Thanks to K coaches, professors and alumni, Cody Rigley ’25 is primed for future success
As a high school senior in Berkley, Michigan, Cody Rigley ’25 knew he was looking for a college in the MIAA (Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association) where he could continue to play football. One of his former teammates attended K, and he invited Rigley and another friend to check it out.
“We came out for a visit, and because of COVID, it wasn’t an official visit, we just came and walked around campus. Then through football recruiting, the coaches reached out to me, too. I went to a couple of other schools, but I knew this was the place that I wanted to go.”
Rigley has been a four-year starter on K’s football team. He started off on defense before switching to offense halfway through his first year on the team, and he’s been the left or right tackle ever since. He’s currently the O Line group leader, which is essentially the captain of his position group. He credits football with shaping his leadership skills, discipline and time-management skills—in particular, the mentorship he received from Head Coach and Director of Athletics Jamie Zorbo ’00. He also appreciates the connections he’s built with his teammates and with alumni. As a junior, players are paired with alumni mentors, and he appreciated the conversations and support he received from his mentor, Pat Nichols ’98.
Rigley said that in high school, he wasn’t always very focused on academics.
“I played football, basketball and baseball, so I always had a busy schedule. Then with COVID, the last two years were online and hybrid, so it was kind of easy. Then coming to a school like K that’s very academically challenging, while juggling football, was a shock. But just having the coaching staff and the football team around to support you—if you need something, just reach out. Being at K really expanded my work ethic and determination.”
It’s also prepared him well for the future.
“Coach Zorbo is really good with getting you set up for success after college. That was one of the main reasons I came here—that aspect of how he cares about what you’re doing after K, it’s not just that you’re a football player for four years; you have a life after that.”
At K, Rigley is majoring in business. This past summer he interned at O’Brien Construction on the east side of the state as a project engineer. It gave him the opportunity to learn a lot of different aspects of the job, from the coordination and communication with subcontractors to shadowing the site supervisor, to managing the budget and planning. He’s turning that experience into his Senior Integrated Project and hoping he might parlay it into a job.
“That’s definitely the type of field I want to go into,” Rigley said. “Something along the lines of construction or anything a little more blue collar, I guess you could say, because that’s what I’ve done my whole life. I’ve done landscaping. I worked as a chef for a bit. Working in a cubicle isn’t really my type of thing—being out there in a trailer on site every day is something I’d like to do, and I enjoy it a lot.”
While Rigley doesn’t have a minor, he has enjoyed taking classes outside his major and was surprised to find he really enjoyed his poetry and writing classes.
“Honestly, if you asked me as a freshman if I thought I was going to take poetry, I’d have said, absolutely not. I’m in my second course right now. It gets me to be more creative when I write.”
Rigley even named Assistant Professor of English Ben Kingsley as his Most Valuable Professor this season, a tradition among senior athletes at K. “He comes into class and engages us and brings good enthusiasm, and you don’t want to miss that class, because he just makes it fun.”
As a junior, Rigley went to Madrid on study abroad, one of the highlights of his time at K.
“It was a good group of people, and a lot of my friends were there. We traveled. We went to other major cities in Spain, like Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga. We went to Rome and Portugal. It was an awesome experience.”
Rigley is the recipient of the Ervin J. and Violet A. Kopecky Endowed Scholarship, which was established by Robert Kopecky ’72 in honor of his parents.
“Having this scholarship means a lot to me—obviously it helps me be able to come here and do the things I’m able to do and want to do. It also shows me how close the alumni feel to the school. At bigger schools, most alumni graduate and go do their thing, maybe they’ll go to a football game or something every once in a while, but here, alumni are giving back to the College. It shows that K is such a small, close-knit-school. Even when you leave, you’re still a part of K.”
