Weslaco’s Mishak Rivas becoming a hot commodity

By JASON McDANIEL/The Monitor

WESLACO — It’s the day after Thanksgiving, 2010.

Your belly’s still full, so you decide to stay home and tune into the 117th meeting of Texas and Texas A&M at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

Among the players taking the field before the kickoff are senior Aggies running back Bradley Stephens, a McAllen Memorial alum who signed in 2007, and junior Longhorns RB Mishak Rivas, an ‘08 signee from Weslaco High - and the former Rio Grande Valley stars are now starters on the state’s biggest college stage.

Sound impossible? Maybe to most of us. But not to Rivas, who grew up wanting to play at Texas - and who’s definitely not like most of us.

“I’ve actually thought about it,” said Rivas, who runs a blazing 4.39 40. “I actually wanted to play against him. It would have been a great offensive show for the Valley, but we didn’t get the chance. Maybe coming up next year, or in a couple of years, hopefully we can go at it, and it would be something amazing to watch.”

And something more likely to happen than some might think.

“I’ve talked to (Texas coach) Mack Brown,” Weslaco coach Tony Villarreal said. “I caught him at a conference and I dropped (Rivas’) name, and he’s got him on his Web site, in his data base, and all that stuff.”

Still, being in a database is a long way from signing a scholarship, and Rivas knows that. But Texas isn’t the only NCAA Division I school sending recruitment letters to Rivas. By his estimate, he’s received letters from 15 to 20 schools, including Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Michigan - and none from any D-II or D-III schools.

Of course, those letters are nothing new to Rivas, who received his first from A&M when he was in eighth grade.

“I still have it on my wall,” Rivas said. “I have it framed up.”

But for every letter he’s received, Rivas has heard and read twice as much from his doubters, most of which point at Rivas’ small frame, which he swears is 5-foot-7, 150 pounds despite some reports that he’s actually shorter.

“Five-7 and maybe a quarter, but that’s pushing it - 5-7 without the afro,” he joked.

But size has never been an issue for Rivas - the son of a Hispanic mother and African-American father from Trinidad and Tobago - not after watching his older brother Kelshall Rivas, who was 5-4 when he graduated from Weslaco in 2000.

“My brother is really my inspiration on the size-doesn’t-matter topic,” Rivas said. “He was born premature and he ended up being a real high school phenom here at the high school, and I was like, ‘You know what, I want to be just like him.’ And he ended up playing at (Texas Lutheran).”

Villarreal also believes size won’t play a factor. After all, Rivas has proven his effectiveness and durability by playing in every game since making the switch to tailback as a sophomore. Instead, Villarreal believes where Rivas lands will depend more on what prospective coaches want.

“It might be a variable, but I really believe if you’re a football player you’re a football player,” said Villarreal, who envisions Rivas as a wingback/return specialist early in his college career as he continues to build strength. “I think it’s an issue, it just depends on the coach and what he’s looking for and his ideas and his philosophy.”

For whatever reason, however, Rivas’ name hasn’t been bandied about on the recruiting circuits as was Bradley Stephens’. You won’t find Rivas ranked on Rivals.com or by nationally recognized experts like Tom Lemming or Max Emfinger.

“I don’t know why,” Villarreal said. “Maybe we don’t subscribe to their forum or whatever it is, I don’t know. I think there’s some stuff that you have to get out as a coach and I just don’t do that stuff. Everybody knows where Shak’s at.

“To me, if he’s good enough, he’s good enough, and to me he is.”

There is one place Rivas can be seen - YouTube. In fact, the highlight video of his sophomore season had 70,919 views as of Wednesday night, so somebody out there is taking notice.

“To me, I’m not really worried about it,” said Rivas, who’s rushed for 3,503 yards and 40 TDs since his freshman year. “I mean, I know getting your name on Rivals is really big, but at the same time, they’ll find talent wherever it is.”

And hopefully for Mishak, his talent lands at Texas.

“That’s a childhood dream of mine, just going up there and wearing that burnt orange and being a Longhorn,” Rivas said.