RAWLINS – Former Cheyenne South sophomore soccer player Misael Alvarado already feels at home taking the pitch for Rawlins High School.
On Friday, just three days after his enrollment, he tallied three goals for Outlaws soccer. One came during a short stint in junior varsity, while the next two were netted with varsity, at home against Riverton.
On that illustrious day, Alvarado’s first goal came nearly halfway through the first half off a deflection from junior defender Getty Marburger, which set a dominant tone for the rest of regulation. The sophomore then complemented his inaugural tally with an early second-half dagger.
According to RHS head coach Erly Cornejo, Alvarado will likely not dress for JV ever again.
“We played him the first half JV because this is his first week and I was actually out all week,” Cornejo said. “That was literally my first time I’d seen him play.”
The coaching staff pulled him after an impressive start in the JV match so that he could still be eligible to play varsity.
Cornejo said Alvarado could provide the team an extra spark and give the team’s traditional scorers a necessary breather heading into the final stretch of the season.
“We had a kid that was supposed to come this year that was a goal scorer,” Cornejo said. “He ended up moving at semester.”
Having Alvarado to fill the void, said Cornejo, “is gonna help our team out quite a bit.”
Native to Mexico, Alvarado lived in Cheyenne with his older sister for academic purposes prior to moving in locally with his brother, Gustavo Alvarado, and sister in law, Marissa Alvarado, on April 14.
Alvarado, despite previously playing with a 4A school, feels this team could be better overall and believes it fits his persona.
“Since the whole team basically speaks Spanish he can communicate a lot better with his teammates,” Bryan Mendoza translated for Alvarado. “He said (South players) would speak Spanish, but wouldn’t speak Spanish as a team.”
Through the first week Alvarado has noticed his new team have a bit less conditioning during practice, but they play as a unit.
He plans to play forward for Rawlins after spending much of the season as a midfielder for South, in order to provide the Outlaws some depth.
“All his life he’s played soccer so he got used to it,” Mendoza translated. “Every time he sees the ball he touches it.”
Despite the late transition to the team, Alvarado said he felt he’d be able to make the push for varsity due to his experience.
Having played from a young age, he does not anticipate bringing any new skills to the team himself due to the experience of the roster.
“He said he thinks everybody on the varsity squad is equal,” Mendoza translated for Alvarado. “Everybody knows what he knows.”
Marissa Alvarado said while she knows her brother in law is a great player, she herself never anticipated the transition to go so smoothly, especially with the season in full swing.
“You think starting at a new school, ‘Oh, they’ve already got their team established; they aren’t going to take their varsity (players) out just for him to prove himself,’” Marissa said.
Yet, she anticipates Misael will suit up for the Outlaws for the remainder of his high school career.
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