Huskies’ Alvarez Closes Long Stint Away From Home

By Phil Kasiecki, www.hoopville.com

When the subject is Chris Alvarez, the word “mature” comes to mind often. Several inside the Northeastern basketball program describe the senior forward with that word right away, and it’s one of the first words used in the media guide’s description. Spend a little time with him and get into his life, and it’s not hard to understand why that’s the case.

Soft-spoken but engaging, Alvarez carries himself like a grownup and is well-liked, with a calm demeanor. One also gets the feeling that he’s a low-maintenance young man and simply enjoys the company of others. Not surprisingly, it’s clear his family means a lot to him as well.

Alvarez grew up the youngest of five children in Miami in a very close family. All three of his brothers, with whom he competed often as a child, played a sport at the college level. His oldest brother went on to pitch in the Chicago White Sox organization, while another played football at a community college in Kansas and the youngest of them played baseball at a community college.

Early on, his brothers often beat him at just about any sport. ”They would just rough me up,” he recalls. That began to change around junior high school, when he grew physically and came of age at all of the sports he played, and there were a few. Baseball was his first sport, and he also played football and volleyball in his youth. He pitched, played the corner infield spots, shortstop and the outfield, but stopped playing at the high school level although his team was very good. Part of that decision came from the overlap of the baseball season with the crucial spring travel team season in basketball.

His high school career started at Archbishop Carroll in Miami, where he spent two years. After his sophomore year, he felt the need for a change if he was going to play at the Division I level as a scholarship athlete. At the time, the talent in Miami wasn’t what it is now, so he felt he needed to go to a place where he would face better competition for the ultimate goal he had in mind.

After resigning, his high school coach helped him look for schools, and the search went north to New Jersey. The assistant athletic director was previously a football coach at Blair Academy in New Jersey, and helped him look into the school. Alvarez visited Lawrenceville Prep and St. Benedict’s in addition to Blair, which he ultimately decided on.

The next two years saw him play alongside future NBA players Luol Deng and Charlie Villanueva. But for Alvarez, that just topped the experience, as he enjoyed the people he met and gained a great deal from the academics at the school, whose academic reputation is excellent. His junior year was a banner one, as he earned All-MAPL honors and all-state honors as well, and his team won the MAPL title.

As his senior year came along, he had several Division I suitors around the Atlantic 10 level. He ultimately decided on Dayton, falling in love with the school during his visit and knowing the basketball history there. The atmosphere was everything he expected, as he enjoyed his time there. But on the court, despite being a regular in the Flyers’ rotation and a little more than a spot starter, something wasn’t quite right for him. That led to a decision to transfer, despite loving the school.

When it came to his next school, the consideration was similar to two years earlier. He chose Northeastern for similar reasons, and was familiar with the school because the prior coaching staff recruited him for a time while he was at Blair Academy. Among other things, he knew that the school had an excellent criminal justice program.

On the court, Alvarez has been a steady role player for the Huskies. A part-time starter just like he was at Dayton, he hasn’t put up numbers that will grab anyone’s attention, but he’s played a role as an inside presence and has had some solid games in that capacity. He was a key to a big week in January when the Huskies were rolling, grabbing eight rebounds at VCU and grabbing six more boards and handing out four assists against Delaware in the next game. A couple of nagging injuries haven’t helped, and he missed two games with a shoulder injury earlier this season.

As his senior season draws to a close, Alvarez is coming up on seven years away from home on a consistent basis. That’s one reason he’s a mature young man and was at an earlier age, as although his family has visited him at every stop, they weren’t right there all the time like they were when he was in Miami. At first, being away from them was a challenge, but it helped shape him into the mature man he is now.

“It was tough in the beginning because I’m a really close person to my family, and that was the way I was brought up,” Alvarez reflected. “Our whole family is really, really tight. They knew in the end it was best for me and my future.”

The future is the present at this point, and Alvarez is looking more and more at what is in his post-basketball future. During his time at Northeastern, a highlight is having met with the Secret Service in Miami. His time away from home is a consideration, as within his major, his best choice is to do something at the federal level. But that would likely mean more moving around the country, and he’s been away from family long enough to begin with, so he might not follow that path.

Business runs in his family, so that’s one possibility when his basketball playing days are done. Naturally, he wants to see where basketball might take him first, and that could include coaching when he is done playing. In either profession, there’s a lot of interaction with people involved, and it’s easy to imagine that his maturity and likeable personality will win over people the same way he has won over those at Northeastern.

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