Steve Rivers was named to the 1966 honorable mention All-State team by the Birmingham News as a quarterback at Sylacauga High School. Rivers played in the Alabama All-Star Game in Tuscaloosa following his senior season. He later received his degree from the Mississippi State.

Rivers was an assistant coach at Decatur from 1972-78 under Coach Earl Webb. He spent two seasons, in 1979 and 1980, as the head football coach at Pelham before returning to Decatur when Earl Webb retired the next year.

As head football coach at Decatur, he compiled a 103-59 record and is Decaturs second winningest coach, behind only the late H.L. "Shorty" Ogle. His 1993 team finished 10-0 in the regular season before losing in the second round of the state playoffs.

In 1996 he succeeded Garner Ezell at Athens High as the head football coach. Over the next four seasons his teams went 39-10, winning region titles each season and qualifying for the playoffs each year.

hillip Rivers, the San Diego Chargers starting quarterback played for his father at Athens. Following Phillips graduation from Athens he earned a scholarship to North Carolina State to play football.

Coach, and father, Steve Rivers took a head coaching position at Wakefield High School in Raleigh, North Carolina to be near his son. He started the football program from scratch when the school opened in 2000. His last two teams made the playoffs.

When Phillip was drafted by the Chargers in 2004, Dad moved the family to San Diego to once again keep the family together.

His overall record in Alabama is 153-78 with eleven area and region titles along the way.