Southeast Missouri State football signee: Victor Alvarez
Name: Victor Alvarez
High School: Oxbridge Academy (West Palm Beach, Fla.)
Position: Linebacker
Height: 6-foot-2
Weight: 235 pounds
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Oxbridge Academy football coach Doug Socha thought that wide receiver Traionn Jones would likely be the player of his that ended up at Southeast Missouri State.
So when Victor Alvarez, who garnered quite a bit of interest from other schools, decided to be a Redhawk it was even more exciting.
"[Traionn] was the original one that I thought Southeast Missouri would get, and then the fact that they were able to get Victor and Traionn is awesome for them and awesome for us," Socha said.
Socha's's known Southeast coach Tom Matukewicz for about a decade.
Socha recalled first meeting Matukewicz, when he was at Southern Illinois. Socha was an assistant at the University of Buffalo at the time.
They both used to recruit South Florida together and then as Socha took different high schools jobs in Florida they kept in touch.
Oxbridge is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. Current Southeast running back Tremane McCullough and nose tackle Joshua Wilson are both from the same area, coming from Royal Palm Beach HS.
"There's just a really good connection," Socha said. "It's a relationship-driven business and we certainly value that with those guys up there."
Jones was recruited as a receiver, but is capable of playing both sides of the ball.
"Traionn Jones is, I would say, our best two-way football player," Socha said. "He's just a really good football player on both sides. On defense he'll come up and hit you. He's got enough range and athleticism to go up and intercept balls. He's got good coverage skills. Then on offense he's got flexibility to play outside and inside in the slot. He's got good ball skills. He's got good vision. ... He's just, overall, a great football player and both these kids are great kids."
Alvarez, a defensive end and outside linebacker, had 72 tackles, including 16 for loss, a whopping 17 sacks and two fumble recoveries last season.
"Very disruptive as a run stopper and as a pass rusher, and I know where he's going to fit in according to Coach Tuke on defense. He's going to be like an outside linebacker, hybrid defensive end positive," Socha said. "Great kid. Plays with a tremendous intensity and a great motor."
Both Alvarez and Jones were impact players for Oxbridge and both soft-spoken.
"They're quiet leaders because they work so hard," Socha said. "They're both over a 3.0 GPA. They both have really shown great leadership in our offseason programs, working out and being a leader by example. They're very well respected and very well liked on our campus. We're a student body of about 580 kids and most teachers and tutors and learning support people know these two boys and they're great high character kids that have a lot of talent."
Alvarez had offers to South Alabama and Florida Atlantic last spring, and after narrowing down his visits to Southeast and Florida Atlantic in December he visited Cape Girardeau and "like getting out of the state of Florida," his coach said.
"I just think they felt really comfortable with the overall situation there: from the roster of kids that they met and then the chemistry that they felt with the fit with the coaching staff," Socha said. "Then they liked it. They liked what they saw. I've never been there. They just liked what they saw in Cape Girardeau, and I think they just felt a good connection between the coaches and the players, and it's probably similar to what we're trying to build here. I just think that was a big factor for both of those guys."