Antonio Rivas was elevated to Assistant Director of Athletics for Compliance and Academic Success in March of 2024 after a 7 year stint as with the Stars' Women's Basketball program, including the last 4 as head coach.
In the fall of 2023, Rivas was tabbed as the Compliance Coordinator overseeing all compliance and eligibility within the department while providing oversight on the department's academic support.
In Rivas' 7 seasons with the Women's Basketball program he helped the Stars to four straight NACC tournament appearances, including back to back appearances in his first two seasons as head coach. In his second season, Alisha Markley earned second team all-conference honors and finished her career with 182 made three-pointers, second in school history, and 1,106 career points, third in school history.
In his first season as head coach, the Stars qualified for the NACC tournament and finished third overall in scoring (68 points per game). The Stars' 68.0 points per game was also the third highest-scoring offense in program history (NCAA Era). The Stars had 3 members honored as all conference members and a fourth member earn the program first, Freshman of the Year.
In the summer of 2019, Rivas was elevated to full-time status, adding administrative responsibilities as an Athletic Communications Assistant. In his lone season as part of the men's basketball program in 2019-2020, Rivas helped the Stars to one of the best turnarounds in the country, posting eight more wins than the program had the previous season. Rivas first joined the women's program in 2017 as an assistant coach.
During his three year tenure as the head men's golf coach, Rivas helped grow the Stars' program recruitment, including bringing in a class of five golfers each of his first two recruiting cycles. He took over as head coach in 2018 after serving as an assistant coach the previous year. The men's golf program also qualified for three straight GCAA All-Academic Awards and had an improvement in team GPA to 3.54. Rivas rejoined the men's golf program in the fall of 2024 as the Director of Men's Golf Operations.
A graduate of Aurora University, Rivas spent four seasons with the Spartans’ women’s basketball team as a student assistant coach from 2013-2017 including the 2015-2016 season when the Spartans posted a 17-11 record, going 14-6 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) and playing in the conference tournament championship game.
Rivas graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, he resides in Schaumburg, Illinois with his wife Vickie.
