NORTH CANTON, Ohio — It was during his playing career at Marietta College that Morgantown High School graduate Aaron Alvarez decided he wanted to become a coach.
“I knew that I wanted to get into coaching while I was still playing at Marietta,” he recently told The Dominion Post. “My coaching staff guided me through the process of finding and applying for jobs, mostly Graduate Assistant positions. It was a lot of scouring job postings, sending emails with my resume attached and hoping somebody responded.”
Luckily, somebody did and now Alvarez is in his first season as a graduate assistant safeties coach at Division-II Walsh University.
“My duties entail mostly of assisting in the behind the scenes of getting practice ready along with making sure the film is good to go,” he said. “I also run our social media (@WalshUFootball on Twitter), and that is on top of coaching the safeties.”
Being a graduate assistant has been a unique experience for Alvarez.
“The opportunity to learn the ropes as a GA but also getting the chance to coach my own position group has been huge,” Alvarez said. “It’s a lot of long hours. I regularly work from 8 a.m. to around 9:30 p.m. on Mondays, which is an off day with no practice. There’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes so that we can put the players in the best-possible position to succeed.”
Late last month, Alvarez coached in his first game, a 24-21 victory over West Liberty University on Aug. 31.
“It was a lot more stressful in the build-up to the game because there’s not much you can do after practice is done for the week,” he said. “Once the game starts it’s completely different, much more focused on staying calm and really seeing what’s happening on the field.
“Having my position come up and celebrate with me after the win against West Liberty was awesome. They were more excited for my first win on the other side of things than I was.”
The Cavaliers are currently 3-2 and are coming off a 30-16 rivalry win over Lake Erie College.
“We’ve grown a lot over the course of the season and even more so from this time last season,” Alvarez said. “Really looking forward to continuing to raise the bar for our group of guys.”
Before becoming a graduate assistant, Alvarez played football at Marietta College from 2019-22, where injuries limited him to just nine career games.
“Although my playing career never amounted to much because of injuries, I wouldn’t trade my time as a football player at Marietta for anything,” he said. “I had my moments as a player, a fumble recovery against Muskingum that helped us keep the Shrine Trophy for another year is the first that comes to mind, but I think any collegiate athlete will tell you the best moments are the ones you spend outside of practice and games with your teammates.”
Walsh University is located in North Canton, Ohio, about two hours north of Marietta.
“North Canton is a really nice small town but is close enough to Canton itself that it doesn’t feel like a small town at all,” Alvarez said. “Anything you could think of is 15 minutes or closer.
“Checking out the Pro Football Hall of Fame was amazing. It’s like Disney World for people who love football. Right up my alley.”
Alvarez is getting his MBA with a concentration in Marketing.
“It’s a lot more hands-off being all online,” he said. “The standard of work is obviously a little higher but taking less classes at one time makes it a lot more manageable.
“I wouldn’t say difficult but I definitely think having a heavy workload as a student-athlete in college has helped me get better with time management.”
After graduation, he would like to stay in coaching.
“I’m hoping to continue coaching,” Alvarez said. “As for where, I’m fairly open to anything. I’ve spent almost all of the last five years in the state of Ohio and wouldn’t mind someplace new.”
BY KERRI KOSTEN
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