A Bristol, Connecticut native and 1988 Bristol Eastern High School graduate, Stacy Rivoira was a four-year participant in the volleyball, basketball, and tennis programs. She was a three-year starter and senior captain in all three sports. While at Bristol Eastern, Stacy was a member of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference State Championship teams in basketball her junior year and in volleyball her senior year. Upon graduating, Stacy went on to play volleyball at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. A four-year starter for the Skyhawks she was named captain her senior year, as well as being selected to the Northeast All Conference team.
Stacy would continue her athletic career as a volleyball coach at her alma mater Bristol Eastern, coaching for twenty-three seasons, the last thirteen as a varsity head coach. She was an assistant coach to Gail Ericson a future Connecticut Women’s Volleyball Hall of Fame member
Class of 2009, winning the 2005 CIAC Class L State Championship. In 2006, her first year as the head varsity coach, the Lancers went 25-0 and won the CIAC Class L State Championship. In those thirteen seasons, her teams made it to the CIAC State Tournament quarterfinals or better eleven times, won twelve Central Connecticut Conference South Championships, four Central Connecticut Conference Championships, and two CIAC Class L Championships, in 2006 and 2012.
During her career at Bristol Eastern, Stacy coached over forty-six All-Conference players, sixteen CIAC All State players, and one Hartford Courant Player of the Year. She complied an overall record of 248-56, posting a 143-5 record in the CCC South matches. She went undefeated in the CCC South her final eight seasons, winning her last ninety matches. Stacy was inducted into the Bristol Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.
Stacy is currently in her twenty-fourth year of teaching. The past sixteen of those years have been in kindergarten. For her, teaching kindergarten and coaching high school athletes was a balancing act that never got old. Each of them made her appreciate the other in the most unexpected ways. Trading hats each year between being a mother to three of her own children, a teacher to a class of five-year old’s, and a coach to a team of teenagers would prove to be her passion.
Stacy credits her father, Dave Mills, on being a clear role model and influential coaching figure in her life. Her dad, a football coach at Bristol Eastern High School for twenty-six years, consistently demonstrated strong moral character, maintained high expectations, a tireless work ethic, and an undeniable desire to make a difference in every life he touched. He demanded accountability and worked hard to be a knowledgeable and educated coach who passionately displayed his love of coaching whenever he stepped on the field.