By Michael Letendre
When you think of scholastic championships in the Mum City, what’s the first family that comes to mind?
If your answer is Mills/Rivoira, that first guess is probably the correct one.
Think about what the Mills clan has accomplished over the years in Bristol.
The patriarch of the family, Dave Mills, was part of the first senior class at Bristol Eastern in 1959-60.
He came back five years later after graduating from Southern Connecticut State University, taking over the coaching duties of the Lancers’ football team and eventually leading the squad to Bristol’s only scholastic football state championship.
That title came in 1988 when his son, Steve Mills, was running the show at quarterback as a junior.
And by the time the duo was finished on King Street, the elder Mills had 100 victories in hand and earned a couple “Coach of the Year” honors from the CIAC.
His QB earned All-Conference and All-State in 1988 and 1989 and took home New England and Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year honors in 1989.
And then he went to Yale and achieved both on the field and in the classroom.
On the flip side of the family, Steve’s sister Stacy Rivoira [Mills] might have been the most successful member of the Mills contingent.
Stacy won state titles in basketball (Class L in 1986-87) and volleyball (Class M in 1987) along with a couple CCC South titles.
Before coming back to coach at Eastern, she had four tremendous years playing volleyball at Stonehill College as a four-year starter.
She was eventually named captain and earned Northeast-10 honors.
Stacy then came back to Bristol and helped her scholastic coach, Gail Ericson, for a decade as an assistant.
Ericson and Rivoira led the Lancers to the 2005 Class L title — a program that drew just one loss — and a year later, the assistant coach became the head one for the team.
Rivoira then won a title of her own as head coach in 2006 for a squad that went 25-0.
She duplicated that Class L title run in 2012 and helped the program nab a dozen CCC South titles along the way.
In terms of CCC South wins and losses, you could count her defeats on just one hand.
Over that time, Eastern was typically a state tournament quarterfinalist and Rivoira helped the program to four CCC Tournament titles.
She also coached one Hartford Courant Player of the Year in 2018, her daughter Aliana.
Aliana was a captain of the Eastern volleyball program as a senior, a three-year starter — tallying 761 assists over her senior campaign.
She led the state in aces that season with 139 and ramped up career totals of 1,771 assists and 269 aces as a member of the Lancers’ volleyball program.
Her play brought the team even more CCC South titles and deep playoff runs.
And what about her brother, Carson?
He brought another state title to the Mills family in the form of a CIAC Division II boys championship this year (2021-22) for his play on the Bristol Central team (7.8 points-per-game. 12 three-pointers made).
Carson helped the squad win 43 straight games, a school record, while the program hasn’t lost a game since 2020.
He was simply tremendous and though the squad had 7-foot-2 center in Donovan Clingan posting video game-like numbers, the Rams don’t get to the mountain top without the likes of Carson Rivoira in the trenches.
What about his play in soccer?
He earned All-New England at forward this season and helped both the soccer and basketball programs beat Wilton in state tournament play.
And those Rivoira kids were named Academic All-Conference.
But what about one of those siblings from the Steve Mills side of the family?
Steve’s daughter Abby Mills helped the Lewis Mills girls soccer program to the Class M title in 2018, defeating Plainfield 2-1 in overtime.
She was a four-time all-conference pick (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) for the Spartans and finished her scholastic career with 49 goals and 42 assists.
She moved on to play Division I women’s soccer for the program at William and Mary.
And what about Abby’s mom, Melanie?
Before heading off to Siena College in 1990, Melanie Buchanan was a setter for the volleyball program at BE and then helped the hoops team to the 1989-90 Class LL championship – defeating rival Southington, 58-50, in the title game.
Eastern went an amazing 23-1 that season as she started the championship contest against the Knights — contributing a couple free throws to the championship effort.
That’s an amazing family legacy, spanning scholastic programs from Bristol Eastern, Bristol Central, and Lewis Mills over several decades.
It’s absolutely a tremendous ledger of excellence few local families can match.
