Rice Athletes honored at athletic award ceremony

The Rice Raiders invited all athletes across all sports to the auditorium at Rice Consolidated for the Athletic Awards ceremony last Wednesday.

Multiple awards were given out and countless cheers, laughs and tears were shed to close the chapter of another exciting year of Rice Raiders Athletics.

Starting with the female and male athlete of the year, RJ Myers and Taylor Eichelberger were both selected for the award. Myers name has been thrown around all season long thanks to his success on the track and the football field.

Eichelberger also played multiple sports and was also on the competitive grilling team that brought home some hardware this season as well.

The baseball MVP was Keenan Hailey, and the Most Improved Player was Kobe McGee. Hailey did it all for the Raiders both in the batter’s box and on the mound, while McGee worked on his craft and got exponentially better as the season went on.

Shifting to football now, there was an Offensive Line and Defensive Line MVP that was given to Keenan Hailey and Willem Burger. Next the Defensive MVP was given to RJ Myers, the Outstanding Back award was given to Dyren Johnson, and the Special Teams MVP was Jael Valles-Serrano.

Hailey and Burger made sure the line was held up on the offensive side while disrupting plays on the defensive side of the ball. Myers also played a big role on defense as a run stopper on the defensive line; Johnson led the team in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and Valles-Serrano booted every ball in front of him through the uprights for the Raiders.

The cheer leading squad never failed to bring the energy, but one cheerleader stuck out. Klair Hailey was chosen as the cheerleading MVP for the 2025 season because she had a positive and a ton of school spirit.

Moving into cross-country there were two MVP awards handed out, one female MVP and one male MVP. Lexia Rangel was chosen as the cross-country female MVP and Peyton Englebrecht was chosen as the cross-country male MVP.

Rangel and Englebrecht both had a strong cross-country season, and both established themselves as leaders within Rice Raiders Athletics.

Moving into soccer the boys’ team had three different awards given out, an MVP and a offensive and defensive players of the year. The MVP was awarded to Jael Valles-Serrano thanks to his playmaking ability and leadership qualities.

The Offensive Player of the Year award was given to Arian Rico, he was always pushing the pace down the field and scoring some big goals for the Raiders this season. The Defensive Player of the Year was awarded to Gus Peacock; he was known as one of the more aggressive and best goalkeepers in the district and played a big role in the Raiders making the playoffs.

On the girl’s soccer team the same three awards were handed out, starting with the MVP award being given to Klair Hailey. She was a leader on the team and took several big steps in her development.

The Defensive Player of the year was given to Aileen Valdivia and the Offensive Player of the Year was given to Julia Tovar. This duo of Lady Raiders was always in the middle of every play this season for the Lady Raiders and helped both score goals and keep goals out of their net.

For volleyball the MVP award was given to Alejandra Palacios, she played every role on the court perfectly. She gave everything she had every game and because of that she earned a scholarship at Our Lady of the Lake University.

The Defensive Player of the Year award was given to two players on the Lady Raiders volleyball team. Breelynn Freeman and Abigail Hoelscher were both named as the Defensive Players of the year for the Lady Raiders, fans know any time there was a big block by the Lady Raiders it was usually Freeman and Hoelscher on the case.

In powerlifting the male MVP was shared between John Mendoza and Keenan Hailey because both players made it to state with Mendoza winning the whole thing. The female powerlifting MVP was Taylor Eichelberger, and she also had a ton of success this season to cap off her senior year.

On the boys’ basketball team, the MVP award was given to Robert Bennett, he was the starting point guard that can shoot from anywhere, make every pass and defend, it was a no brainer to make him MVP. Jon Woods was awarded the Fighting Heart Award for the 2025 season; Woods always had a smile on his face and was always bringing his teammates into the fight to help the Raiders win games this season.

On the girls’ basketball team Beautiful Johnson was named MVP and Aleah Conejo was named the Defensive Player of the Year. Johnson played a ton of minutes this season for the Lady Raiders and was leaned on heavily throughout the season so it’s no surprise to see her earn the MVP for the 2025 season.

As for Conejo, she started the season a little rough but as the season went on her defensive skills got sharper and sharper, forcing several key turnovers in big games.

Switching over to softbal l, the Lady Raiders made a lot of steps in their development this season. One of which was the improvement of several key players but sone stuck out amongst the rest.

Lady Raiders pitcher Ava Torres was selected as the Most Improved player this season as she really put in the time to have success in the circle. The MVP of the Lady Raiders this season was none other than Kimberly Aquino who was the driving force behind the Lady Raiders offense.

In tennis and golf, the MVPs for the girls’ team were Alejandra Palacios and Taylor Rohan respectively. For the boys’ the MVPs were Noah Gonzales for tennis and Hayes Dingler in golf.

All four of these athletes put in the time to be successful at their sport and even collected a few medals to show that hard work does pay off.

For the track team, the MVP for the Lady Raiders was Fallan Wied, and the boys MVP was Jon Woods. Both found a lot of success this season with Wied making it to the Regional Meet in the 300m hurdles, while Woods ended up setting a school record in the triple jump.

Sticking with track the field events MVP for the Lady Raiders was Gourni Flowers-Powell and the MVP for the Raiders was RJ Myers. Flowers-Powell and Myers both impressed their coaches enough to earn this award this season, and on top of that Myers came home with a bronze medal from the State Meet in the shot-put event.

Finally, the last track award given out was the Distance Runner MVP which was given to Lexia Rangel and Jael Valles-Serrano. Valles-Serrano made it to State running in the 800m race while Rangel was a prominent feature for the Lady Raiders in the long distance runs this track season.

The MVP Trainer this season for the Raiders was Luke Englebrecht, trainers are the unsung heroes of athletics and Englebrecht took pride in his role and earned this MVP award.

Congratulations to all the athletes that won awards, this officially closes the book on 202425 Rice Consolidated High School’s Athletic season.