Landrum sports fans are losing Jesus Alviar to graduation this spring, but can know that the Cardinal football kicker and soccer player will be taking his talent to the next level. On April 20, Alviar signed his intent to play football with Newberry College.

Will the young man become a place-kicker or punter for Newberry, as he had ably performed for Landrum?

“Whatever they want me to do,” he replied.

Alviar began playing soccer in third grade. Did that experience help him in place-kicking and punting in football? “Oh, yeah!” he replied.

His football experience began while Alviar was in eighth grade, but he didn’t start place kicking until his junior year, and he said it is really exciting to be moving to the college level.

Cardinal head football coach Jason Farmer, himself a Newberry alumnus, noted that Newberry won its conference in football last season.

“Jesus is going to do a fantastic job there. When you’ve got a kicker, you’ve got a weapon,” Farmer predicted, noting Alviar’s vital part in the Cardinals’ big football win over Blacksburg last season. “He’s a punter, too, not simply a place-kicker,” Farmer noted. “He kept us in the Blacksburg game. We’ll miss him a lot.”