Strapping Alexandria Senior High sophomore Carter Rivet includes “an abundance of eggs” in his high-protein diet, according to his father Doug Rivet, who is also his discus and shot-put coach.
The many eggs come from an abundance of free-range chickens at the Rivet home in a rural area not far from LSUA.
“He consumes a lot of calories because he burns a lot of calories,” said Doug.
Joseph Carter Rivet, 16, burns a lot of calories because he throws the shot and discus for 2-2 ½ hours daily, five days a week, as the national age-group record holder in each event. At the AAU Junior Olympics Track & Field meet last summer in Humble, Texas, he hurled the discus 195 feet, 3 inches for the 15-16 age-group record, and he threw the 12-pound shot 58 feet, 3 inches for the age-group record in that event.
Carter, who goes by his middle name just as his older brother and fellow track star, Douglas Hunter Rivet, goes by his middle name, is involved now in the high school indoor season. At a meet at McNeese State in Lake Charles this past Saturday, he won the shot with a 56-2 throw – a little more than two feet better than the runner-up, junior Jack Torrance of Baton Rouge-Catholic. Torrance, incidentally, is the great-grandson of the 1930s shot-put word record holder and Olympian Jack Torrance of LSU.
Carter started throwing in the sixth grade, while he was learning from Hunter, who won the Class 5A state championship in the discus as a senior at ASH in 2024 with a throw of 179 feet.
“My brother got me into it,” Carter said during a break from practice at ASH Friday afternoon. “I’m really competitive, trying to be better than him but, mainly, I want to be the best I can be. We push each other and share ideas.”
As a freshman last year, Carter had a 187-foot discus throw to break the school discus record that Hunter held (179) – a record, incidentally, that broke the previous mark that had stood since the early 1980s.
Doug Rivet, the father of Hunter and Carter, was part of the dominant track and field teams at Pineville High School in the early and mid-1990s under coach Joe Moreau. Doug also was a tough linebacker for Pineville’s football team.
Carter’s mom, Olivia Smith Rivet, was a national powerlifting champion for coach Duane Urbina at ASH, setting a national deadlifting record of 335 pounds (since broken) in the 123-pound class in 1997.
The brotherly competitiveness goes back to his grandfather, Ross Rivet, who loved to play best ball tournament golf with his brother Joe, although Ross was better known as the band director at Buckeye High School for several years and for his work promoting class rings, graduation products and eventually owning the Grad Shop.
Like his mom, Carter is making a mark as a powerlifter. At 6-foot, 220 pounds, he has recorded an impressive 315-pound power clean and a 500-pound squat. Doug said Carter is one of the top two strongest students at ASH, if not the strongest, and he’s an offensive lineman on the football team.
“He’s seen his brother’s challenges and adversities,” said Doug, “and absorbed all the information (about shot and discus competition) he can. One of the supernatural powers he has is he can make miniscule adjustments in a few practices, where it takes several weeks to do that for some.”
Some of his work is at home in a garage that also serves as a weight room.
The work seems to be paying off. Earlier this month at the LSU Indoor High School Classic, Carter won the shot put with a throw of 59-8.25, which is about four feet better than the second-best throw in Louisiana during the first two weeks of the indoor season. It is also the best mark in the nation this season among sophomore boys.
Joe Moreau said Carter appears to project best as a discus thrower, and Carter has practiced some with Chile’s Claudio Romero of LSU, who had one of the more dominating outdoor seasons in collegiate history in 2024. Romero had the best discus performance in LSU history with a Chilean national record, NCAA leading mark for 2024 and No. 5 performance in collegiate history of 67.29 meters (220-9).
Aside from the special practices with Romero, Carter mostly works with his father along with ASH track and field coach Sedarrin Freeman.
Doug Rivet, whose primary job is a pharmaceutical rep, said there are two kinds of discus throws – “the glide” and rotational – and Carter is practicing the rotational discus (rotational movement before launch rather than a linear “glide”). The rotational, Doug said, has proven to have better success for world class male throwers. It takes about two years to master, he said, and Carter is in his third year working on that technique.
With all his achievement, it might seem understandable if Carter developed an ego to match his record numbers.
“It’s always about him vs. him,” said Doug. “It’s not about what anybody else is doing. He doesn’t put emphasis on what the noise is around him.”
Carter said he has no reason to be cocky.
“In everything I’ve done,” he said, ‘there’s still people out there who are better than me.”