By Allie Campbell
Calendar Editor
Mustang alumnus football kicker Alex Norocea has already made a name for himself as a freshman at Brown University. Norocea, the place-kicker from Costa’s 2010 CIF championship team, is now the starting kicker for Brown’s football team.
This season, Norocea has been named Ivy League Rookie of the Week twice and Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week once. Norocea also tied the Ivy League record for most field goals in a game, completing five in Brown’s 29-14 victory over Harvard University.
“Alex is an extremely hard worker. His success is not surprising,” Costa football coach Don Morrow said.
Norocea is eight for 10 in field goals so far and has scored 32 points for the Brown Bears. However, Norocea’s most impressive personal records from his time as a Mustang still stand. At Costa, Norocea completed a 50-yard field goal and scored 88 points in his last season.
“It has not been too tough of a transition to move to the east coast; the team is great. Everyone is really supportive of each other and we are a really strong unit,” Norocea said.
Norocea’s current goal is to win the Ivy League Championship this year. Brown has already proven it is a strong team with only one loss so far and a 1-0 record in their conference.
“Norocea’s success does not surprise me at all. Starting as a freshman in college is very rare, but he has stepped up and undoubtedly will be a solid four-year starter,” current Costa football kicker and senior Brendan Sofen said.
Norocea feels that it is important to be a student first and to remember that learning is the most important thing in college. According to Norocea, his experiences as a Costa student have greatly helped him ease into the hard work and determination required in college, for both football and academics.
“Hopefully, if I do well and improve over my four years at Brown, I can give the professional level a shot. If it doesn’t work out, I will still have my degree and education to fall back on,” Norocea said.
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