Tim Rivera

Tim Rivera, who is in charge of the Pioneers’ bar workers, is in the sixth year of his second stint at TWU as an assistant coach. He coached at TWU for one year, 1999-2000, and then returned to Denton in 2004.

Rivera has coached three consecutive USAG National Champions on bars - Brisa Fuentes (2005), Bethany Rehm (2006), and Courtney Arno (2007). He also received a 2005 Honor Award from the Gymnastics Association of Texas recognizing his coaching excellence.

Between his two tenures at TWU, Rivera spent three seasons (2001-2004) at San Jose State University as an assistant coach in charge of bars. Under his guidance, the Spartans bar team set a team bar score record of 49.275, which is still the highest team score for any event in SJSU history. Rivera came to San Jose State after one season (2001) as an assistant coach at Cal State-Sacramento.

Rivera’s coaching career began with seven years (1983-90) as the head coach at Cal Poly. He led the Mustangs to the 1990 West Region Championship and was named the 1990 NCAA West Region Division II Coach of the Year. From Cal-Poly, Rivera moved on to be the head coach at UC-Santa Barbara from 1990-94. While at UCSB, he was named the 1992 Big West Conference Head Coach of the Year. A five-year term (1994-99) as an assistant coach at Michigan State was next for Rivera, and while at MSU, he was chosen as the 1996 NCAA Central Region Asst. Coach of the Year.

Rivera earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from CS-Chico in 1982.