Harvard University's Mark Rivera Named 2011 Women's Varsity Southern Division Sports Information Director of the Year

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. -- Harvard University's Mark Rivera garnered his first league honor as he was named the 2011 Women's Varsity Southern Division Sports Information Director of the Year.

Selected by the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Director of Communications in consultation with the league's membership, the SID of the Year award is presented to those offices which have achieved notable excellence in the field of water polo communications during the past academic year.

The award marks the second Women's Varsity SID award in as many years for the Crimson Athletic Communications Office as Mark Rossi was named the 2010 Northern Division SID of the Year.

A first-year intern at Harvard, Rivera lived in Seattle in 2010 and worked with the Seattle Pacific University athletics department conducting online broadcasts of the Falcons’ men’s and women’s basketball games. Previous to that, Rivera worked as a sports information student assistant at Cal State Stanislaus from 2007-09, acting as the main contact for men’s soccer, men’s basketball and baseball, as well as working with the rest of the department’s 14 intercollegiate athletics teams. Rivera gained newspaper experience as a sports desk clerk with the Modesto Bee daily newspaper during 2009. Before joining the Warriors’ athletics department, Rivera worked as a reporter with the Turlock Journal newspaper from 2006-2008, covering local news and sports.

A Master’s of Education candidate in the Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership program at the University of Washington, he graduated in 2009 from California State University-Stanislaus with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies.