It Takes Two: Laurent Rivard '14 and Christian Webster '13

Laurent Rivard ’14

“My first year, he was the guy I was competing with. I was competing with him, but I was also learning a lot from him.

The dynamic’s great. We complement each other very well. I’m more vocal on the court, Webby will probably be a little more vocal in the locker room. There’s not one of us that has a bigger role than the other one. He’s really competitive—it’s hard to say who’s more competitive.

We were both here this summer because we’re on some different program than the other guys. He started benching more than me. I wasn’t so proud of it. We’re on the same level now since I caught up to him, which is cool, because we don’t have to change the weights. We can just lift together without having to change the weights every time.

I think I met him prefrosh weekend. I was already committed, so we were hanging out as friends, playing video games and just chilling. It was like, ‘this guy’s cool,’ ‘this guy’s kind of like me,’ you know. We both play the same video games. I would say I’m better at FIFA.

Sometimes I could get excited before games, and when we were roommates at the hotel, I would start listening to French rap and start rapping in French and he would be like, ‘What the hell’s going on?’ He would call everyone and go, ‘Laurent’s going nuts!’ Rapping in French and shit—that’s something I used to do. He’d look at me and be like, ‘What the hell are you singing?’

I don’t know if anything surprises me about him anymore. I know him well—this is our third year we’re spending together. We’re together pretty much every day. I’m a big fan of country, and Webby actually likes Rascal Flatts. Well that’s a surprising moment we shared. We were in a car driving together, and I was listening to country. Usually people complain, but he was like, ‘That’s my song!’ I was like, ‘Wait really?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, I love Rascal Flatts!’ I barely listen to rap anymore, so it’s just country and chill music. And Taylor Swift.

I think the other team members would say that we’re good friends and that we get along well. Which is not surprising, but it might be a little impressive since we’re at the same position and have to compete for the same spot, same minutes. In some programs, some guys come in as freshmen and see a guy as a threat, like, ‘Oh he can take my minutes. I’m not going to help him out. I’m not going to give him advice.’ But he’s never done that, and for me, it was really important because I looked at how he played and looked up to him my first year since he was having a really good season and he never shut me out or anything. I think that guys recognized that, and there’s none of that on our team.”

Christian Webster ’13

“Everyone calls me ‘Webby.’ One of our basketball managers calls Laurent ‘The Vampire.’ I think it’s because—is someone on Twilight named Laurent? So sometimes, if I want to mess with him, I’ll call him a vampire.

This summer, we were running sprints with Coach Frasier, our strength coach, and every day would just be really hard sprints. Then this one day it was really easy, I guess ’cause it was so hard every day. Me and Laurent, we had our shoes off on the football field, and we were just joking around ’cause it was so easy. It was a lot of downs and turns, like 20 yards and back, 20 yards and back, something like that, but this day was just straight, just sprint straight. So we would just run, like, do a circle, and then keep running, just messing around. We were running in circles and still making the times, which really pissed Coach Frasier off.

I think we are both really hardworking and we invest a lot in basketball and it really shows in our game. With me being a senior, I think I take more of a vocal role, just ’cause I’ve been here one more year, and I know a little bit more. But Laurent, he’s more of a guy who leads by example and that’s really worked for him, and it’s worked so far for us so it’s been good.

He’s probably the best shooter I’ve ever played with and I think that’s just because of his work ethic, he works so hard at everything. He has a good basketball IQ, he’s a good teammate, and a good thing for one to be a captain is that you have to listen well. Some guys would be like, ‘Oh, you’re telling me? I’m the captain.’ But he’s not like that at all. If any of our players has something to say, he’ll listen.

Laurent lived in the Quad last year, too, and we spent a lot of time together because the Quad’s like its own community. The Quad is…it’s a struggle for an athlete ’cause it’s so far, like it’s a 30-minute walk to get here. For school, I like it because it’s almost as if I’m going to school every day. I hear a lot of people in the quad say ‘I’m going home,’ but I hear a lot of people in the river say, ‘I’m going back to my room.’ I don’t know, it’s a whole different feeling that you get in the quad, and I kind of like it. Except when I wake up, it’s 6:00 a.m., and there’s no shuttles…and I have to walk. [chuckles] Then I don’t like that it’s far.

I’ve thought about what would it be like if I didn’t play sports here, but I love basketball so much that it’s like, I mean, it’s all I’ve ever done. I’m not afraid of change. Change is good. Change is always good. Change is hard, but it’s good. It’s what we signed up for.”