Alex Rivera addresses students at the Butler Middle School
by Jen Myers
Alex Rivera, Lowell High School basketball’s all-time scoring leader, recently returned to the Butler Middle School gym where he once dropped 48 points against the Stoklosa Falcons. This time, instead of racking up baskets, he told 500-plus students one of the keys to success: believing in yourself, even when others doubt you.
“I had so many people in middle school and high school tell me I wasn’t going to make it to college, so I put my head down and said ‘I’ll show y’all,’” recalled Rivera (LHS ’18).
He did make it, earning full basketball scholarships to four different colleges.
“It is all about mentality, focus and believing in myself,” he said.
Rivera spoke as part of Butler’s new “Principal’s Speaker Series,” launched September 17 by Principal Jamie Moody. The three-assembly series gives students the opportunity to hear success stories and glean advice and inspiration from Butler alumni and others.
“Success starts now – it is not when you leave here,” said Moody.
Joining Rivera in the first installment were Butler alum Raymond Dafe (LHS ’25), now a freshman runner at UMass Lowell studying civil engineering, and Moody’s daughter, Samirah.
Samirah, a recent USC graduate, is the 2025 NCAA Women’s Champion in the 4×1 relay and 100m. Now a professional runner signed with Swiss sportswear brand On, she’s chasing her dream of competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“You are going to change who you are right now to who you are in high school to who you are past high school,” she told students. “You will have new dreams and new goals and who you are around can either push you to reach those goals or they can hold you back.”
Samirah Moody addresses students at the Butler Middle School
She described the discipline required of a student-athlete: 5 a.m. wake-ups, weight training, classes, practices, and community service.
“The level of discipline that it required to keep that schedule was the level of discipline I wanted to have to compete in this sport,” she said. “I didn’t want any doubts. I thought if I could be the best activist, best student, then I was going to be the best athlete.”
Dafe first became a runner when he joined the Butler Cross Country team in fifth-grade. He found that running was not easy; during one race he gave up and started walking, but he did not like how that made him feel, so he started working harder and in the last race of the season gave it his all and placed sixth.
“When you give your best, you’ll be your best,” he said.
He admitted academics didn’t click until the COVID-19 shutdown.
“That’s when I told myself I really want to succeed and do my best in school,” he said. “In student-athlete, student comes first before athlete.”
At Lowell High, Dafe was a standout mid-distance runner who earned MVC First Team honors in the 600 meters and set records as part of the Division 1 championship 4x400m and 4x800m relay teams. Additionally, he was a member of the National Honor Society and consistently achieved high honor roll status.
Like Samirah, Dafe said balancing athletics, academics, and life can be overwhelming. But, he added, there is help.
“This school has a really good staff who are here to support you if you feel like you are struggling, reach out,” he said. “When you reach out you are not showing weakness, you are showing that you care about whatever situation is going on.”
Rivera echoed that, adding he regrets not taking middle school more seriously.
“I look back and think wow what if I had taken middle school seriously? I could have gone to a crazy college,” he said. “What if I had studied, what if I went to the teacher for help when they told me to come for extra help?”
All three athletes have faced setbacks including injuries, bad games, and life’s curveballs, but persevered. Rivera recalled his own turning point:
“I’d miss a shot and I’d yell; I’d miss a shot and I’d kick the ball over the fence and then I wouldn’t have a basketball to play with. Then I realized I wasn’t getting better by getting angry or putting myself down.”
Alex Rivera, Samirah Moody, and Raymond Dafe became the first inductees into the Butler Middle School Hall of Fame for Athletic Achievement
Instead, he said, he learned to study more, practice harder, and focus on the future.
Later that afternoon, third and fourth-graders from the Shaughnessy Elementary School came to the Butler Auditorium to meet and learn from Samirah. Much like at the Butler, the mantra at the Shaughnessy is “It Starts Now.”
Sitting on the stage, a group of brave fourth-graders peppered Samirah with a variety of questions about a wide range of subjects from diet to bedtime routines to leadership. Each class left with photos – and a new Olympic hopeful to cheer for in 2028.
The excited audience in the Butler Middle School gymnasium
