supporter through it all, Rivers said, making last season all the more trying as she dealt with doubts about playing basketball anymore.
“I kind of felt like I really didn’t have a purpose anymore to be playing that sport,” she said. “I kind of went downhill a little bit and started drifting away from it. But then I realized that wasn’t what she wanted me to do. She wanted me to keep going, and so I picked myself back up and said, ‘I’m going to do it for her.’”
It’s that same mindset and driving force that allowed Rivers to become one of the state’s premier scorers. A four-year captain and all-state selection the past two seasons, she was also selected as one of the top five 2A seniors by the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association for this season.
Her emergence has helped the Rams grow into one of the area’s top programs with a No. 6 SCBCA state ranking. The Rams have posted back-to-back double-digit win campaigns for the first time in at least a while, if ever, coach Nicholas Jolly said.
“She made a dramatic jump from her freshman year,” Jolly added. “You talk about a player that spends a lot of time in the gym putting up shots. Self-made in terms of her shot in a lot of ways. She’s a natural athlete, but she’s built herself into a threat behind the 3-point line – which makes it easier to attack the basket.”
And every time she does, her mother’s memory isn’t far away.
“I just do it for her,” Rivers said. “I just leave everything out on the court.”
