MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Football has been a part of life for Aaron Alvarez as long as he can remember.
“I grew up around football, going to WVU games on Saturdays and watching Clemson and Steelers games with my dad,” he said. “I don’t remember a time when football wasn’t a big part of my life. I started playing as young as I could with the Evansdale Tigers in third grade, but that was way after I started playing in the backyard with whoever would throw the ball to me.”
With football being such a part of his family, Alvarez had many idols growing up.
“Football kind of ran in the family for us,” he said. “Almost all of my uncles and cousins played at some point, but a few stand out in terms of making me want to chase my dream. My uncle, Paul Harris, played at James Madison. My cousin Tyler Alvarez played at Otterbein and my cousin Jared Owens played at Bluffton and is now the head coach at Crestview High School in Ohio. So it felt like I was following in their footsteps rather than having an idol.”
A Morgantown native, Alvarez is a 2019 graduate of Morgantown High. He is currently a freshman at Marietta College.
Alvarez learned a lot last season as a cornerback.
“My first season was spent with a lot of time adjusting to the speed of the game at the collegiate level and getting comfortable with the defense,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect for this first year, but having time to learn and develop will definitely help.”
Alvarez is looking forward to his sophomore season.
“I can’t wait for next year,” he said. “I was getting the hang of things right at the end of the season so I wish we would’ve had a few more games this year.”
As a Mohigan, Alvarez not only played football but also ran track and played basketball. He said it was exhausting but definitely worth it.
“I rarely had any off days, but I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like any other way,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade the people I played with, the memories and the struggles for anything.”
Alvarez has many memories of his time at MHS.
“I’ll always remember the state championship basketball run my freshman year, the two state track meets I ran at and the big Mohawk Bowl win, but my favorite moment was from the Parkersburg game my senior year,” he said. “I cramped up on the far sideline and I was being stretched out, a kid came over to the fence and started talking to me. He was wearing his pee-wee jersey and pointed out we were wearing the same number. It was just a short conversation, but I remember when I was that kid. I thought some Mohigan legends like Charlie Russell and Junius Lewis were the best players in the world when I was a little kid. That moment has really stuck with me.”
Alvarez said playing football at Marietta College is different from MHS.
“During the season, it felt like I spent all of my time at practices, workouts and meetings,” he said. “The jump in the amount of time that you spend preparing for every game is insane. I definitely had a harsh realization the first day of camp when it hit me that guys like Nick Malone, Ty Konchesky and Jaden Wolfley weren’t going to walk into the locker room. This season was the first time I had played football without any of them being on the field with me.”
But the transition from high school to college hasn’t been all hard.
“Going from high school to college hasn’t felt like that big of a jump to me, simply because there are more students at MHS than there are on campus in Marietta,” Alvarez said. “That has definitely helped, especially since the academic side of things gets a bit more difficult in college.”
There were a few things that drew Alvarez to Marietta College.
“Marietta felt like home from when I first stepped on campus, it was love at first sight,” he said. “Getting to know all the coaches and players on my visits just made it a done deal. There really wasn’t any other place that I felt the same way about. I love the small school atmosphere where everybody gets to know each other and the locals here are really friendly and welcoming.”
Alvarez said Marietta, Ohio, is smaller than Morgantown.
“Marietta is a lot smaller than Morgantown but the surrounding communities are a lot closer together,” he said. “The best way I can explain it is that a lot of the kids from here have friends from other high schools, whereas is Morgantown, I felt like I barely knew half of the people I graduated with. The difference in population feels like a lot more than it really is.”
Alvarez is majoring in marketing.
“Still trying to figure it out but hopefully to work in the business field for a good company,” he said.
Alvarez said balancing academics and football is not difficult.
“It’s not as hard as I thought it would be but the school is very good at providing the resources student-athletes need to balance everything successfully,” he said.
Attending sporting events is one of the things Alvarez enjoys doing in his spare time.
“I try to go to as many other sporting events on campus as I can, especially soccer and basketball games,” he said. “I also enjoy getting off campus and seeing the surrounding area.”
