FORT POLK, La. " First Lt. Stephanie Riviello, of the 1st Battalion, 162nd Infantry Brigade, grew up in the small Missouri town of Pomona, a small hamlet in the south of the state, where, as a self-admitted tomboy, she dreamed of playing basketball.
“I’d shoot hoops outside; I wasn’t very good then but I loved to do it,” she said.
At 8, she joined a youth basketball team with the blessing of her mother.
“It’s just something I picked up and loved from the beginning,” she said. “My mother was my biggest fan. She’d come to every game and cheer.”
Riviello continued dribbling and shooting hoops throughout high school.
“Sports was my saving grace,” she said. “Basketball inspired me to keep up my grades. I had to sit one season out because of some bad grades and I was horrified. I vowed never to let that happen again.”
As for her skill, she admits, “I wasn’t that great until my senior year. I don’t know what happened, but suddenly my points and rebounds were up.”
Riviello received a scholarship to play basketball at Missouri Valley College, where she played for three years while majoring in mass communications.
During her tenure there, Riviello joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps to help with college expenses.
“A friend of mine who was already in ROTC said ‘you’d be good for this.’”
After graduating in May of 2009, Riviello was commissioned as a second lieutenant, and basketball became a pastime of her college days, until one day when she realized, “I really missed it.”
So she began playing again, for fun, until someone she knew told her about the All Army Basketball team.
“So I applied: In the application you list your basketball experience, if you were a conference player in high school. There were so many other applicants I didn’t think much about it.”
That’s when Riviello received an e-mail telling her she’d been selected to participate in tryouts.
“I was honored to be chosen, especially knowing how many people applied,” she said. “To make the trials " I was beyond happy.”
But Riviello wasn’t on the All Army Basketball Team yet. She journeyed to Fort Indian Town Gap, Pa., where trials and practices were being held.
The potential All Army team traveled to New York City where they played a “practice” tournament against a semi-pro team.
Riviello and her fellow teammates-to-be also traveled to Washington, D.C., where they had the chance to visit Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“It was humbling to see these Soldiers who had fought and sacrificed for us,” said Riviello. “It was an inspiration.”
The first cuts were made in Pennsylvania.
“We stayed in a small barracks and went to the gym three times a day to practice,” said Riviello. “And every week for two weeks, candidates were eliminated. We went from 22 to 13 people.”
Because of the eliminations, “every week was nerve-wracking,” said Riviello. Especially for her because of an injury to her shoulder.
“I went to the emergency room three times; one visit happened the night before the last cut. You can imagine how shocked and happy I was when I realized I’d made the team,” she said.
“We’d practice and practice and I’d be icing the shoulder all the time. The doctors said I should go home but I wouldn’t give up the opportunity.
“I’d earned the right to be there and kept going. I don’t quit when there’s something I want.”
Riviello, advised by a friend, accidentally iced her shoulder with an uncovered ice bag (the bag has a warning that reads not to place on bare skin.) She now has a scar on her shoulder because of it.
“I have a permanent reminder now of the games,” she said. “An All Army scar.”
The All Army Women’s Basketball Tournament was held across the country from where she trained, in Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Riviello and her team lost the first round, against the Navy, but won the second and third games, against the Marines and Air Force, respectively. This qualified them to play in the final round, against the Marines.
“In the first game we beat the Marines 48-87,” she said. “I was pretty proud of that.”
The third and final game of the tournament didn’t go well for the Army’s team, especially for Riviello.
“I went down hard and my shoulders went out,” she said.
Still, the All Army Women’s Basketball Team won second place in the prestigious nationwide match, and the commanding general of Camp Pendleton presented Riviello and her teammates with silver medals for their achievement.
When she returned home, she also received an Army Commendation Medal from the 83rd Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Battalion, where she served before transferring to the 162nd, for excellence.
“It was a great experience,” said Riviello. “I got to meet so many people and made some good friends. I was paid to do something I’ve loved to do my whole life, and received lots of swag.
“For one month, my uniform was a practice suit and my place of duty was a gym.”
Riviello also reflects fondly on the travel the opportunity afforded her.
“I’d never seen a subway, or Times Square. It was spectacular,” she said.
More than the sights, though, Riviello said, “It was absolutely the chance of a lifetime.”
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